Directions:

Open a can/jar of grape leaves (containing approximately 75 leaves).

You'll have to look at groceries that import Mediterranean food for grape leaves. Your goal is to find grape leaves that have very thin veins, which will make the taste less stringy.

Boil 8 cups water in a large pot. Remove the leaves from the jar, and unroll them. There is no need to separate individual leaves yet; just unroll/unwrap the batch from the jar. Place the leaves in the pot, reduce the heat to medium (3 out of 6), and cover the pot. When the water boils again, turn off the heat, and let the leaves sit in the hot water for 10 minutes. Remove the leaves from the pot. Empty out the pot, and replace the hot water with cold water from the tap. Put the leaves in the cold water and set aside.

This procedure removes the bitterness of the grape leaves. It is a trick that my grandmother always did even with the leaves that she was collecting from her garden.

Now you need to prepare the filling: Heat in a pan the oil and stir the onions. Once brown remove them and put them in a bowl with the minced beef and the rice. Mix them well and slowly add the oil, the dried mint and the lemon juice. Meanwhile, in a ½ cup of hot water the beef broths cubes and add to the mix. It is now time to roll the dolmadakia:

Carefully separate out a grape leaf from the batch. The leaves are fragile, and they may be packed with overlapping folds, making it fairly tough to isolate them.

üLay out the leaf on a cutting board.

üCut away the stem.

üPlace a spoonful of the filling on the leaf, right above the point where you cut off the stem. Since leaves vary in size, you should put more or less than a spoon: your goal is to get just enough filling that the wrap will fully wrap it, without wasting any of either the leaf or the filling. 

üFold in the bottom left corner of the leaf over the filling.

üFold in the bottom right corner of the leaf over the filling. 

üFold in the left side of the leaf over the filling.

üFold in the right side of the leaf over the filling.

üRoll the wrapped filling forward over the rest of the leaf. 

Cooking the “dolmadakia” is a very tricky job: you need to cook the meat and rice but not in high heat so to still leave the juice of the cooking. So the ideal heat is 3 out of 6.

Place a plate at the bottom of the pan in order to protect the “dolmadakia”. Pack the “dolmadakia” as closely as possible: you want to make sure that they won't unwrap while cooking as the water boils and agitates the “dolmadakia”. 

Place a second plate upside-down on top of the topmost layer of “dolmadakia”. 

Fill the pot with water up to 2 cm above the top plate, and let cook for 1.5 hours in the lowest setting that still allows the water to boil gently (2 out of 6). You may have to add water while the “dolmadakia” are cooking since rice absorbs water. Ideally you need 1.5 hours. After 1.5 hours taste one: if the rice is cooked, you are done. If not, increase the heat a little bit and take another taste 15 minutes later. Turn off the heat, and let the pot cool for 4 hours. Remove the pot cover and weight. Empty the water out of the pot, while pushing the top plate against the “dolmadakia” (so that they don't come out). Remove the top plate, and carefully move the “dolmadakia” one by one onto a serving plate.

Tip:

Because I like very much the raisins my grandmother was adding in the filling black raising as well. Some other times we were adding them some lemon when served. You can serve them warm or  cold.