Monday, July 29, 2013

Dehydrated Grape Leaves

You might not know it, but I have long been harboring the fantasy of inventing an entirely new food. Every time I think I've come up with something, someone says, oh it's been done. I don't think this one has. The past few days I've been playing with the dehydrator. I love kale. Really. So I tried beet leaves. Lovely. But someone suggested sorrel. I don't have any but  do have grape leaves. Why not? Sour, olive oil, salt. Then a crunchy delicate snack or garnish. I WISH I could edit this but blogspot is REALLY MISBEHAVING and after three tries this is coming out uncooked. But you get the idea. Dehydrated grape leaves with a flavor like in cooked dolmas, but dry and crunchy. If someone steals this idea, I will come and get you. Unless it's already patented. Just my luck.

8 comments:

ravennagirl said...

I am making this ASAP. Briiliant!

Ken Albala said...

You can also do them in a low oven if you don't have a dehydrator. I also think they could be really interesting with a smear of feta, maybe some fig, with a nice contrast of chewy, crunchy and smoothness. Layered like a napoleon.

Julia Jones said...

This is so fantastic, how did you do that. Seems the steps are not complicated, will surely make something more than this.

Laura@Silkroadgourmet said...

Sounds wonderful, Ken, but I have to note that dried grape leaves are traditional animal fodder in the grape growing (and raisin and wine producing) areas of western China - and the taste comes through in the "lamb" and mutton.

I'm interested to see what recipes you make with these dehydrated ones and hope you'll follow up with other posts.

I love grape leaves and use the non-dehydrated ones in pilafs and stuffings all the time - and of course as wrappings for dolma.

P.S I've never had problems over at Wordpress.

Leesy said...

We roast kale, chard, spinach, and any other flat edible leaf we can find, so why not grape leaves? Yum.

Ken Albala said...

Laura, Here's another idea. Crumble them up and mix with sesame seeds, make a nice kind of furikake, I'm going to try it on rice imminently, and if it works, I'll post it. The possibilities are really endless.

Joyce said...

Where do you buy them?

JJ0110 said...

This is a great idea! Vine leaves are wonderfully good for us but traditionally we only eat them in very small amounts. I love the sound of these dried leaves and will try it as soon as my vines get cracking this spring. Thank you for the great idea!