TURKISH DUMPLINGS (Mantı)

I wouldn't have imagined making my very own mantı, not for a hundred years. But I did, and I still couldn't believe that I did even well after we finished eating. It wasn't that hard after all. Needless to say, this is one of the must-haves of the Turkish table. Best enjoyed around in central Anatolia or from a cook coming from the region. Mantı is usually prepared in bulk amounts, instead of boiling, are frozen in batches. Then, individual batches can be boiled right from the freezer. One trick in here, as I am told, is to freeze them on trays and then putting them in bags and returning back to the freezer. Otherwise, they stick to each other. So go on, start making your own mantı. If I can do it, so can you!

Ingredients:

• Minced meat, 150 g
• Flour, 200 g
• 1 egg
• 1 onion
• Yogurt, 250 g
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Paprika, 1 tablespoon
• Black pepper, 1/2 tablespoon
• Butter, 1 tablespoon
• Salt

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix meat, finely diced onion, paprika, black pepper and salt. Mix them thoroughly and knead by hand.
• In a separate bowl, sieve flour, add egg and pinch of salt. Start kneading by adding cold water gradually. The dough should be at a hard consistency. I added just a bit less than 100 mL water.
• With the help of a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a 0.5 cm thickness.
• Cut the dough sheet in 3cm x 3cm squares.

• On top of each square, add half a teaspoon full of the meat mixture.
• Close the square from opposing edges, by just applying pressure with the fingertips. (Beware that my mantı shapes, below, are not the ideal. Please remember that this is my first trial, and by nature I'm not very good in moulding.)

• In a saucepan, boil a plenty amount of water (3-4 L), add a pinch of salt and bring to boil.
• Add mantı to the boiling water in batches, and cook for 10 minutes. (They usually rise to the surface when they're done.)
• Collect the mantı with a slotted spoon on a plate.
• In a bowl, mix yogurt with crushes garlic and pour this onto the mantı.
• In a small pan, heat up butter with paprika for a minute, and then drizzle this onto the yogurt, on top of mantı.
• Enjoy while hot!