My friend GW is a marvelous cook who also happens to be from Kazakhstan. I have eaten her cooking several times and wished I could capture her recipes for my blog. It finally happened! Not only that but she let me help with the preparation and it turned into a fun, social time that represented exactly what good cooking is.
She chose two dishes. The first was a bread popular in Kazakhstan, which we just called "Kazakh Bread." It is a slightly leavened bread that is stuffed with an onion, herb, and cheese mixture. The other was a steamed dumpling called Manti.
GW is experienced and knows her recipes by sight and by touch. She does not measure, and I did not ask her to. My notes list her ingredients and my description of her methods. Come, join us in our cooking adventure!
Kazakh Bread
GW made the dough ahead of time and she used these ingredients:
flour
sour cream
a little milk and water
salt
baking powder
She said she mixed the dough then let it rest for a while. She cut it into pieces and shaped them into rounds. Each round was rolled out until it was thin. She used flour to dust the pieces when she needed to, so they wouldn't stick.
Then she put on a spoonful of filling, which was a mixture of
herbs (this time she used basil, parsley, and cilantro), chopped
garlic, pressed
green onion, chopped
hard cheese (she used mozzarella), chopped
1 egg
She folded the dough around the filling to make a round. This is the stage where most of them were at when I arrived. They were resting, lightly covered, waiting for the final step.
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| Resting |
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| Rolled and ready to fry |
When she was ready to cook them, she heated some oil in a frying pan. Each stuffed round was rolled out fairly thin, so you could see the filling through the dough, but it was still mostly enclosed. Then she put the bread into the oil and fried it until golden brown on one side. It was flipped and fried on the other side.
The finished rounds, 5 to 6 inches in diameter were stacked on a plate. They stayed warm for quite a while!
GW put us to work preparing the main part of the filling, which was
beef, trimmed and chopped into small pieces
pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and grated
onion, grated
while she prepared the dough:
flour
water
salt, dissolved in the water
egg, beaten into the water
She mixed the dough by hand, adjusting the flour and water amounts until the dough was sticking to itself and cleaned the sides of the bowl. It was a soft dough and not very sticky. She let it rest, covered for about 10 minutes. Then she kneaded it until smooth.
The dough was cut into four pieces, kneaded some more, and shaped into balls.
Then each ball was cut in half, and the halves rolled into a log shape. The log was cut into pieces about the size of a large walnut. I noticed she would make a cut, then roll the log a quarter turn before cutting the next piece. Each piece was shaped into about 2 inch diameter rounds. She used flour to dust the dough as needed to avoid sticking.
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| You can see the balls, the logs, and the pieces (foreground to background) |
oil
pepper
salt
She commented that if the mixture was to sit while the dough was being prepared, you should wait to add the salt until just before you are ready to use it, or the filling gets watery.
The rounds were rolled thin, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, to prepare it for the filling. She showed us how to fill them: turn the round so the floured side was down, put in a generous spoonful of filling, then pinch the edges together in a specific pattern. Then she put everyone to work making the dumplings while she rolled the thin rounds. Great fun!
Here is the pinching pattern for the manti: fold opposite sides up and over the filling, and pinch them at the top, in the middle. Now the shape is roughly a rectangle, so go to the narrow sides and lift them up to form walls around the filling. Pinch the corners together (four corners, four pinches) to keep the sides up. GW said it was good to leave some of the filling showing so air could get out. At this point you have two choices. You can either bring up opposite corners over the middle and pinch them all together (one pair of corners is one pinch, then bring the other pair up and pinch again). This forms an enclosed ball that has a pretty gathering of dough at the top.
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| The first fold. A finished manti is towards the back. |
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| This is the Kazakh bread but the folding pattern starts off the same: this is pinching the corners |
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| The front one is the second choice of pinching, the back one is the first choice |
The manti were steamed for 40 minutes. When they were placed on a serving tray, GW put a little butter on the top. They were served, Kazakh style, with sauces. I was told many sauces are appropriate; here in the US we had tomato salsa and a pineapple-habanero sauce.
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| Buttering the manti |
What can I say other than these were wonderful! I tried one manti with no sauce and was astonished at the depth of flavor it presented. Remember, the filling was meat, veggies, salt, and pepper. The taste was rich, slightly meaty, a little juicy, and I would swear there were more spices in it, although I knew better. The dough around it was tender but not soggy. It held the filling well, without breaking. You could eat the manti by using a fork or by holding it with your fingers (once it cooled down!).
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| Heavenly, moist, flavorful |
I was given some manti to take home and when I served them, I put out a mango-ginger chutney that had a little cayenne pepper kick to it, and that also went well.
The Kazakh bread was also quite good. Frying it resulted in a fairly dense bread texture, but it was not oily or hard. The herbs and green onion flavors added a lovely lightness to the bread flavor, making the whole eating experience a fun blend of chewy, herbal, and rich. I couldn't taste the cheese but I suspect it contributed to the rich mouthfeel of it all.
It was a success for all who participated and I thank GW profusely for sharing her expertise and food with me. Kazakh food is good!
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