Homemade Russian Pelmeni

Hello, my name is Natasha and I'm addicted to dumplings. I've gone on a bit of a bender since last Friday when I found out we have a new Russian dumpling restaurant downtown. I have eaten some sort of dumpling every day but Monday.

Last night, Kelly and I made our own. I made meat-filled dumplings, and she made potato-filled perogies. What I loved about her perogies is she fried them up in butter after boiling them. Yum yum!

In the spirit of all things dumpling, I thought I'd better post my recipe for the Russian kind. I'm sure Russians don't use cilantro, but I despise dill and cilantro is what the restaurants here and in Juneau use anyway.

Makes about 30 dumplings

Ingredients for the dough:
1/4 cup warm water
1 egg
flour

Ingredients for the meat filling:
1/4 onion, chopped very finely
olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 lb. ground beef
salt and pepper

For the topping:
Butter
Curry powder
Siracha sauce (I don't know the actual name, cause we all just call it cock sauce)
Fresh cilantro
Sour cream

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and water. Incorporate flour till you have a soft, stretchy dough that isn't sticky to the touch. Knead on a floured surface for a couple of minutes, incorporating flour if it's still too sticky. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, coat a small frying pan with olive oil and turn to med-high heat. Add the onions and the curry and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and cook till onions are fragrant and translucent, about another 3 minutes. Let this cool off the stove while you combine the beef, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Once onions are mostly cooled, add to the beef and combine well.

Roll out the dough till it's thin like pasta dough. Using a biscuit cutter or the edge of a glass, cut circles out of the dough. Reuse the scraps as much as you can.

Add about a teaspoon of filling to each circle and fold it in half so it looks like a half moon. Crimp closed. The dough should be sticky enough to stay closed on its own without additional moisture.

Set each finished pelmeni on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

From here you could either boil the dumplings right away or place them in the freezer for later. If you freeze them, make sure to freeze them on the baking sheet before putting them in a ziploc bag or container. Otherwise they will stick together.

To prepare, bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dumplings and return to a boil. Cook until dumplings float -- about 5 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to remove dumplings and place them in bowls. Top with butter, curry powder, cock sauce, cilantro and sour cream. Enjoy!