Dumplings are probably one of my favorite foods. In fact, I had momo (Nepalese dumplings) for dinner right before writing this. If I do another project after I finish this one, I would most likely try to cook different types of dumplings from around the world because there are just so many variations in flavorings and cooking methods for something as simple as dough wrapped around a filling.
Uzbekistan's version of dumplings is called manti, which are unique in the way the dough is folded over the filling to create a cool little envelope shape.
The filling is pretty basic: chicken (I used seitan), cilantro, cumin, and onion. Central Asian cuisine, that of the "-stan" countries generally doesn't include a lot of herbs and spices. The landscape simply doesn't support a lot of farming or trees, so meat is the main ingredient.
Still, I do particularly like cilantro/coriander and cumin, so it's not as if this mixture was flavorless. I often add something green--like chopped parsley or cilantro--to "meat"-forward dishes without many vegetables, because it tends to brighten the image considerably, even if it doesn't add flavor. Luckily, the cilantro adds both here. I used mostly chopped stems because they actually contain more flavor than the leaves and can stand up to cooking better.
The dough recipe is pretty simple as well, but most dumpling dough is. Along with the usual ingredients of flour, water, and salt, this dough also calls for an egg, which I think helps give it a nice chewiness. The recipe I used also called for milk, which I thought was probably unnecessary so I just used water--plenty of other recipes agreed with me.
The traditional way for rolling the dough involves wrapping it around a big rolling pin until it becomes a huge round sheet, then folding over itself like above and cutting. I only have a regular sized rolling pin, and a regular sized cutting board as a work surface, so I did what I could. There's a couple video examples here and here. It's amazing how thin they get it. Very satisfying to watch.
I usually have a problem of rolling things too thin, and not being able to work with the dough because it stretches and cracks too much, so I kept this dough fairly thick.
I probably should have rolled it a bit thinner to make a larger surface, because I then could only really cut it into rectangles, rather than squares. This definitely made it harder to do the right shape, but I was able to adapt and do my next batch better.
Once cut into squares/rectangles, the filling is spooned into the center of each.
Two opposite corners are folded in and pinched, then the other opposite corners are folded and pinched above the already joined corners.
The corners formed from folding and pinching are then brought together so that the entire thing is sealed and no more holes exist. I watched various videos to try to understand how exactly to fold them. It makes a lot more sense when you see it and do it yourself.
Some of my earlier attempts were not as successful as my later ones. I had Chris help me fold them so I wouldn't be there for too long hunched over my work surface. Once we got the hang of it, it didn't take too long.
In the beginning we just kind of squished together what we could if there were still openings left, so some of the first batch didn't have the classic shape that they should, but they tasted the same!
I'm not sure I would spend the time to create these shapes again, but they do look neat. These would normally be eaten with butter or sour cream. I definitely prefer more East Asian sauces (chili oil, soy sauce, etc) but I can see these being really nice in the winter, like pierogi.
Recipes Used: Uzbek Manti
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