Warak Enab

Ingredients

• 500g vine leaves in brine (about 70 leaves)
• 300g short-grain rice
• 400g minced lamb
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp seven spice (baharat)
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 0.75 tsp black pepper
• 60ml olive oil
• 6 lamb chops or 400g lamb ribs
• 6 garlic cloves
• 150ml lemon juice
• 1 litre hot water or light stock
• 1 tsp dried mint
• Yoghurt, to serve

Before you cook

• Rinse the vine leaves thoroughly under cold running water to wash off the brine, then soak them in fresh cold water for twenty minutes.
• Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and drain it well.
• Peel the garlic cloves and leave them whole.
• Squeeze the lemons.

Steps

1. Drain the vine leaves and lay them out, sorting any torn ones to one side for lining the pot.
2. Snip the small stem off the base of each good leaf with scissors.
3. Mix the drained rice, minced lamb, tomato paste, seven spice, allspice, cinnamon, salt, pepper and half the olive oil in a bowl.
4. Lay a leaf vein side up on your board with the stem end towards you.
5. Spoon a heaped teaspoon of filling in a line across the base of the leaf, about a centimetre from the edge.
6. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the filling, fold both sides inwards, and roll it up into a cigar about the thickness of your finger.
7. Roll the rest of the leaves the same way, keeping them loose rather than tight, because the rice needs room to swell.
8. Lay the lamb chops across the base of a heavy pot and scatter the torn leaves and garlic cloves over them.
9. Pack the rolls into the pot seam side down in tight concentric circles, building up in layers.
10. Pour over the lemon juice, the remaining olive oil and enough hot water to cover the rolls by two centimetres.
11. Sprinkle over the dried mint.
12. Set an inverted heatproof plate directly on top of the rolls to hold them down.
13. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover it.
14. Simmer the rolls for ninety minutes.
15. Lift out one roll and taste it; the rice should be fully tender with no chalky centre, so simmer longer if it is not.
16. Take the pot off the heat and rest it, still covered, for twenty minutes.
17. Remove the plate, invert a large platter over the pot, and turn the whole thing out so the lamb chops sit on top.
18. Serve warm with cold yoghurt.