Turkish Dumplings - Manti

In Kayseri, hometown city of Turkish dumplings- when a couple is engaged to be married, the mother of the groom visits the bride's house and during this visit the bride should prepare manti for her prospective mother-in-law. The smaller the manti dumplings are, the more the bride is considered to be skillful in the kitchen. Traditionally the dumplings prepared for the prospective mother-in law are supposed to be so small that 40 of them can be scooped up with one spoon. But don't worry you don't have to be that ingenious if 4-5 of your dumplings fills a spoon then good enough! Here is manti recipe:

Turkish Dumplings - Manti  

Turkish Dumplings - Manti
Origin: Turkish
Difficulty: Hard

Ingredients:

For Dough:
-(Must) 3 cups all-purpose flour 
-(Must) 2 eggs
-(Must) 1 cup water
-(Must) 2 tsp salt

For Filling:
-(Must) 400 gr or equivalently ground beef
-(Must) 1 medium onion, grated
-(Optional) 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped 
-(Optional) salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

For Sauce:
-(Must) 2 cups plain yogurt
-(Optional) 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 
-(Must) 3 tbsp butter
-(Must) 1 tbsp tomato paste
-(Optional) Dried mint, sumac, red pepper flakes

Directions:

In a bowl or mixer combine all ingredients of dough, knead until dough forms a solid ball. If dough is sticky add additional flour, if dough is dry add more water, 1 tbsp at a time. Cover with a moist cloth when you are preparing the filling.

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients of filling. Knead until it's mixed well. 

Scrape the dough onto lightly floured surface, separate into three identical pieces. Roll the first dough as thin as you can about 40 cm (16 inch) caliber. Cut the rolled dough into 2x2 cm (1x1 inch) square pieces by a sharp knife. Place a piece of meat on each square as you may see below. 

Then take a piece of dough with meat and stick each corner together as shown below.

When you are done with folding, place each dumplings on a floured surface. For cooking, boil 5-6 cups water in a big pot and add salt. Then add all the manti into the boiling water. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent them sticking to each other. Make sure not to close the lid. Cook over medium heat till manti gets soft (for about 10-15 minutes).

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. In a bowl mix yogurt, salt and garlic. In a small pan; melt the butter/oil and stir in tomato paste and add some water from cooking manti to soften the tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes over low heat. 


Drain the cooked manti and transfer it into serving plates. Let it cool for a while and pour the yogurt sauce over. Finally pour some butter/paste mixture all over (adjust the amount as you like). And if desired sprinkle some dried mint, red pepper flakes and sumac over the Turkish Dumplings.

Turkish Dumplings - Manti  

Estimetad Nutrition Values  (by myfitnesspal.com)
Serves:6-8	Calorie	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar
Per Serving	371 kcal	42 gr	11 gr	24 gr	6 gr