Siberian Pelmeni Dumplings
Pasta, Russian
Ingredients
For the dough:
3 cups (1 lb 8 oz/700 g) Italian “00” flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
generous 3/4 cup (200 ml) water
For the meat filling:
9 oz (250 g) ground pork
9 oz (250 g) ground beef
1 onion, very finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the fish filling:
12 oz (340 g) skinless salmon fillet, cut into small pieces
12 oz (340 g) skinless trout fillet, cut into small pieces
12 oz (340 g) skinless cod fillet, cut into small pieces
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated
bunch of chives, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the mushroom filling:
14 oz (400 g) mixed mushrooms (wild mushrooms or a mixture of white and cremini mushrooms)
1 onion, quartered
2 garlic cloves
small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
dash of soy sauce
generous 1 cup (51/2 oz/150 g) pine nuts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the cooking broth (optional)
1 bay leaf
1 vegetable, fish, or meat bouillon cube, according to your filling
To serve:
unsalted butter (if serving without the cooking broth)
chopped fresh herbs
sour cream
freshly ground black pepper
Directions
To make the dough, sift the flour onto a clean, dry work surface. Make a well in the middle and add the salt, eggs, and measured water, gradually mixing the flour into it with your hands to form a firm dough. Knead well for 5–7 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare your fillings.
To make the meat and fish fillings, thoroughly mix the respective ingredients together in separate large bowls.
To make the vegetable filling, finely chop the mushrooms, onion, garlic, and parsley in a food processor. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the vegetable mixture with the soy sauce for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Let the mixture cool before handling.
The dough should be ready by this point. Take it out of the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured work surface. For best results, use a pasta machine, since you need to make sheets that are about 1.5 mm thick, which you will get by using a number 7 setting on your pasta machine.
Using a shot glass or cookie cutter, cut out discs of dough about 1 1/2–2 1/2 inches (4–6 cm) in diameter. Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each disc and fold in half to make a half-moon shape, then fold again so that the edges of the half-moon are stuck together.
The dumplings can be cooked immediately or frozen to be cooked at a later date using the same method as below, increasing the cooking time as necessary.
To cook, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, adding the bay leaf and bouillon cube. Add the pelmeni, in batches, to the boiling broth and cook for 5 minutes per batch. You know they are ready when they float up to the surface.
Ladle your pelmeni into soup bowls with the cooking broth, topping them with fresh herbs, sour cream, and black pepper. If you prefer to have them without the broth, transfer them to the bowls using a slotted spoon and add a generous dollop of butter as well as the rest of the serving ingredients. This makes around 10 servings of dumplings, but if that’s more than the number of mouths that you have to feed, they freeze well kept in flat layers in a freezer bag.