Russian dumplings, Belarusian vareniki, Uzbek manti, Georgian khinkali, Italian ravioli, Chinese dim sum and wontons, Polish pierogi, Indian momos, Filipino Siomai (Sio) -mai), Japanese gyoza (Gyoza), Korean mandu, Argentine empanadas are all relatives who have been scattered all over the world.
I want to share a recipe for vegetarian Polish dumplings (uszka), which are prepared for a special evening – the evening before Christmas. They are served with the festive beetroot soup.
Ingredients:
Dough:
- 300 g wheat flour
- a pinch of salt
- 200 ml boiling water
Stuffing:
- 40 g dry mushrooms
- 1 glass of water
- 3 shallots or 1 brown onion
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
Cooking method:
- Sift flour into a bowl, add salt. Mixing the flour with a spoon, add the boiling water gradually until the dough becomes of the desired consistency. Put the dough on a table, sprinkled with flour. Knead the dough for 6 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and soft. Put the kneaded dough in a bowl, cover with a napkin and let rest for 30 minutes. At this time, prepare the stuffing.
- For stuffing put the mushrooms in a small pot, pour 1 glass of cold water and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes (broth should not boil). Cut the onion into small cubes and fry in oil with a little salt until soft, stirring constantly. Cool it down.
- Drain cooked mushrooms (leave the broth for beetroot soup), finely chop, add salt and mix with fried onions.
To make the dumplings, you must first divide the dough into 3 parts and roll out it very thinly (1.5 mm). Cut a small circles using a glass or cooking ring with a diameter of 5 cm. On a half of circle lay out a little forcemeat, to protect edges, and then stick together the ends of a semicircle, rolling the edges round a finger. In the best dumplings the dough should be translucent. Put them on a board, sprinkled with flour and cover with a napkin.
- Boil the dumplings in salted water for about 1 minute after the floating. Then take out on a plate, laying them the way that they do not stick together. Allow to dry a little and serve with beetroot soup. Cooked dumplings can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 days or 1 month in the freezer.
Important:
- The most delicious and delicate ears are obtained when the dough is rolled so thin that the filling is visible.
