Manti Russian Steamed Dumplings Recipes

HOMEMADE MANTI (TRADITIONAL TURKISH DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and water, mixing well with your hands. Add more water, if needed, to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
• Shred the onions and place them in a colander or sieve set over a bowl; drain the juice and discard. Combine the onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper; mix the meat well with a spoon until mashed.
• Divide the dough into two portions and lightly flour a work surface. Keep one piece of dough covered while you roll out the second portion into a rectangle, rolling the dough as thin as you can. Cut the rectangle into 2-inch squares with a knife or pastry wheel.
• Place about 2 teaspoons of the meat filling in the center of each square. Seal the dumplings by gathering the edges of the dough and pinching them together at the top to form a bundle. Transfer the finished manti to a floured plate, and sprinkle more flour over the manti to prevent sticking. Repeat with the second piece of dough.
• Heat the oil and red pepper flakes in a small skillet over low heat just until the pepper flakes have started to color the oil; don't let them burn. Remove from the heat and keep warm. Stir the minced garlic into the yogurt and set aside.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook the manti until the filling is no longer pink, and the dough is tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain well. Divide the manti among four plates. Spoon the yogurt sauce over the manti and drizzle each serving with the hot pepper oil.

MANTI - STEAMED DUMPLINGS (Манты)

Steps:

• In a chopper or food processor, pulse the pumpkin and onion separately, not too finely, still in small chunks. Alternatively, cut into small cubed pieces. Mix together with the meat, salt, pepper, oil and water, using your hands, until combined. Set aside.
• Mix dough ingredients together and knead on the counter for about 5 minutes, until dough it's a smooth ball. Let the dough rest for half and hour and give it a good knead again for a few minutes. Cover with a bowl and let it rest for at least 1 more hour.
• Cut dough into pieces. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a thin layer (about 1/8"). It's much easier to use a pasta roller, or I use a KitchenAid Mixmaster pasta roller attachment. Take the cut piece of dough, roughly roll with a rolling pin until it's able to be rolled through the pasta maker. First time, I rolled it on a thicker setting #1, then follow through with a thinner setting #2, which gets you to the desired thickness. Sprinkle flour on the pasta pieces to prevent them from sticking to the table.
• Use a large can or a glass for cutting the shape of the dough circles. We used a Cadbury's Hot Chocolate Can which has a 4"/10cm diameter. Cut circles with the can, combine the off cuts into a ball, knead and roll out again. This process always easier with 2 people. One rolling, one cutting, then making manti together.
• There are many ways to shape manti, here are my 2 favorites. Put about a generous tablespoon of meat mixture into the circle piece of dough, careful for the meat not to touch the sides of the dough or it won't stick shut. Pinch and close the opposite sides of the dough together (corner to corner) until you have a little pinched dough pocket. Place on a tray and put in the freezer until frozen solid. Put in ziploc bags until ready to steam (or you can eat them fresh as in the next step).
• Put about a generous tablespoon of meat mixture into the circle piece of dough, careful not to touch the sides of the dough or it won't stick shut. Pinch the middle of the dough together in the centre. Pinch the adjacent sides together, meeting in the centre, pinching all edges of the dough closed. It's going to kind of look like a star shaped pillow. Place on a greased steamer disks, about 1/2" apart from each other. Some use butter, but I generously sprayed oil.
• Bring water in your mantavarka (steamer) to a boil. Place the steamer trays over the water and steam manti for about 30-40 minutes, until the meat is cooked.
• Serve with Sour Cream and dill, or Lazadhzan, or with ketchup.

MANTI (RUSSIAN STEAMED DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Make pasta for the dumplings: Mix and knead egg, flour, some salt and enough water to form an elastic, not sticky dough. Let rest for 1 hour. Make filling: Mix meat, onion slices and salt and pepper and knead with your hands (the juices released from the onions make the filling tasty and juicy). Roll out dough, not too thin. Use a large round cookie cutter, glass or small bowl (about 3-4 inches diameter) to make rounds. Scraps can be rerolled. Mount a spoon of filling in the center of each round. Dot each with a little butter. Fold two opposite sides up and pinch to seal. Pinch open ends to seal, then pull around and pinch ends to form a round dumpling. Spray steaming baskets with non-stick spray, place Manti, spacing apart so they don't touch, in baskets and steam for about 40 minutes. Pile Manti on platter, dotting with butter so they don't stick together. Serve with generous amount of sour cream. The making of the Manti is quite time consuming, in Russia the whole family pitches in. Unfortunately, due to the large amount of onions in the filling, they don't freeze well.