Incredible grape leaf rolling machine

[melamed]

My neighbor decided to organize her backyard shed and found this nifty gadget.

she asked me "Do you want this piece of junk?", oh yeah! You put the leaf at the bottom of the machine, add the filling and press down on the lever and presto! it

burps it out on the other side perfectly rolled! Although I do it faster without it I will never be able to achieve such uniformity. I want to ask my neighbor if she needs more help with cleaning out her shed, who knows what great gadget is lurking in there.

Edited March 17, 2009 by melamed (log)

[JohnnyH]

I've seen something similar, although smaller, used for a different application.

[andiesenji]

I love it! I want one!

I am an inveterate collector of kitchen gadgets from the incredibly weird ones from the Victorian era to the odd things invented in recent years.

This fills my requirements of the odd, unusual and single-purpose gadget that most people would either give away or bury in the junk pile.

[melamed]

I love it!   I want one!

I am an inveterate collector of kitchen gadgets from the incredibly weird ones from the Victorian era to the odd things invented in recent years.

This fills my requirements of the odd, unusual and single-purpose gadget that most people would either give away or bury in the junk pile.

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It is such a hopelessy silly gadget but it works perfectly! besides it has lots of

showoffy potential.

I have never come across grape leaf rollers around here but I know that in Turkey

they have fun selling them to enthusiastic tourists.

btw, you should add photographs of your gadgets on your homepage, I would

love to see them.

Edited March 17, 2009 by melamed (log)

[sazji]

Yes, they are for sale by street vendors who like to set up especially around the Galata bridge. They sell a lot of them, and not only to tourists! They seem to do it pretty quickly...I imagine that is quite attractive to Turkish housewives who have spent a couple of hours rolling grape leaves for her family only to watch them get "inhaled" over the course of about five minutes!

[ChefCrash]

The rolls look great Melamed. The last photo is beautiful. Tell us more about the stuffing. Is it Lenten/meatless?

[melamed]

The rolls look great Melamed. The last photo is beautiful. Tell us more about the stuffing. Is it Lenten/meatless?

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thanks you (bought digital food photography-Lou Manna and doing a bit of photography learning)

I actually wanted to post about the filling. I digressed from my usual green onion, dill and round rice stuffing (Kurdish) and tried to make something Syrian inspired. I used Aromas of Aleppo recipe but am not sure how this version is supposed to come out. The Aromas of Aleppo recipe didn't make any sense, the amounts seem way off (1 cup of parboiled long grain rice , 2 bunches of parsley, 4! onions, 3 tomatoes), From my experience, during cooking all the vegetables and herbs lose volume and I would get empty rolls. Before cooking my usual (kurdish) mixture contains about 1:1 ratio of rice to herbs. When done the round rice becomes very soft. This version was good but the rice was more separate which I didn't like and the stuffing sometimes didn't fill out (even after drastically cutting down on the herbs, perhaps I should use even less). Any better idea for a Syrian (or Lebanese vegetarian) stuffed grape leaf?

[scubadoo97]

Sarah, I'm not sure why parboiled rice was used. I know for some dishes like making parboiled rice is used to keep the grains separate. I'm not a big fan of commercial parboiled rice like Uncle Bens. I'm sure if you made it with your usual herb mixture and used short or long grain rice it will turn out fine. I usually use long grain rice for these dishes.

Your rolls look wonderful.

[melamed]

Sarah, I'm not sure why parboiled rice was used.  I know for some dishes like making  parboiled rice is used to keep the grains separate.  I'm not a big fan of commercial parboiled rice like Uncle Bens.  I'm sure if you made it with your usual herb mixture and used short or long grain rice it will turn out fine.  I usually use long grain rice for these dishes.

Your rolls look wonderful.

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thanks,

The recipe called for parboiling long grain rice but I didn't because that didn't make sense to me. I also made changes as written above-drastically reducing herbs and onions and at the end the rolls were very good.

I am glad to hear that Turkish housewives use the machine, when I first looked at it I could not figure out how in the world it would work, but it does beautifully.

Edited March 19, 2009 by melamed (log)

[Nyleve Baar]

I bought one of these thingies in, yes, Istanbul from a, yes, street guy. Actually I bought two of them - one for me and one for a friend.

I could never get the darn thing to work properly. I usually use a semi-cooked rice mixture for the filling and found that it would be squeezed to death in the rolling machine. So then I tried raw rice filling, and that didn't really work either. The rolls are VERY tight and VERY thin - like cigarettes, not dolmas. Since you seem to have gotten the hang of it, do you have any very specific advice? I'd love to be able to use this little gizmo.

