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Boiled Dumplings "Pelmeni"

My mother-in-law's recipe for juicy little dumplings that are much like eating a doughy soup pocket. This one is especially nice if you split the prep work between 2-3 people, with different people working to roll out dough, fill it with meat, and pinch the dumplings shut.

Recipe still in trial & error period.

Ingredients (calculated for “one portion”):

  • Flour as needed (about half of a 5lb bag of flour)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup (250ml) of water
  • Half a large onion (or one full smaller onion)
  • ¾ lb beef/pork (ideally 2:1 or 3:1 ratio)
  • Approx ½ or ¾ tsp salt, adjust as needed
  • 3oz Garlic (optional)
  • Black pepper, crushed red pepper, 21 seasoning salute

Directions:

  1. Sift flour. Start with approx. 1 cup flour.
  2. Beat egg and add the water. Beat together (enough water for it to be very pale yellow). Add to flour and mix.
  3. Mix will look very soupy. Start to add more flour (another 1-2 cups, approx.)
  4. Keep adding flour until it’s very lumpy and thick.
  5. Flour the table. Move dough ball from bowl to heavily floured table.
  6. Knead dough ball. Knead the flour into it. As much as it will take. When it’s ready, it won’t stick to your hands and won’t absorb any more flour (10-15 minutes?). Needs to be a LITTLE sticky for later steps, so go by feel. Should be a nice smooth dough ball.
  7. Cover dough ball in a bowl and leave it alone for 20-30 minutes.
  8. See how sticky the dough ball is. If it has gotten stickier, repeat step 6.
  9. Flour the table again. Find large platters or pans to temporarily hold the dumplings. Line with foil and sift flour over it to create non-stick surface (or use parchment paper)
  10. Dice (or process) the onion.
  11. Mix onion, salt, garlic, spices, and meat together.
  12. Put a little of the meat in a smaller bowl. Add a little water (maybe 150ml or less) and mix. Repeat for a small bowl of meat at a time so that any meat that’s leftover in the larger bowl can be repurposed into meatballs. Keep adding water until meat is pretty loose but still sticks. This helps make it juicy later.
  13. Slice off one dough piece and roll into ½ to 1 inch cylinder. Cut that into small slices.
  14. Coat slices in flour immediately after cutting them to prevent drying and coat rolling pin in flour, then roll the slices flat.
  15. Flour hands. Put meat in center of each slice. Fold in half. Pinch edges shut.
  16. Fold 2 points together and pinch, creating a circle. Pinch all the way around.
  17. Bring pot of water to a boil with LOTS OF SALT in the water, so it seeps into the dumplings.
  18. Drop in the dumplings. At the beginning of each round, be sure to scrape them off the bottom of the pot. At first they will all sink to the bottom, but after a few minutes they rise. After that, boil for 5 minutes. Then fish the dumplings out. Boil in small batches and stir so they don’t stick together.


Notes: Salt can be added to the meat or the water boiling the dumplings, but not the dough.

Recipe given by Tamara.