Pan-Cooked Manty

February 25, 2012

pan-cooked manty

Manty is type of dumpling that is usually cooked in a multi-level steamer but it can be cooked in a pan as well. Pan-cooked dumplings are not as puffy as steamed dumplings and tend to have brown, crispy bottoms. Essentially, they taste just as good, if not better 🙂

Pan-Cooked Manty (Saç Mantysy)

For the dough

  • 500 g flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 200 ml water (approx)

For the filling

  • 1 kg minced beef or lamb
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 4 tablespoons water
  • salt
  • ground black and red pepper

For cooking the dumplings

  • butter
  • water

For the yogurt sauce

  • 200 g yogurt
  • 1 garlic clove, grated
  • 1 pinch dried mint
  • 1 pinch ground red pepper

To prepare the filling, mix together the meat, onion and water. Season with salt and ground black and red pepper.

To make the dough, combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add a small amount of water at a time and knead until you have a hard dough. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Keep one ball covered while you roll out the other ball on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 2 mm (1/16 inch). Fold the sheet in a zig-zag manner and slice the strip into squares. Unfold each square, stack the strips on top of one another and slice into squares again. (For pictures of how to slice dough into squares, take a look here.)

Spread the square sheets and place about a tablespoon of the filling in the center of each square. To seal the dumplings, take two opposite corners of the square and pinch them together in the middle. Repeat with the other two corners and then pinch the adjacent corners together. (To see these steps in pictures, click here.)

Grease a large pan with butter and place the dumplings in the pan. Add dabs of butter and enough water to immerse the dumplings halfway. Cover and cook over high heat for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to medium and cook until the water evaporates and the bottoms are golden brown. If you want the dumplings to taste more like steamed dumplings, turn off the heat before the bottoms are browned.

To prepare the yogurt sauce, grate a clove of garlic over a bowl of yogurt. Add the dried mint and ground red pepper and mix well.

When the dumplings are ready, transfer them to a serving dish and serve with the yogurt sauce or just season with pepper.