[melamed]

I bought one of these thingies in, yes, Istanbul from a, yes, street guy. Actually I bought two of them - one for me and one for a friend.

I could never get the darn thing to work properly. I usually use a semi-cooked rice mixture for the filling and found that it would be squeezed to death in the rolling machine. So then I tried raw rice filling, and that didn't really work either. The rolls are VERY tight and VERY thin - like cigarettes, not dolmas. Since you seem to have gotten the hang of it, do you have any very specific advice? I'd love to be able to use this little gizmo.

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first of all you have to wet the fabric otherwise there isn't enough traction. Second, there is a switch/screw at one end which needs to be positioned according the size of the grape leaf. Position the grape leaf at the end and push the rice into the pouch which is formed by the fabric, don't overfill. I only used small to medium sized leaves on the machine. Big grape leaves would not work here because you would not be able to fill them properly and the machine would make a thickly wrapped roll, yuck. The size I used was the biggest, I didn't even try the smallest size which would be tiny, like you described. Perhaps this size is for forming industrial looking kabobs? It is pretty nifty but it doesn't save that much time at the end.

good luck

[scubadoo97]

This past weekend I was rolling grape leaves with my cousins for our Passover Seder and I mentioned the little rolling machine seen on Egullet. We figured between having to find the right sized leaves and setting it up between each roll we would not save to much time. We rolled a several hundred in couple of hours. Busy hands and lots of conversation. Group therapy

[Nyleve Baar]

Thanks for the detailed description. I am going to give the darn thing another shot sometime soon. Passover grape leaves? Hmmmm. Stuffed with what, pray tell?

[scubadoo97]

Passover grape leaves? Hmmmm. Stuffed with what, pray tell?

Rice and meat. We are Mizrahi Jews so we do rice on Passover. A lot of rice

[andiesenji]

I would probably never use it, but I still want one. I have not had any luck searching the 'net and have called several stores in soCal. with only one possible "maybe" on ordering it.

I am fairly fast with rolling dolma (or sarma as I got my instruction from a couple of Armenian ladies) depending on how many people are involved and how lively the conversation, so I can't see much advantage to actually using the machine. I do think it would be a great conversation piece.

I have to admit that mine are never as even or neat as the ones pictured.

I also use sorrel leaves (blanched) along with the grape leaves and have also used young chard leaves, (sorrel and chard home-grown.)

Edited March 25, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[melamed]

It doesn't save time but it has great showoffy potential and is a great

conversation piece.

andiesenji, since you collect kitchen gadgets I would love to know if

you have something to rival this? I am not sure how you can obtain it

(perhaps ask Sajzi) . My other favorite kitchen gadget is

a semicircular knife which I bought for cutting melouchia leaves

but this is not nearly as nifty, is it?

Edited March 26, 2009 by melamed (log)

[andiesenji]

It doesn't save time but it has great showoffy potential and is a great

conversation piece.

andiesenji, since you collect kitchen gadgets I would love to know if

you have something to rival this? I am not sure how you can obtain it

(perhaps ask Sajzi) . My other favorite kitchen gadget is

a semicircular knife which I bought for cutting melouchia leaves

but this is not nearly as nifty, is it?

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How about this for a single-use, otherwise useless item?

A melba toast slicer - holds the bread so one can cut a regular slice of bread in half.

Oddly enough, I use it quite often.

[melamed]

How about this for a single-use, otherwise useless item?

A melba toast slicer - holds the bread so one can cut a regular slice of bread in half.

Oddly enough, I use it quite often.

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oh my, who would have thought of a melba toast slicer. I guess once you have something like that it would be impossible to live without it

[Lapin d'Argent]

I would probably never use it, but I still want one.  I have not had any luck searching the 'net and have called several stores in soCal. with only one possible "maybe" on ordering it.

<snip>

I also use sorrel leaves (blanched) along with the grape leaves and have also used young chard leaves, (sorrel and chard home-grown.)

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OK, Andie, in exchange for the tip about stuffing sorrel leaves, which I also grow, I'm going to share this with you, instead of scarfing it up for myself:

Stuffed Grape Leaf Roller

I leave it to you to ask the seller why a $24.99 item costs $12 for shipping. But whatever...nirvana does not come cheap.

- L.