Dolma Mahshi: Fabulous Iraqi Food
Here’s a little something about me you probably didn’t know: I’m obsessed with foreign languages. I began studying Spanish in kindergarten, and by high school I was studying four languages.
One reason I love language so much is similar to a reason I love food and cooking: it is one of the most direct paths to connect you with people.
I’ve been fortunate for several years to have had good mentors in Arabic, and this last week I was invited to a friend’s kitchen to learn how to make one of the most famous foods from Iraq: Dolma Mahshi, or stuffed vegetables. I’ve wanted to make this dish for years, and I generally have a special focus on middle eastern food whenever I want to make something less American. The middle east is known as the birthplace of culture, and this dish is one of the greatest ways to sample some of that culture for yourself.
Usually, a country’s famous regional foods are surprisingly economic, so they go great on a budget. For example: French onion soup, escargot, crepes and souffle, Mexican corn tortillas and pico de gallo, American burgers or biscuits and gravy, or Iraqi dolma mahshi.
What is Dolma Mahshi?,
Dolma mahshi (or just dolma or just mahshi for short) is rice and ground beef mixed with oils and middle eastern spices, which is then stuffed into hollowed out vegetables or wrapped in edible leaves (ie grape leaves and cabbage), and finally cooked on the stove until tender.
The finished dish comes out delicious, with some bites having a wonderful, earthy taste of cabbage, while others are strong and sweet from bell pepper, or are accompanied by a luxuriously smooth texture if stuffed into eggplant.
One down side of dolma is it takes a lot of work. It isn’t as simple as chopping veggies and throwing everything in a pot. Hollowing out eggplants or potatoes takes some time, and you may not always have the patience for it. However, in my opinion that is not a bad thing, but a feature! Some of the best dinner parties I’ve ever thrown involved bringing friends over to help me make the food. We sat around the table talking and laughing, and when dinner was ready, it was something we’d made together. That’s what food is supposed to do.
Try out dolma mahshi if you want a peek beyond the borders into what has historically been one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Iraqi Dolma Mahshi
Like any other regional dish, dolma mahshi (or just dolma) can be made in a thousand different ways. From the spices you use, to the vegetables you stuff, to the rice-to-meat ratio, everything can change. Which means you should feel free to experiment. This recipe will generally take two pots: one for your normal vegetables and one for your leaf vegetables.
For the spices
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon nutmeg
For the stuffing
.5 pound ground beef
2 cups white rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste
For the vegetables
2 oblong onions (try not to get round onions)
2 eggplant
2 red bell peppers
1 cabbage
For the liquid
2.5 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 squeezed lemon
Directions:
For the stuffing mixture:
Start by mixing together your spices. If any are whole spices, toast them before grinding. For preground spices, bloom them by frying them in a small amount of cooking oil before adding them to the stuffing mixture.
Sautee your garlic in some cooking oil. As soon as it is fragrant, add your spices and bloom them in the oil. Once they are ready, turn off the heat and mix in the rice. Once the mixture has cooled down, mix in the ground beef and salt.
For the vegetables:
Place the cabbage in salted boiling water until soft. then remove each leaf and set aside.
While the cabbage boils, cut a slit down the center of the onion and remove each of its layers. This will provide you with hollowed "onions" of varying sizes.
Cut each eggplant in half and hollow out each half with a paring knife.
Core each bell pepper. Keep it whole.
Assembly and cooking:
Stuff each hollowed vegetable with your meat and rice mixture. The general rule of thumb is to underfill each vegetable to only about two thirds full. The rice mixture will expand as it cooks.
Use a spoon to put a small amount of rice mixture into each cabbage leaf and roll tightly. The key here is to use much less than you need. Remember rice expands!
With each vegetable ready, assemble two pans. In the first pan, neatly stack all of your rolled cabbage leaves. If you want, slice several cloves of garlic and put them on top. In the second pan, place vegetables in this order: onions on the bottom, then eggplant, then peppers. The longer something takes to cook, the closer you want it to be to the heat.
Mix together your cooking liquid and pour it into each pan.
On top of the food of each pan, place a canning weight or a dinner plate. You want to weigh down the food so it doesn't come apart as it cooks.
Cook on medium heat for 18 minutes.
Serving:
It is traditional to remove all the dolma from the pan and put it on a serving plate. Another common serving method is to simply upend the pan onto a large plate.
Start by mixing together your spices. If any are whole spices, toast them before grinding. For preground spices, bloom them by frying them in a small amount of cooking oil before adding them to the stuffing mixture.
Sautee your garlic in some cooking oil. As soon as it is fragrant, add your spices and bloom them in the oil. Once they are ready, turn off the heat and mix in the rice. Once the mixture has cooled down, mix in the ground beef and salt.
For the vegetables:
Place the cabbage in salted boiling water until soft. then remove each leaf and set aside.
While the cabbage boils, cut a slit down the center of the onion and remove each of its layers. This will provide you with hollowed "onions" of varying sizes.
Cut each eggplant in half and hollow out each half with a paring knife.
Core each bell pepper. Keep it whole.
Assembly and cooking:
Stuff each hollowed vegetable with your meat and rice mixture. The general rule of thumb is to underfill each vegetable to only about two thirds full. The rice mixture will expand as it cooks.
Use a spoon to put a small amount of rice mixture into each cabbage leaf and roll tightly. The key here is to use much less than you need. Remember rice expands!
With each vegetable ready, assemble two pans. In the first pan, neatly stack all of your rolled cabbage leaves. If you want, slice several cloves of garlic and put them on top. In the second pan, place vegetables in this order: onions on the bottom, then eggplant, then peppers. The longer something takes to cook, the closer you want it to be to the heat.
Mix together your cooking liquid and pour it into each pan.
On top of the food of each pan, place a canning weight or a dinner plate. You want to weigh down the food so it doesn't come apart as it cooks.
Cook on medium heat for 18 minutes.
Serving:
It is traditional to remove all the dolma from the pan and put it on a serving plate. Another common serving method is to simply upend the pan onto a large plate.
Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.
Matthew Christensen
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2023
Email the author! matthew@dvo.com
