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Sarma is the name of a grape, cabbage or chard leaf roll common to the former Ottoman countries such as Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Ukraine.
Etymology
Sarma is a verbal noun derived from the Turkish verb sarmak meaning
"wrapping" or "rolling" in Turkish. Sarma is similar to its cousin
Dolma, and the two names for such rolls are used interchangeably in
many languages.
In Turkey, the word sarma can also refer to a type of sweet pastry,
similar to Baklava. Saray sarma or fıstık sarma is prepared by wrapping
phyllo dough around a mixture of crushed nuts and syrup.
Preparation
Minced meat (usually beef, pork, veal, or a combination thereof, but
also lamb, goat, sausage and variuos bird meat such as duck and goose),
rice, onions, and various spices, including salt, pepper and various
local herbs are mixed together and then rolled into large plant leaves,
which may be cabbage (fresh or pickled), chard, patience, vine leaf
(fresh or pickled) or broadleaf plantain leaves. The combination is
then cooked together in boiling water for few hours. While specific
recipes vary across the region, it is uniformly recognized that the
best cooking method is slow boiling in large clay pots. A special
ingredient, flour browned in fat (called rântaş in Romania, where it
may also contain finely chopped onion), is often added at the end of
the process. Other fine-tuned flavors include cherry tree leaves in
some locations; other recipes require the use of pork fat—the number of
minor differences is virtually innumerable across the region.
Vegetarian variants as well as those made with fish exist.
In Turkey, the word "sarma" is used interchangeably with dolma for
stuffed vine leaves, cabbage or chard. Most of the time, the name of
the vegetable used is added to describe the dish such as lahana sarma
(cabbage) or yaprak sarma (grape leaves). However, as the term refers
to preparation ("to be wrapped"), some desserts are also called
"sarma", for instance, pistachio sarma and saray sarma. As with dolma,
sarma is combined with Yoghurt when it contains minced meat (beef,
meal, lamb) and is served hot. The filling of sarma in Turkey usually
contains rice, herbs, onion, currants and pine nuts, herbs such as
parsley and dill, and several spices including cinnamon and black
pepper.
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