Mants

Mants

Today, I'll introduce you a recipe for mants - excellent combination of meat and dough. It is traditional dish of people Central Asia, but Russians cook it in their own way (little difference). Mants are relatives of Italian ravioli. Usually, we cook this dish on high days and holidays.

Ingredients for dough:
flour - 1 ½ cup
water - 1/3 cup
1 egg
kefir or plain yoghurt - ¾ cup
salt - 1/2 tsp.

Ingredients for filling:
Beef or pork (you use both) - 500 g
onion - 3 cloves
slab bacon - 2 tbsp.

Step 1: Combine flour, yoghurt (kefir), egg, salt and water - make dough. Unroll from it long plait and divide it into equal parts about 20 g. Roll out these parts into circles but make edges thinner than centre;


Step 2: Make or buy minced meat. In the right way, you must cut meat yourself into small pieces - than dish will be unbelievable savoury. Add to minced meat finely diced onion, a little cold water, season salt and pepper and mix it very thoroughly. For better taste, add garlic and fine chopped greens of parsley and fennel.

Step 3: Forming mants: put our meat filling to the centre of dough circles and nip dough edges as shown in figure.


Step 4: Ready mants put on greased layers of steamer and cook about 35-40 minutes.

Step 5: Cooked mants serve with sour-cream or slice of butter.


Bon appetite!

Vareniks with cherry

Vareniks with cherry

Today I'll tell you great summer recipe - envelopes with cherry. Or we call it in Russia as varenik with cherry. This dish is very bright and savoury so you can surprise your children and get them into a good mood (if you need, of course).
We make a dough from: 3 cups flour, ¾ cup cold water, ½ tsp. salt, 2 eggs;
For filling: 700g cherry (you can take frozen cherry, of course, unfreeze it before cooking), 200g sugar.

Step 1: remove pits from cherries for filling and cover it with sugar. Leave it for some time;


Step 2: Make very cold water for our dough;
Step 3: Combine flour, salt, whipped eggs and cold water. Knead the dough till it'll not stick to hands. Cover the dough a damp napkin and leave for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Roll out the dough in a sheet thickness about 3 mm (not less because cherry filling is rather juicy so the dough can tear easily). Cut circles out dough sheets by mug in diameter not less than 6 sm.


Step 5: In a centre of every circle put one teaspoon of filling. Don't put too much filling, because it will prevent connection of edges.


Step 6: Connect edges as plait or press them by folk. If you'll make edges as a plait, make them thinner than centre because thick edges can be half-done and will not tasty.


Step 7: Boil water, add salt at taste, drop there vareniks. Cook about 8 minutes. As soon as they will emerge, catch vareniks and serve up a table with sour-cream.

Note: You can make different fillings. For example, mash potato and onion, curd, other berries, potatoe and mushrooms, cabbage and so on.

Morning breakfast

Hello, everybody!

Today was a great morning and wonderful day. You could ask me: why? Nothing especial - I just had fine mood and sunny warm weather! Sometimes such simple things can be the best stimulus to make something unusual or just pleasant. So, today I don't know why but I've woken up before my parents and have decided to give a treat them with something tasty. My mother dislikes too sweet cakes so I've opened a refrigerator and have found there a curd. My first think - curdy pie….


If you found about 200 g. of curd, you need to find and: 1 egg, 1/2tsp. salt, 3tbsp. sugar, 1/3tsp. baking powder, also 30g. of flour.

1 Step: take 1 egg and break it in a bowl;
2 Step: add there half teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoon of sugar;
3 Step: then add take 1/3 teaspoon of baking powder;
4 Step: mix it all together thoroughly in the bowl;
5 Step: take 200 g. of curd and 30g. of flour, mix them and join to our mixture in the bowl - such way we make a dough;
6 Step: then we put our dough to a deep thick-walled greased pan;
7 Step: bake it till gold-brown crust (t=2000C)


Note: You can increase pie portion increasing quantity of these products.
Note: If you have raisins, you can add it in the dough (as in the picture)
Note: Curd is very health-giving. It delivers an organism the high-quality fiber containing amino acids. Besides, curd contains such important substances for an organism, as a dairy acid, calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium and vitamins. At the same time it contains only 3 % of carbohydrates. The major advantage of curd is purine absence which it is a lot of in meat and a fish.