How To: Cook a Persian-style cabbage dolma (dolme kalam)

Farideh Ehtesham shows you how to make a sweet and sour version of a popular Iranian dish called cabbage dolma. First, wash the whole green cabbage and put it in a pot of boiling water to soften the leaves. Next, mix together minced lamb, rice, split peas, salt, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon, lemon juice, honey, tomato puree, and basil with clean hands. Carefully separate the cabbage leaves and cut away the top white part of the leaf. Place oil and the largest leaf from the cabbage in the bottom of a large pot. Stuff and fold each leaf with the lamb mixture and place in layers on top of the cabbage leaf in the pot. Add water, tomato puree, black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, salt, and pour over cabbage dolmas. Sprinkle cinnamon and oil and cook on low for 1 ¬O hours. Lastly, mix together sugar, vinegar, juice from the cabbage dolmas, and pour over the pot. Cook for 15 minutes more and Enjoy!