How to make
Chop and stew the onion in a pot with 3 tbsp. olive oil and a little water, or until it softens. Add the washed rice and stir over high heat until it crystallizes. Pour 1 cup of water, about 4 fl oz (120 ml) or the same measuring cup that the rice was measured with, reduce the heat to low.
Stir again, add the spices and raisins and wait, until it absorbs the liquid. The rice will not be completely soft, it will continue to cook a little later in the pot.
Open up the leaves and blanch them in boiling salted water for a few minutes, so that they soften. Do not throw away the damaged and torn leaves, they will serve as a layer at the bottom of the pot. Remove the leaves and place them in a shallow dish. It is best to choose smaller leaves for vine leaves sarma, because they are more delicate and when rolling them, there won't be many layers.
Another flat plate is placed for rolling them. Shape them into thin, long cigars, which is very characteristic of Armenian sarma. Place a leaf with the wide part towards you and use a spoon to spread some of the filling along the length of the lower part of the leaf. It is good to have raisins along the entire length.
Fold the left and right edges of the leaf inward and then the lower edges, roll up the sarma.
At the bottom of the pot with a diameter of about 8.5″ (22 cm), arrange the defective vine leaves that have been separated. Arrange the tightly rolled sarma on top. Pour about 2 1/2 cups or one or two fingers of water above the sarma.
Add a little salt and optionally a few grains of black pepper. Pour a drizzle of olive oil. Press down with a plate.
Let the pot boil on high heat and immediately reduce the temperature to the lowest setting. Cover with a lid and leave it for about 30 minutes.
After this time, remove from the heat, remove the plate and pour generously with the juice of 1 lemon.
The Armenian sarma are ready.
