Manti is a wonderful
Turkish dish. I've found it classified as a
pastry dish, and that might be the best category to put it under. It is an
entree, and usually served with no other courses. The dish is composed of small pieces of meat contained in a cooked dough covering and served with a garlic yogurt and red pepper/butter sauce. This is a dish that makes my mouth water, and perhaps my favorite Turkish dish. Anytime that I'm in Turkey and I actualy get the chance to choose what I want to have, Manti is probably the first thing out of my mouth(the other two being
Çi Borek and
Kisir).
Ingredients
Dough:
Alternative for Dough
Since my mother has lived in America for such a long time, and the creation of dough can be a rather time-consuming job(just making the rest of the dish is time-consuming), she found some shortcuts for many Turkish dishes. For manti, she found out that Egg Wonton dough that one can buy in most grocery stores, works well for the dough. If you take this approach I recommend about 2 packages of the Egg Wonton dough. Any changes from this recipe will be marked in an indented paragraph like this one.
Meat:
Sauce:
Instructions
Dough:
Sift the flour in a large bowl, keeping 1/3 cup for later. Add the salt, and mix. Make a hole in the center of the flour and empty the eggs and water into it. Knead well, until the dough is smooth. Seperate dough into three balls and cover each with a damp napkin/cloth. Let stand for 10 minutes.
One will skip this entire part if doing using Egg Wonton dough.
Meat:
Combine ground meat with minced onions and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, and mix. Set aside.
Combination:
Roll the first ball of dough into a thin circle(approximatly 1 mm thick) while sprinkling it with flour. Cut into small 1 inch squares. Place a small amount of meat onto each square(approximatly 1/2 teaspoon). Bring two opposite corners together and squeeze together, then repeating with remaining corners. Place each bundle on a lightly floured baking pan. Repeat with remaining balls and filling(if you have meat left over, congratulations you have some very good Turkish style ground meat that can make good
Şiş Kebabs, also known as
Shish Kebab). Place water(sometimes meat broth) in large saucpan and add salt. Bring to a boil. Stir in the bundles, mixing gently. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for about 15-20 minutes or until tender yet firm.
Simply skip the first sentence of this part, and you should be fine.
Sauce:
Combine minced tomato and margarine in a saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in red pepper and keep warm. Combing yogurt and minced garlic(not in saucepan) and mix well.
Serving:
Remove manti from liquid and put into a serving bowl, with preferebally a spoon that allows easy draining. Serve into bowl, or bowled plate. Allow each person to decide whether they wish to have the yogurt and/or sauce. Iyi yemiklar! (May you have a good dinner!)
Sources:
Turkish Cusine -
http://www.dominet.com.tr/turkey/recipes.html.
Turkish Cusine -
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/TurkishCuisine/cuisine.html.