Manti is a very tasty, satisfying and aromatic meat and flour dish that will certainly find its place in the home kitchen of every family, if only you can cook it correctly. Moreover, if you make the dough for manti correctly, then everything will go on like clockwork, and the finished dish will cause those who will eat it, a real culinary ecstasy.
What are manti?
Although many people now believe that manti is primarily an Uzbek dish, in fact, its homeland is China, where manti was called wrappers or bao-tzu. A little later, the dish began to be called mantou, and it already came to us under the well-known name of manti. This dish represents finely chopped meat wrapped in dough. And since such a filling is much more voluminous than the filling of dumplings or dumplings, when preparing the dish, special attention should be paid to the dough for manti, which should be thin, but must bear the weight of the filling and not fall apart during cooking. That is why it is so important to prepare an elastic, non-tearing dough that will easily take the desired shape, quickly boil and then literally melt in your mouth.
Purchase of ingredients for manti
Before you start looking for recipes for manti dough with photos that will facilitate the cooking process, you should go to the supermarket or market to get the necessary ingredients.
For the test, most often, only 4 components are needed - wheat flour, water, salt and eggs. The main thing is that it is better to take flour at once two packs, one should be of the first grade, and the other of the second. Sometimes, to make the dough softer and more tender, a little milk is added to it. So, in order to improve the dish, you will need to add this product to the shopping list as well.
But for the filling of manti, you can take whatever your heart desires. The ideal filling would be a mixture of meat, onion and fat, and the meat can be taken in a variety of ways - chicken, pork, beef or lamb, focusing only on your taste sensations. You can also add spices to the filling, because Asian cuisine simply cannot do without them, so in the absence of garlic, zira, caraway seeds and red or black pepper, they should definitely be bought. As, in fact, greens, which decorate the finished dish, complementing its unsurpassed taste.
Classic dough recipe
To prepare a classic recipe, you will need:
- 0.5 kg of wheat flour;
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of cold water;
- 0.5 teaspoon of salt.
To prepare the dough, first of all, you need to pour half a glass of water into a deep bowl, add the egg, salt, and beat everything well with a fork or whisk until smooth. Then the flour is gradually hammered into the bowl, which should first be sieved to saturate it with oxygen, and after a while the rest of the water is added there. As the dough becomes so thick that it will be impossible to turn a spoon in it, it can be transferred from a bowl to the working surface of the table. It usually takes about 20 minutes to prepare the dough. As it becomes smooth and cool, the dough will need to be left alone for half an hour, and then you can start sculpting manti.
Choux pastry recipe
If such a recipe did not suit you, you can cook choux dough for manti, which is more elastic and does not stick to your hands. In this case, the same amount of water, flour and salt will be needed, only 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil are added there instead of eggs, and the water in the dough is not cold, but boiled. To prepare such a test, you will need to bring the water in a small saucepan to a boil, and then, without removing it from the heat, add vegetable oil and salt. When the salt is completely dissolved, the pan can be removed from the stove and begin to gradually introduce flour to it, kneading the dough with a whisk. As the dough thickens, it can be taken out onto the work surface, add the remaining flour there and leave to rest for an hour, after which it will be ready for modeling manti.
Secrets of making dough to make cooking easier
Those cooks who have made this delicious dish many times over time have learned some secrets that make the process of making manti easier. The classic recipe for the test, of course, fully illuminates the cooking process, but still there are certain nuances of cooking, which are known over time. So, when preparing the test, it is very important to remember these points:
- When preparing the dough, first use most of the flour from the amount indicated in the recipe, and then add the remaining gradually gradually during the cooking process.
- Choux pastry must be mixed with a spoon, not hands, otherwise they can be burned due to hot water.
- So that the dough does not stick to the hands and does not slip on the working surface, they should be constantly moistened in water during the preparation process.
- When the finished dough rests before sculpting the manti, it should be covered with a damp towel or placed in a plastic bag so that it does not wind off.
- To manti acquired a pleasant orange color, you can add a pinch of turmeric to the dough.
- The ideal thickness of rolled dough for manti should be 1 mm.
- To make it easier to determine how much flour to take and how much water, you just need to observe the proportion according to which the flour in the dough should be 2 parts, and water - 1.
- To make the dough soft and tender, instead of water, you can add milk to it in the same amount as indicated there.
How to sculpt manti?
