Guus Bosman

Surmichki means "small stuffed leaves", and they are delicious packages of rice wrapped in grape or cabbage leaves. In Cyrillic, сърмички.

There are endless ways to prepare the stuffing for surmichki. This is a family recipe; it's vegetarian and can thus be used for a Bulgarian Christmas Eve dinner (Бъдни Вечер).

Where to find the ingredients

Grape leaves are pretty easy to find in United States; many grocery stores carry them. Cabbage leaves are harder to locate. The cabbage leaves have undergone a sauer-kraut like process to make them tender and sauer. We found them in Food World in Durham, NC, and this was actually the first time we saw them outside Bulgaria. This stuffing works equally well for both types.

One other thing to keep in mind: one of the herbs in the stuffing is very hard to find in the States. It's called гьозум or джоджен, and is related to what's known as spearmint in the United States. However, spearmint is more minty in taste. If you like minty, then you can use spearmint. Otherwise I recommend to experiment and use your own herbs. In order of descending Bulgarian-ess: thyme, tarragon, or oregano.

Ingredients

- A can of grape leaves, or a can of cabbage leaves
- Half an onion
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1,5 cup of rice
- Джоджен (see note above)
- Parsley (fresh parsley is of course the best, dried works okay too).
- Paprika powder
- Pinch of salt

Stir fry the finely cut onion in the oil until glazed. Add 1,5 cup of rice (uncooked but washed) and the herbs (джоджен, parsley, paprika and salt). Don’t be shy with the herbs! Add a little bit of water (2 tablespoons). Once the water is gone, remove from the fire.

This recipe makes enough stuffing for a nice pan full with surmichki, enough for 4 people. We used a whole can of cabbage leaves, half a can of grape leaves.

Put the mixture in the leaf, use a good tablespoon full per leaf. Place the stuffing in the middle, and roll the leaf to make a small sturdy package.

Place the surmickhi in a pan. We made both cabbage and grape leaf surmichki, and we put the cabbage ones on the bottom of the pan so they'd boil a little more. Pro tip: place a plate on top of the surmichki in the pan, so they won't expand too much.

Bring to a boil and leave them for 30 minutes on a gentle fire. You'll know when they're done when the grape leaves are tender.

Бон апетит!