Grape Leaves

[Roxy]

I have a delicious looking recipe for Live Stuffed Grape Leaves. Problem is, I can't get fresh grape leaves anywhere. Whole Foods don't even stock the canned ones as they contain some sort of evil preservitative (fair enough).

So my question is: is there anything else that I could substitute for the grape leaves that would work just as well?

[cedarblue]

cabbage leaves or chinese lettuce leaves?

[Roxy]

I don't know what Chinese lettuce is Cedar. But do you think I would have to do anything to the Cabbage Leaves First? My ex-fiancee's mum used to make stuffed cabbage leaves, but she would soak the cabbage in salt water first, for a week or so.

[cedarblue]

are you looking to preserve them or eat straight away? to eat straight away, just pop them whole, flat as you can, into a pan of boiling water and blanch them for a couple of mins just till they go limp. then carefully take out and stuff and then bake, or whatever. chinese lettuce is just that, it is usually lightly long-shaped and pale coloured. we get it in supermarkets in the uk.

[Roxy]

OK - thanks for that. :) The recipe is actually a raw one. So I guess blanching the cabbage leaves would make the "raw" part invalid.

[PinkFluffyCloud]

What about stuffing some large tomatoes? They are nice 'raw'.

[Roxy]

Didn't think of that one! But it's a good idea :)

[Tigerlily]

Try to find a middle eastern store. They will probably have some grape leaves (frozen, canned, preserved...).

Also, maybe in the summer you can start growing a grape vine and use those.

[Roxy]

Thanks Tigerlilly! Oh how I would love to grow my own grapes lol - but apartment living makes that difficult ;) I do know of a greek grocery store where I can try and get hold of some bottled leaves. But they are probably processed in some way and I was hoping to keep the "raw" recipe truly "raw".