If you've never been to Central Asia, some of the food definitely makes it worth it. If you can't find the time to get yourself over to Dushanbe or Kabul, you should at least seek out some of these crazy-good dumplings.
We decided to make mantu after having some pretty awesome Afghan food. Aubrey lived in Tajikistan for a little while, and might have been feeling a little nostalgic. Warning: these are not for the faint of heart or those without a lot of time to cook. Lots of time, but definitely worth it.
The cooking part is pretty simple. You're gonna need:
1 lb ground beef (we chose a very low fat variety and didn't lose any flavor)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
2 large white onions, finely chopped
1 cup hot water
1 package wonton wrappers (bigger wrappers are easier to work with!)
2 tbsp tomato paste
6 or so tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic (Warning: we LOVE garlic, so you can tone it down if you prefer)
1 pint cherry tomatoes (you can use roma, but sometime you just work with what you have)
1 cup yogurt (we prefer 0% Fage, but choose your poison...just nothing sweetened)
1/4 tbsp dried mint
2 mashed garlic cloves (roast 'em for even more flavor)
Now you gotta steam 'em! 40-45 minutes (with a lid). Rubbing a bit of olive oil on the bottoms helps to keep them from sticking to the pan or each other.
We decided to make mantu after having some pretty awesome Afghan food. Aubrey lived in Tajikistan for a little while, and might have been feeling a little nostalgic. Warning: these are not for the faint of heart or those without a lot of time to cook. Lots of time, but definitely worth it.
The cooking part is pretty simple. You're gonna need:
1 lb ground beef (we chose a very low fat variety and didn't lose any flavor)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
2 large white onions, finely chopped
1 cup hot water
1 package wonton wrappers (bigger wrappers are easier to work with!)
2 tbsp tomato paste
6 or so tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic (Warning: we LOVE garlic, so you can tone it down if you prefer)
1 pint cherry tomatoes (you can use roma, but sometime you just work with what you have)
1 cup yogurt (we prefer 0% Fage, but choose your poison...just nothing sweetened)
1/4 tbsp dried mint
2 mashed garlic cloves (roast 'em for even more flavor)
Throw everything from the beef to the water in a pan. Make sure it's all mixed and wait for the water to evaporate off. (It's ok if it's not cooked all the way, we'll steam these buggers later. For cutting the onions, get yourself some glasses. You might look ridiculous, but your eyes will thank you!
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Once the water boils off, make some dumplings! Water helps the wontons stick together. We used about an 2 tbsp of beef for each of the small wrappers.
Place the beef in the middle of your wrapper and bring two corners of the same side together into the middle to form a triangular pocket on one side. Then, carefully bring in the other two corners and press then together to form a seal. This is the time consuming part of the process, but it gets easier as you get a hang of it.
We made an awesome tomato sauce to go along with the dumplings. Tomato paste, a pint of cherry tomatoes, and lots and lots of garlic. Sautee on medium-high until a bit charred and WAY fragrant.
And now for the yogurt sauce. Mix up the Fage, some roasted garlic, and mint! Yum!
After about 40 minutes, you end up with this beautiful sight!
We paired the mantu with some lemon and pine nut kale (one of our favorites, so ).
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| A to-go box for Lily! |
The mantu keeps really well for almost a week, although chances are it won't last nearly that long
Happy eating!
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