BM # 44
International ABC Cooking
Cooking with Alphabets :R
Category : National Dish
Russia
Country
Russia or, officially known as the Russian Federation, is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic.
Traveling Around the World in 30 days today we are on Day 20 and our alphabet is R. I chose to cook a national Dish dish from Russia, which is Pelmini.
Pelmini is a type of dumpling which has a minced meat filling ,wrapped up in a unleavened dough. These are then boiled in water.
The word Pelmeni is derived from pel’n’an’ (пельнянь) – literally “ear bread” in the native Finno-Ugric Komi, Udmurt, and Mansi languages.
Pelmeni belongs to the family of dumplings, and are related to Ukrainian vareniki and Polish pierogi. In the United States and Canada, the term pierogi or perogis is often used to describe all kinds of Eastern European dumplings, regardless of the shape, size, or filling. Pelmeni are also similar to Mongolian buuz, Chinese jiaozi (Cantonese gaau) or Chinese húndùn (Cantonese won ton). They are cousins to the Turkish and Kazakh manti, the Nepalese and Tibetan momo, the Uzbek chuchvara, the Korean mandu, and the Japanese gyoza.
The most important difference between pelmeni, vareniki, and pierogi is the thickness of the dough shell—in pelmeni this is as thin as possible, and the proportion of filling to dough is usually higher. Pelmeni are never served with a sweet filling, which distinguishes them from Ukrainian vareniki and Polish pierogi, which sometimes are. Also, the fillings in pelmeni are usually raw, while the fillings of vareniki and pierogi are typically precooked.
The main difference between pelmeni and momos is their size—a typical pelmen’ is about 2 to 3 centimeters (0.79 to 1.18 in) in diameter, whereas momos are often at least twice that size.
I had made momos for Indian Odyssey, where I used ready shells, I even made Chinese wontons , but while making these Pelimini, I wanted to make sure that I roll the shell really thin and shape it up perfectly.I stuffed potatoes, but added a wee bit of cheese to it. Shaping the Pelmini was interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed wrapping these up.
Let’s get to the recipe..
Dough
1 cup flour
1/2 tbsp butter
Salt to taste
Luke warm water for binding the dough.
Bind the dough adding all ingredients.
Filling
Boil , peel and mash the potatoes.
In a pan add 1/2 tsp butter.
Add 1 tbsp finely chopped onion
Sauté for just a few seconds .
Add the mashed potato.
Add salt and pepper
I used onion salt along with some garlic powder.
Add chopped parsley , dill.
Add some cheese if you wish.
Make sure the stuffing is thick.
Divide the dough into two big balls.
Roll the first one and cut circles with the help of a round cookie cutter.
Cut all circles.
Place a tsp of potato filling in the centre of the disc.
Fold it over to form a crescent shape.
Press the sides firmly, if need arises use a bit of water.
Now taking the edges with both hands join them to make it look like an ear.
Prepare all pelminis.
These could be frozen and removed as and when required.
Heat a pot of water.
Adding salt let it boil well .
Start adding the Pelmini to the boiling water, as soon as it comes up let it boil for another 3 minutes, take it out.
Serve with mayo.
This is the modified version of Pelmini, for the original vegetarian version, check here.
The National Dishes that I served while traveling Around the World in 30 Days are..
Pelmini from Russia
Loved the first pic – very stylish and Elegant 🙂 Superlike !
You have shaped it perfectly…Lovely clicks!
Pelmini is just asking me to grab some and have rite now.. Russian wontons rocks and how beautifully you have prepared them, too good.
lovely presentation like always…they look similar to peirogis…
Those pelmini looks so cute Vaishali..enjoyed your sub themes, so much efforts..
Nice presentation and pelmini are very cute. The cover looks so soft and must have melted in the mouth.
Awesome! You shaped them so beautifully! You are a pro! Very well made.
wow thats an perfectly made pelmini , looks so tempting 🙂 I love potato filling a lot wud love to have them right away 🙂 lovely clicks , and love the way you have organised your sub themes .. kudos on the efforts !!
Perfectly made into cute shapes!! Great effort Vaishali!
Cute looking Pelminis.. They look awesome.
I have realized during this marathon that steamed dumplings are cooked through out the world with different fillings and under different names. 🙂
Pelmini are also looking cute.
I've had these many times. In addition to living near a Russian neighborhood where I can buy them frozen my best friend's husband is Russian and yours were shaped so perfectly
Beautifully shaped Vaishali. I love the filling too its awesome. Wish I could pop some in.
Nice to read about the different types of dumpling.We love dumpling and I am bookmarking this.You dumplings have been shaped perfectly Vaishali:)
So cute looking dumplings. Would love to try them.