Having prepared step by step the dough for manti, you can proceed to the laborious and painstaking process of sculpting them. To do this, you need to divide the finished dough into several parts, and then roll out of each of them sausages, which are then cut into portioned pieces and rolled into square cakes with a diameter of 10 cm. You can also immediately roll the dough into a thin layer, and then cut it into portioned cakes with a special knife.
Next, we begin to sculpt pieces of the classic dough for manti in a semi-finished product. First of all, in the center of each tortilla we put one tablespoon of pre-cooked minced meat from finely chopped meat, onion and lard. After that, we connect all the corners of the dough together according to the principle of folding the envelope. Then once again we sculpt every corner, thereby giving the mantles the desired shape. However, since the process of sculpting manti can seem very difficult for a novice chef, you can first pinch the corners of the semi-finished product in the traditional way or with a pigtail.
How to cook manti?
In order to make the same mouth-watering ready-made dish from a tasty dough for manti, you should properly cook cooked semi-finished products. It is best to use special pots called cascans or mantovark for cooking them. Products will be prepared in them thanks to rising steam, therefore, in the absence of this kitchen appliance, you can use an ordinary double boiler, which is now found in every family where they like to eat healthy food. The cooking process itself is as simple as possible. You just need to grease the cascade or double boiler lattices with vegetable or butter, put the semi-finished products there at a small distance from each other, and then put on fire for cooking for 40-45 minutes.
Cooking manti in a slow cooker
Sometimes there is not much time to prepare a classic dough for manti, followed by sculpting each semi-finished product and cooking the dish in cascans. And then our good old kitchen assistant - a slow cooker comes to the rescue. The dough and minced meat for such manti are prepared according to a proven classic recipe, however, to save even more time, meat for this dish can not be chopped, but turned in a meat grinder or chopped in a blender. But then this dough is not divided into small cakes, but is rolled into one layer, where the stuffing is wrapped according to the roll principle. This roll is pinched around the edges and is entirely laid in a slow cooker, where it is cooked for about 40 minutes. Before serving, the roll is cut with a knife into equal slices.
Cooking manti in a bread machine
To save even more time, dough for manti can be prepared in a bread machine. The number of ingredients for such a test completely coincides with the classic recipe, however, the principle of preparation is somewhat different. Without thinking twice, we combine the egg, water in the breadmaker’s container, add salt and sifted flour, and then put this container in the unit itself, select the “Kneading” program there and go off to do our business for one and a half hours, while the dough will be prepared on its own. And then it will be enough to sprinkle the work surface with flour, get the dough out of the bread machine and follow the already proven classic recipe, right up to serving the dish on the table.
Uzbek mutton manti recipe
Usually, manti in our area is prepared with pork or beef filling, while the original Uzbek dish is prepared exclusively with finely chopped lamb minced meat. Actually, the dough for manti in Uzbek is prepared exactly according to the recipe we know, but then the cooking process changes slightly. First of all, for filling such manti you will need:
- 0.5 kg of lamb;
- 0.1 kg fat tail fat;
- 0.3 kg of onions;
- salt and spices to your liking.
To prepare the toppings, onions and lamb, which is best taken from the back of the ram or its thigh, should be thoroughly detailed with a knife, and the fatty fat should be frozen in the freezer first and then chopped well. After that, meat and onions are mixed in a bowl with salt, pepper and Asian spices. Then the dough is rolled out, divided into round or square cakes, and the filling is laid out in their center. Moreover, first cooked minced meat is placed, and then fatty fat is laid on top of it. After that, manti are steamed in cascans or a double boiler for 40 minutes. A dish seasoned with herbs and sour cream sauce is served.
Cooking manti stuffed with vegetables
If suddenly there is no money for meat, but you want to taste manti, you can cook this dish with vegetable filling. Most often, mashed potatoes are used for these purposes, but you can take cabbage, pumpkin, carrots and any other vegetables, which can also be combined with each other at your discretion. There are no special restrictions and clear recipes, so everyone can cook the vegetable filling at their discretion.
A dough for manti with vegetable filling is prepared according to the same classic recipe, although choux pastry is just as suitable. For filling, vegetables must be thoroughly washed and chopped, be sure to manually, and not with a grater or blender. Then the vegetables are salted, dressing is added to them in the form of vegetable or butter, spices, and then everything is thoroughly mixed. After this, it remains only to spread the filling on the cakes, pinch their edges in the usual way and steam over boiling water for 30-40 minutes. You can serve such manti with sour cream or tomato sauce, and you can just pour them with melted butter or frying onions with carrots.