Siberian Pelmeni for a London Yummy Mummy

Ingredients: 

For the dough:

3 cups of flour

1-teaspoon salt

3 whole eggs

1/3-cup warm water

For the Filling:

250 grams of beef

250 grams of pork

1 yellow onion

1 tablespoon of salt

3 grinds of black pepper

A pinch of marjoram or spices to your taste (note: classic Siberian dumplings do not have any spice but rely on the garnish to give the dumplings their flavor, but the Baltic version of pelmeni does include marjoram, and I think it adds much to the meat, so I include it here.)

Make the dough:

Sift together the flour and the salt in a large bowl.   Create a shallow well and add the eggs and the water into the flour.  Work the dough together and turn out onto a floured surface, kneading with your hands until the dough holds together.  Cover with a bowl and leave to set for an hour.

Sift together the flour and the salt in a large bowl.   Create a shallow well and add the eggs and the water into the flour.  Work the dough together and turn out onto a floured surface, kneading with your hands until the dough holds together.  Cover with a bowl and leave to set for an hour.

Make the filling:

For ancient nomadic women, this was the labor-intensive part, as they minced the meat into tiny slivers.  I used my food processor, which took about 45 seconds.   Process the meat, onion, salt, and spices together in the food processor until smooth.  Cover and set aside.

Assemble the pelmeni:

At this point, I put “pasta roller” on the list of things I wanted for Christmas, and if you have one, by all means, dust it off and use it.   I rolled my dough out with a rolling pin until very thin (no more than 2 millimeters).  Using a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass cut out circles approximately 7 cm in diameter.  Into the center of each circle, place a ball of filling.   Fold the dough circle in half over the filling, and crimp the edges together.  Then fold the crescent into half again, and pinch the two edges together to form the final dumpling.  The comprehensive website dedicated to the history, art, and traditions, pelmeni.ru notes a time-honored tradition of sneaking a “surprise” into the last pelmeni of the batch: and the one who gets this dumpling, receives the good fortune implied by it: a small coin for wealth, sugar for love etc.

Cook the pelmeni:

Bring a large pot of cold, salted water to a vigorous boil.  Add a tablespoon of oil to the boiling water, and then drop the pelmeni in, one by one, taking care not to overcrowd the pot, and keeping the pelmeni from sticking to one another.   Cook for 4-6 minutes, or until the pelmeni bob up to the top of the water.  Drain.

Serve, garnish, and eat pel’meni:

Siberians eat pel’meni with tangy vinegar and hot mustard; Russians in the western part of Russia smother them with melted butter or sour cream.   Pel’meni are also often served in broth as a soup, in which case the cooked pel’meni are gently lowered into the hot broth, and stirred gently to warm them through, serving immediately.
 Priyatnogo Appetita!

Priyatnogo Appetita!