Well... its a not a two minutes dish, so I really didnt understand why to bother with it but its soo popular that i thought: it must be worth it! And yes! Its definitely worth to try it. You will end up doing it every now and then. It looks cool, its something special and its good to impress anyone. Koupepia is a traditional Cypriot dish that can be served as an appetizer, part of a meze or even as a main dish. In Greece, they are known as ‘dolmades or ''dolmadakia'' (the Greeks love to call everyhting ''small'' and ''aki'' at the end of a word means small). You can serve it warm as part of a meal but its also very nice served cold with mint on a hot summer evening with some white wine. When served warm, you can use avgolemono which is a sauce made of eggs and lemon. It is at its best in spring when the young leaves are at their freshest and most tender. In winter, cabbage leaves are sometimes used as a substitute. Check also the Lebanese version by Chris!

Ingredients

For the stuffed vine leaves:
vine leaves *(reserve approx. 4-6 leaves to line the tin and another 4-5 for the top)
onion, chopped into small pieces
olive oil
for the meat you can use minced cooked lamb and an about equal amount of cooked pork, veal or beef
1/3 of the amount of meat cooked rice
Parsley and/or mint
Optional: a little red wine, lemon juice, tomato

Method

Wash the wine leaves in cold water and drain. Blanch them in boiling salt water for 5 minutes, remove and dry. You can also buy vine leaves in brine in the supermarket. To prepare, remove the brine by washing them with cold water. In the meantime fry the onions in olive oil add the meat. Cook meat thoroughly. Add the rice and the herbs (tomato if you like) and heat through, stirring continuously. Here you can add red wine or lemon juice for the flavor if you like. Lay out the leaves, sprinkle with salt (snip off stem if necessary) and place so much of the mixture on them that you can fold them easily into cylinder shapes. Fold in the end and sides over the stuffing and roll firmly. Line the base of a heavy pan with leaves and pack the koupepia close together in layers. Put some leaves on the top. They stop the koupepia from burning, and help retain the moisture. If possible, invert a heavy plate on top to keep rolls in shape during cooking and they wont open. Add water or stock just to cover the plate. Cover it and cook in a preheated oven at 180 for about 30 minutes.

Another way of making it is using raw rice, in this case don''t fold the kupepia too tight as the rice will expand during cooking. Kupepia is often served with avgolemono sauce. For the sauce you will need 2 eggs and the juice of two lemons. Beat the eggs with a fork or a hand mixer and add the lemon juice (the quantity of lemon depends on how sour we prefer them to be). When the kupepia is ready, remove the plate and take some juice from the pot and slowly start pouring it into the eggs, beating or whisking continuously. Pour the egg mixture in the pan o cover it everywhere. Don''t stir it with a spoon or anything else, otherwise you brake the kupepia. Serve hot after 15 minutes.