So Ive been homesick for Russia a lot lately, as well as having some major cravings for some of my favorite foods from there. The other night I decided to make some Pelmeni. Mmmmm...
Nina, our area coordinator in Voronezh would teach us how to make some common Russian dishes, but she often didn't have ingredient amounts, so this is kind of my adaptation to the recipe.
Pelmeni are kind of like ravioli, in a sense, since they are 'filled little pasta-guys'. The filling is usually a meat mixture, but is also really good when just red peppers and tomatoes and etc. (The pictures shown were actually my first time making them in years, and my very first time using meat) They're really simple to make, need only a few basic ingredients, and only take a few minutes to cook once assembled! Russians usually eat them with sour cream and butter... but vinegar, ketchup (Russian ketchup comes in flavors and is awesome), or your favorite pasta sauce. They also freeze well and can be frozen for large amounts of time! This recipe makes about 30-40 pelmeni.
Ingredients:Dough:
2-4 cups of flour (depends on consistency... it needs to be a manageable but slightly sticky dough)
1 cup milk
a 'dash' of salt
1 tbsp oil (I used olive oil this time but veggie is ok)
2 eggs
Filling:
Some finely chopped veggies (red peppers, tomatoes, etc)
....or some sort of meat mixture.
For the meat I did:
1 lb ground beef
1 sm. chopped/grated onion
1 crushed clove of garlic
(garlic)salt and pepper
Directions:Mix meat/filling mixture and dough in separate bowls.Roll out and gently knead dough. (You can either roll out entire thing of dough very thing and cut out circles with a cup... or, you can do it like me) Break off about a tablespoon sized piece of dough and rolling to a ball, then flatten into a thin circle (the thinner the better, mine are never quite as thin or as small as the Russians, but they still taste the same! -just beware that they plump up a lot when cooked) In the center of your dough circle, put about a teaspoon sized dab of you filling. Fold dough in half over it and pinch edges to close. (so it should have a flat edge and a half circle rounded edge with the filling inside. Take your two corner edges and pull around to meet, making a ball/circle shape and pinch together to hold. (I should've taken pictures for you since that was probably confusing, but my hands were too doughy! They should look similar to the finished -uncooked- ones pictured below though)
They're really simple and quick to make, but I probably wrote that so it was pretty confusing, sorry! Hope the picture helps!
Then boil a pot of salted water and add a few pelmeni at a time. When they are cooked they should float to the top. (when I did the meat ones I let them boil while floating at the top for a few extra minutes just to be safe that it was cooked enough)
Once finished, dab with a bit of butter, a blob of sour cream, and salt and pepper (I use garlic salt on mine) or other sauce that sounds good... Dan mentioned that they'd probably be really good with soy sauce as well(though that would make them more like Asian pot stickers! *wink*)
Enjoy! -let me know if you have any questions! (I will have to add some pictures to illustrate the wrapping so its not as confusing)
