Ingredients
Units
Scale
- Dough:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. milk powder
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 cup water
- ***
- Filling:
- 1 lb. fatty ground lamb
- 1/3 cup whole pine nuts, toasted in olive oil
- 1/2 onion, minced
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, minced
- 3/4 cup Italian parsley, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 Tbsp. Aleppo pepper flakes (original recipe used smoked paprika)
- 1 tbsp Aleppo spice mix (Al-Bhar Al-Halabi), made by dry-toasting 500 grams white peppercorns, 200 grams black peppercorns, 100 grams cloves, 50 grams dry ginger, and 50 grams cardamom. Grind with 50 grams nutmeg and 50 grams cinnamon, then store in an airtight container.
- salt & pepper to taste
- ***
- Yogurt Sauce:
- 32 oz plain whole fat non-Greek yogurt, preferably goat’s milk – although wildly inauthentic, TFD loves to make this with Water Buffalo yogurt
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 cups water, may need more
- ***
- Garnish:
- 1 head garlic, cloves peeled and crushed in a garlic press
- 3 Tbsp. dried spearmint, crushed
Instructions
- First, prepare the dough by combining all the ingredients together. Initially pour the cup of water a little at a time. Cover and let it rest for 30 min as you prepare the filling.
- In a food processor, add the onion, garlic, and parsley from the meat filling and pulse. Add this mixture to the lamb and sauté in a pan with the seasonings. Cook till browned well. Add toasted pine nuts to the filling as well. Set aside.
- Once the dough is ready, cut the ball in half and roll out each half thinly, about 1 inch thick. Cut small circles into the dough using a cookie cutter or a small coffee cup. Spread out each circle and add 1 tsp. of lamb filling onto one side of the circle.
- Shape like an empanada pinching at the seams. Then pinch the ends of the dumpling together to look like tortellini. Repeat this step until all the dough is done.
- Place the dumplings onto a nonstick pan sprayed with olive oil. Bake in a 400 F oven for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Feel free to broil for a minute for more color.
- At this point, once the dumplings are cooled you can place them in a Ziploc and freeze them for another meal.
- For the yogurt sauce: process all ingredients in a blender.
- Add this mixture to a pot and place on medium heat. Keep mixing until the sauce starts to thicken about 10-15 min until it boils. If you want it thickened more, add a ladle of the yogurt sauce into a bowl and add more cornstarch to it and stir.
- Place back into the pot to thicken it – I like my yogurt thick enough to coat a spoon. Once at the consistency you prefer, add the dumplings and cook for 10 minutes together. They should be floating to the top.
- In a pan, sauté the garlic in olive oil until crisp. Add this to the yogurt sauce and garnish with dried mint as well. Enjoy warm! Note that the filling makes enough for exactly 2 batches of dough.
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
