Stuffed Vine Leaves

I love the fresh, tangy taste of stuffed vine leaves, but I don't get to eat them too often. Vine leaves are not so easy to come by, so I depend on my aunt who has a huge garden complete with grapevine. I hear you can also get vine leaves in a can or jar, but I've never tried those. If you happen to have fresh vine leaves, make sure they were picked before spraying, as vine sprays tend to be toxic.

Ingredients:

50 vine leaves
500g/1lb 2oz ground beef or pork (or mixed)
salt pepper
1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup rice
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
oil
2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
salt, pepper, stock powder

Boil 3-4l water with a cup of vinegar (taste the water, you want it to be pleasantly sour), and add the leaves. Blanch for a minute, then remove from the heat, and leave the leaves in the water/vinegar mixture to cool for around 2 hours (so that they absorb some of the acidity).
In the meantime, saute the onion on a bit of oil, add the meat and cook for 15-20 minutes, occasionally stirring and separating the meat. Remove from heat. Boil the rice, drain, and mix in with the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the egg.
Remove the hard stems from the vine leaves. Place a spoonful of the filling on each leaf and make little rolls - around 2 in/5 cm long (fold the sides as well, you don't want the filling to fall out while cooking). Pack the rolls as tightly as possible in a steel or crock pot, so that they can't unwrap while cooking. Pour over just enough water to cover the rolls and then add some of the water you used to cook the leaves (you'll have to do this to taste, depending on how sour you want the rolls to be). Season with stock powder (alternatively, you could, of course, use real stock instead of water) and the chopped dill. Cook on low heat for about an hour. Serve hot with cool sour cream or yoghurt.