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Friday, January 21, 2011

Manti ( Turkish dumplings )

I have cooking class with my coworkers sometimes just for fun. We met at our  place last night and made manti. We had too much fun:)  You will see picture from cooking class below.
Again, this is very common dish in Turkey and I grow up eating it. My mom was making it all the time.  I used the recipe from my favorite cooking blog but I made some changes I used ground turkey instead of ground beef and I added basil in the filling.


Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 egg
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp salt to taste

Filling: 
1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, finely chopped
½ tsp salt to taste
½ tsp black pepper 
1/2 cup fresh basil or parsley chopped ( optional)

For cooking:
8 cups water
1 tsp salt

Sauce:2 cups yogurt
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ tsp salt to taste
3-4 tbsp butter/oil
1 tbsp tomato paste/2/3 tsp paprika
2-3 tbsp water
Dried mint

In a bowl place the flour, crack the egg and add the salt and water. Then knead till you get a firm and smooth dough. Knead for about 8-10 minutes. Make sure to make it firm to flatten easily later. Cover it with a damp towel or cloth and leave for a rest (15-30 minutes).
Meanwhile in a plate mix all the filling ingredients and set aside.
Divide the dough into 2-3 pieces, take one piece and place on the floured counter. Cover the rest of the dough. Then with a rolling pin flatten the dough as thin as you can (as thick as the ridge of a knife). Then, cut it with a knife or roulette into ¾ inch (1 ½-2 cm) square pieces (see the picture). Then place ¼ tsp filling over each square (see the picture). Then stick the both traverse edges diagonally, by pressing with your finger tips (see the picture). Do the same procedure for the remaining dough.
For cooking, boil the water in a big pot and add salt. Then add all the manti into the boiling water. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent them sticking to each other. Make sure not to close the lid. Cook over medium heat till manti gets soft (for about 10-15 minutes).
Meanwhile prepare the sauce. In a bowl mix yogurt, salt and garlic. In a small pan; melt the butter/oil and stir in tomato paste and water. Cook for 2 minutes over low heat. If you prefer using paprika, just add paprika into melted butter/oil and turn the heat off after one minute. Do not add water while using paprika.
Drain the cooked manti and transfer it into serving plates. Let it cool for a while and pour the yogurt sauce over. Finally pour about one tbsp of butter/oil mixture all over (adjust the amount as you like). And if desired sprinkle some dried mint  over the Turkish dumpling.

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