This fragrant and hearty lamb and vegetable stew is truly delicious and liked even by those who swears that they wouldn't eat eggplants or lamb to save their lives.
In Middle Eastern cuisines, dolma means stuffed vegetables like onions, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes or grape leaves. As you might have guessed, lazy dolma recipe omits the most time consuming step of dolma making - preparing vegetables for stuffing and the process of stuffing. Instead, vegetables are cut and arranged alternatively in layers with meat.
I came across the idea of the dish years ago on some Russian cooking forum and am very grateful to the person who shared it there. As usual, I altered the recipe quite a lot and even made it somewhat less lazy, but more satisfying to my taste.
Lazy dolma has a stew-like consistency and can be served as it is with some nice bread or flatbread or on top of couscous, quinoa or rice pilaf. A dollop of herbed yogurt would add a nice touch, but not at all necessary.
You will need:
- 2 lb eggplants, cut into about ¾-1 inch cubes or segments (look for small and not-spongy eggplants, they will not turn into a mushy pulp during cooking)
- 1.5 lb bell peppers, different colors, cut into 1 inch long and 0.5 inch wide strips or 2/3 inch squares
- 2/3 -1 lb onions, coarsely chopped
- 2/3 -1 tomatoes, peeled and cut in whole, semi- or quarter circles depending on the size
- 1 lb of ground lamb, torn into small pieces (can be done right when assembling lazy dolma)
- About half of a regular bunch of cilantro, coarsely chopped
- 5-7 cloves of garlic, sliced or coarsely chopped
- 1.5-2 tsp khmeli-suneli (a spice blend that can be found in Russian/European delis or made at home)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Take a deep and wide pot. On the bottom arrange a layer of eggplants, then a layer of ground lamb, then peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro. Season with salt, black pepper, and khmeli-suneli.
Be light on salt because the vegetables will shrink a lot and dolma may turn out too salty. Repeat until all the ingredients are used.
Put a shallow plate on top of the ingredients, bottom up. The plate should be big enough to cover the vegetables almost completely so that there is only a small gap left between the plate and the walls of the pot. Put a weight on top of a plate, for instance, a cast iron pan or a pot filled with water. I use a stainless steel bowl filled with dumbbell weights.
Put the pot on the stove on a medium low heat. When the juices start gathering at the top of the pot, above the plate, transfer them with a baster to a small pot and reserve for later use. Cook the lazy dolma, removing the juices once in a while, about 1.5 hours.
After that, remove the weight and the plate and give dolma a stir. Continue cooking until all the vegetables are cooked through, but still retain their shape. Meanwhile, on a high heat boil down the reserved juices until very thick and stir them into the dolma. Adjust the seasonings. To my taste, dolma is better the next day, but it can be served right away.
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