vine leaves

THIRZAH

We've just come back from a holiday in Crete. One of the things we enjoyed were stuffed vine leaves. I've found some recipes on the net but they seem to use bottled or even frozen leaves. We have a couple of grape vines in the garden so could anyone tell me if I can use fresh leaves-

Farway

Yes, we used to. But you do need to use the younger leaves because the older they get the tougher they get

Perhaps that is why they frozen? Catch 'em young

RAS

yes

Blanch them first. And get them young (which is why they are often frozen)

adelight

you could use doc leaves instead

Justamum

I love stuffed vine leaves. I used to make them quite often when I lived in South Africa. They are easy to make. The trouble with the ones you can buy is that they often use the older, tougher leaves, when you need the young ones which are a lighter green. They don't need to be blanched before use.

My DH is half Greek Cypriot, and when we visited his family once I was helping to make some. His aunt said that I made them very well, which I thought was real praise coming from an expert