SARMA

1500g minced beef, 30% fat / 700g onions / 250g carrots / 150g celery / 100g beef bacon / 100g Bomba rice / 10g paprika / 20g garlic / 5ml red grape juice / salt and pepper for seasoning / 30pcs sour cabbage leaves / 100g smoked wagyu

Chop the onions fine - brunoise, fine grate the celery and carrots, and slice the bacon into dice. Mix it all together in a pot to sauté until the onions becomes translucent. Finely chop the garlic and add it to mixture. Once all the liquid evaporates, add the grape juice, immediately followed with the minced beef and rice. Season the mixture with salt and pepper; be generous with the salt as the rice absorbs most of it. Keep cooking on low heat, gradually adding a bit of vegetable stock. Once the rice is half cooked, get it off the heat. Spread the sour cabbage leaves and trim the thick roots - this will help you roll them easier. At the root of the leaf put 2 table spoons of meat mixture, fold the side’s one over the other covering the meat and roll it from bottom of the root towards the peak of the leaf. Place the sarma rolls into a shallow baking pan, adding vegetable stock to cover about ¼ of the pan. Bake without the cover at 180C for about 40 minutes. Keep the liquid in the pan for preparation of sarma sauce.

1 wagyu brisket, trimmed / 8l water / 160g brown sugar syrup / 350g sea salt / 120g liquid smoke

Keep the brisket in smoke brine for 7 to 8 days. Once you pull it out, brush it with a bit of liquid smoke and brown sugar syrup. Seal it in a vacuum bag. Set the sous vide on 56C and cook it for 24 hours. Once cooked, unpack it and slice it thinly on gravity slicer. Sear before serving.

Take the cooking liquid and mix in a white roux until creamy. Season it with paprika, salt and pepper.

by UROSH MITRASINOVIC It is the trendiest of trends - fermentation used to be a way to preserve fruits and vegetables, and a way of surviving long, cold winters in the Balkans for centuries. Living in a sunny Dubai now, we are not giving up on it, because fermented products bring fruitiness, acidity and umami to everything they touch. If you’ve tried our sarma with sour cabbage and minced beef, then you know what we are on about.