First, a few words about the dish itself. After all, few modern young housewives have an idea of what manti is. And this is a meat dough dish - a kind of dumplings. It refers to the traditional oriental, or rather Asian, cuisine. Prepare it in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. Its analogies exist in the Kazakh national culinary. A similar treat exists among the Siberian peoples. And in Mongolia, Korea, China, it is also served not only at home dinners, but also in large restaurants or modest food stalls.
Manti and dumplings
From the first time, few people manage to prepare a dish as it should ideally be. There are many subtleties and nuances. The whole process consists of three "operations": knead the dough correctly, prepare the minced meat for manti and boil them. What are the main differences between food and dumplings familiar to us? Firstly, they are much larger than the small neat “bear ears” (the second name is dumplings). Secondly, they are not boiled in water, but in steam, in a water bath. Well, and thirdly, the stuffing for manti is very specific.
Cooking technology
The most important thing that is necessary for the “right” dish is a special pan for boiling. It is called accordingly: "Manti-Kaskan." Of course, not every housewife has this. But this does not mean that you should abandon the idea of preparing a treat and surprise your relatives with it. Well, if you made mincemeat for manti, knead the dough and make the products themselves, then you should take the largest pan, put a deep plate or dish in it, oil the bottom, put the cobbled "meat dumplings" into it, cover with another plate, pour into the pan a little water, cover with a lid and put on a small fire. Everything looks a little complicated, of course. But this is so far the hostess will not adapt. And then the stuffing for manti will turn out “as it should”, and they themselves - at least send them to the culinary exhibition!
Classic recipe for dough
Having examined the main provisions of the theory, we begin to practice. Let's start with the test. Take 500 g of flour, half a glass of water, about a spoonful of salt and an egg. Knead steep elastic dough from the products. Why exactly this? Because the filling is placed on very thinly rolled pieces, and it is important that they do not tear. And in the process of cooking, so as not to stick out, not to creep. Roll the resulting dough into a ball, cover and let it stand, "rest". Then cut small cakes from the main piece, knead, roll into layers a millimeter thick, cut large squares from them, about 10 x 10. In the meantime, the dough is infused, you can also prepare the minced meat (for the recipe, see below).
Classic recipe for minced meat
Traditionally, it is made from lamb or sheep meat. Also, as an important component, it includes interior fat or fat tail (it grows in these animals in the region of the caudal vertebrae). Plus many different seasonings. Thus, to make stuffing for manti, the recipe recommends: finely chop half a kilogram of onion, and cut 1 kilogram of meat into small pieces. If not cut, then pass through a meat grinder with a large grill. This, by the way, is also the difference between manti and dumplings: in those, minced meat is well crushed into a homogeneous mass. Now fat: take about 150 grams and chop finely too. Why approximately: it may be needed even more, because in each "dumpling" is placed both the filling and the greasy piece. Set the cut aside. In manti for manti, the recipe advises, in addition to onions, to generously add pepper and spices: marjoram, coriander, basil. Pour in half a glass of highly salted water as well. In dumplings this is not required. And in this dish, liquid is needed to cook it juicy minced meat for manti.
Sculpt, cook, serve
When everything is ready, you can start stuffing the dough. To do this, put the meat in the center of each square, add a piece of fat and pinch so that the filling does not fall out. Cover the finished products with a napkin and let them stand for 10 minutes. Then cook for 40-45 minutes. Serve them hot, sprinkled with chopped herbs. As a dressing, sour cream, mayonnaise, a strong meat broth seasoned with pepper are suitable - to choose from. In addition, add mustard, horseradish and vinegar with pepper slightly diluted with boiled water.
Important clarification
We talked about how to steam manti . However, the process can be accelerated if you do this: it’s good to heat the butter in a deep frying pan, put the “vareniki” in them, fry them to a crust. And then put it on a plate, put in a pan and steam over for not 45 minutes, but half as much - 25-20. By the way, it turns out in this case, the dish is much tastier and looks more appetizing.
Varieties of minced meat
Housewives may have a legitimate question: how to make minced meat for manti not from mutton, but from other varieties of meat? After all, the East, like Asia, is a delicate matter. A European citizen may not like the smell of a sheep. Yes, and pigs, wild boars or veal are much more familiar. In this case, exotic traditions should be approached creatively. And cook minced pork manti. Its advantage is that such meat is softer than lamb. Choose pulp more carefully, but with a little fat. And buy lard separately. You can even already salty. Or smoked - to whom that is more suitable. And then proceed according to an already familiar algorithm.
Recipe with Variations
It is also worth discussing how to cook minced meat for manti not from meat, but from vegetables. Yes, this dish can also be vegetarian. More precisely, almost. As the filling, use potatoes, pumpkin, carrots. Or fruits - apples, grapes, quinces.
- If the dish is made from pumpkin, take well-ripened, but unsweetened varieties. Cut into slices, peel, then chop each slice into small pieces. Chop a few onion heads, you can lightly fry it, salt it. Mix with pumpkin. Separately cut 250-300 g of fat. You can immediately combine it with the filling, or you can report separately in pieces when you begin to fill the dough with minced meat. Just do not forget about spices, they are necessary to make the taste of manti more saturated, because the pumpkin itself is freshish. And put seasonings for flavor. Before cooking, be sure to fry - it will be tastier.
- Manty potato. To make them, you need one and a half kilograms of root crops, 3-4 large onion heads, salt, pepper, spices to taste. Salo take it smoked or bacon - a pound. Peel the raw potatoes and finely chop them into cubes, as for Olivier salad or vinaigrette. Do the same with onions and bacon. If the onion is pungent, pour boiling water over it and wring it out - the bitterness will go away. Mix all the ingredients, add a little salt, necessarily hot ground pepper. Put the filling in the dough and cook until tender. They are served with them, as well as with pumpkin mantles, sour cream, sour cream sauce. It turns out delicious with ketchup or tomato sauce. Ideally, you can make a special, just the one that is cooked in Asian countries.
Manti sauce
So, tomato sauce, spicy. For him, cut half a kilogram of ripe sweet tomatoes, 3 onions. Fry onions in a small amount of vegetable oil. Add the tomatoes. Sauté on low heat, under the lid, until the skin begins to separate from the pulp. Then salt, add the crushed pod of hot pepper (optional, but the recipe says so), a pinch of dill seeds, a little water. And extinguish a little more so that the sauce turns out to be medium in consistency. At the very end, add finely chopped marjoram (fresh) and a few cloves of garlic. Pour some sugar if you want.