Stuffed grape leaves - how much filling?

[voula_slat]

I haven't made stuffed grape leaves in a while and I have some questions.

First of all, I am having a hard time judging how much filling to put in each leaf? I have a friend who helped me and tried to explain. She'd put a teaspoon of filling in the leaf, then add or subtract more after looking at it. She's quick rolling, and I have no idea how she knows how much filling.

And she really couldn't explain it - just said that you have to look at it and it's by feel. It sounds like my yiayia and she's younger than me! I told her that and she just shrugged. She tried to talk me through it as we were rolling together but it seemed so random to me.

 

[Luana]

About a teaspoon sounds right to me. Since rice is uncooked, room needs to be left for it to expand while cooking. Think it's better to use uncooked rice, as cooked rice would likely get mushy. It's probably better to under fill, as too much filling may open grape leaves.

 

[k_tsoukalas]

Might I also add to what Luana said to roll the grapeleaves on the snug side but not too snug. When the filling expands, the grape leaf might burst. Cooked rice is not a good choice for this - one of my greatest kitchen disasters from cooking grapeleaves happened because of cooked rice. Don't use instant rice, either. That's just as bad as cooked.