Canning Grape Leaves!

If you are fortunate enough to know where wild grapes grow, now is the best time to pick and preserve some leaves. They are abundant, young and tender. They are great for making Dolmas, a Greek dish of grape leaves stuffed with a spiced rice mixture.

This is a simple recipe from Leda Meredith from About.com.

Canning Grape Leaves

Ingredients (per pint):

35 grape leaves
2 T salt
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water plus 2 tablespoons salt to a boil. Meanwhile, wash the grape leaves well and snip off the stems as close to the leaf as possible.

Immerse the grape leaves in the boiling water for 40 seconds. Leaves will change color from green to olive green. Remove and immediately rinse the leaves under cold water.

Stack 5 with the stem ends all facing the same way. Roll from the sides into a cigar-shaped bundle. Place the bundles in a pint canning jar stem end up, leaving at least 1/2-inch headspace above the stems (you made need to fold the tip ends shorter in order to do this).

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the lemon juice or citric acid.

Pour the liquid over the grape leaves. Screw on a 2-piece canning lid. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Curly Dock and Chicken Enchiladas!

I love curly dock, Rumex crispus.  It's one of my new favorites since having used it in more dishes!  While it may be tart while raw, when cooked with other ingredients it becomes that tasteless green in the background. Only it's full of vitamins, grows prolifically everywhere, has no GMOs and is free.  I have found three different kinds of dock that grow in middle Tennessee, curly dock, broadleaf dock and smooth dock.  I have eaten all three and the flavor is similar.  I just happened to find a beautiful patch of curly dock down by the Harpeth River.

We had this for dinner and my eleven year old son's response was, "This is amazing!"  So I think you will like it as well.  It's a great recipe to use leftover baked chicken.


Curly Dock and Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Precooked and chopped chicken, the equivalent of at least five chicken breasts
1 block of cream cheese, cut into chunks
1 can Rotel tomatoes, undrained
3/4 cup washed and diced curly dock
1 package of flour tortillas
2 cups enchilada sauce
2 cups of shredded white cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Apply non stick spray to large baking pan.

Place chicken, cream cheese, Rotel, and curly dock into a microwavable bowl.  

Microwave for 2 minutes.  Mix until cream cheese is smooth.

Place a line of meat mixture on your tortilla and roll up. 

Place seam side down into pan.  Repeat until pan is full.  Pour enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas.  Sprinkle cheese over the sauce.

Optional:  You can also add a can of white beans to the mixture to stretch the chicken.

Bake for 35 minutes.  Serve hot.