Ingredients
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- Dough Ingredients:
- 8 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups of ice-cold strained chicken stock that was flavored with 2 cloves of microplaned garlic
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- Filling Ingredients:
- 2 pounds ground yak (strongly preferred) or use 80/20 ground beef, grass-fed
- 2 cups minced baby bok choy
- 1/3 cup minced ginger
- 1/4 cup minced garlic
- 1 cup minced cilantro
- 1/2 cup minced green onion
- 1 1/4 cup minced red onion
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. beef bouillon powder
- 1/2 tsp. garam masala
- 1/4 tsp. freshly-ground cumin
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1/2 tbsp. emma or yerma. (Also called Szechuan pepper.)
- ***
- Sepen (Chili Sauce) Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup onion cut into 1/8-inch dice
- 6 tablespoons scallions, sliced paper thin
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 12-16 green and red Thai bird chiles, finely minced
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons safflower oil
- 2 pinches of Himalayan pink salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala spice blend
- 1 teaspoon ground emma (erma/yerma/Sichuan peppercorns) (optional but strongly recommended)
Instructions
- SEPEN – CHILI DIPPING SAUCE:
- Combine the onion, 4 tablespoons scallions, garlic and chilies in a mortar and pestle.
- Add 2 tablespoons of oil and mash everything to a paste. Add the soy sauce and mash again.
- Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in small pan. Add the scallions and cook 1 minute. Add the paste and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic. Add 4 tablespoons water and cook 30 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro, emma and cumin. Taste, then season with salt. Mix everything together and allow to macerate.
- Dough Preparation – start two hours before cooking.
- Mix flour and stock, forming a ball.
- Knead at least 5 minutes until dough is smooth and flexible.
- Place dough in a dish with a lid, or cover with plastic, or put in a plastic bag.
- Let rest for 2 or more hours so that the dough will be softer when shaping the shapale.
- Ultimately you want the dough to be soft enough to roll out and to stick together when you pinch together the edges of each shapale, and hard enough to form a smooth ball and not to stick to the rolling surface.
- Don’t worry too much if your dough is too hard or too soft. If too soft you can add some more flour and/or put more flour on your rolling surface. If it’s too hard, you can add more water and reknead. You don’t have to let it sit another two hours in that case.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin to about ⅛-inch thickness.
- Use an inverted glass or cut out circles (diameter of the circles is approximately 3 ½ inches, or 8 centimeters.)
- Set the circles of dough aside.
- As you cut out the circles you will be left with the dough outside the circles. Pick it back up, form it into a ball and repeat rolling it out until you have nothing left.
- Prepare the Filling:
- Place the ground meat in a large mixing bowl. Mince the ginger and garlic and add to the beef in the bowl.
- Chop the bok choy, cilantro, green onion, and onion and place in the mixing bowl.
- Add the soy sauce, salt, cumin, garam masala and bouillon to the bowl. Mix everything well.
- Fill and Shape the Shapale:
- Place a heaping tablespoon or so of filling on one circle of dough, then place a second circle of dough on top of the first one.
- Pinch the edges flat together very firmly — going all around the circle. This is important as you don’t want the juices to run out.
- Then, start anywhere on the circle, fold over a small piece of the edge, and pinch it down, repeating this all around the circle. This results in a crimped, pretty edge.
- Keep the shapale you have finished on a lightly oiled flat dish or surface, to avoid the dough sticking on to the surface. If the shapale are going to be sitting for a long time, you can place a damp cloth over them to keep them from drying out.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan until the oil is very hot and then place one layer of shapale in the pan and and lower the heat to medium. You don’t want to burn the outsides before the inside is cooked.
- Cook until golden brown on both sides, turning frequently. Cook about 6-7 minutes for each side, for a total of 12-14 minutes. The meat must cook through.
- Be prepared to turn the fan on or to open the windows as the cooking process can be quite greasy and hot.
- Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours