‘Warm memories’: West Kelowna woman picking grape leaves for Iranian dolmeh

Mojegan Sadghian has been out picking grape leaves in backyards and vineyards in the Okanagan, and using them to make her tasty, traditional dolmeh.

Moist bites of savoury, spiced filling wrapped in grape leaves, dolmeh is a staple in several Middle Eastern countries and popular at Greek and Persian restaurants around the globe, although the Greeks call them dolmades.

Arriving in Canada from Iran three decades ago, Sadghian and her husband had a Persian restaurant in Prince George for 17 years before relocating to West Kelowna. Dolmehs were a customer favourite at the restaurant, and she still makes them at home.

“I’m surprised more people aren’t picking their own leaves, or selling the leaves,” Sadghian said. “In Vancouver, the are so many Iranian people, the fresh leaves are sold at grocery stores.”

Growing up in the city of Esfahan, picking grape leaves for dolmeh was a normal part of life for Sadghian, and one she remembers fondly.

“Every spring when the vines grew you had to go pick leaves to make dolmeh because it was the season,” she said. “At that time, there were no jars or cans of leaves, so that was your chance. Then you’d freeze some and save it for later so a couple of times in late spring and summer you made dolmeh.”  

These days premade dolmeh are readily available for purchase, but Sadghian prefers to make them from scratch, with fresh ingredients. This is the first year in many years she set out looking for fresh leaves.

“Back in Prince George, there weren’t vineyards everywhere so I bought jars of leaves,” she said. “I always thought we should go pick some (in the Okanagan).”

Earlier this year, she posted a request for non-sprayed grape leaves on a Facebook page and got a few offers of backyard leaves to pick.

“Mostly they have concord (grape leaves) for me, it’s the most common vine here,” she said. “It doesn’t matter much what kind they are, but they shouldn’t be too tough. They shouldn’t be too big, but you have to have a good round base you can use for stuffing.”

She was at a food stand beside a vineyard this summer and asked the owner if she could pick some grape leaves.

“He said sure, just don’t pick them all from one spot,” she said. “You can only pick two are three from each branch because the ones at the top are too small and the ones at the bottom too big. You have to look for the perfect leaf.”

The leaves of the concord grape vines have a subtle, herbaceous flavor. They have a sturdier texture than the European leaves she grew up picking, and must be blanched, or put in hot water for a minute so they soften.

The leaves are used to wrap around a filling, which is made differently in different regions across Iran.

Sadghian half-cooks her filling. She fries onion and then adds spices, rice and meat. The filling is wrapped in leaves, put in a covered pot to steam for half-an-hour, then transferred to the oven for an hour to finish cooking.

“Where I lived with my mom, we added raisins to it,” she said. “In older times, they were wrapped like a round bundle. At that time there wasn’t much meat so they’d put stewing meat, like pieces of lamb in to add a bit of fat.

“The finished product should be moist, soft and easy to eat.”

Most days, Sadghian is busy working on her online marketing business, but still makes time to make dolmeh.

“It brings back warm memories,” she said. “Canada is home now, but still, you have a feeling in the back of your heart that you have another home you miss, especially when your loved ones are still there.

“My family in Iran will definitely think its funny I’m being interviewed about making dolmeh.”