"Pelmeni with sour cream and a quick spicy adjika sauce. So delicious, and especially when the weather turns cold and rainy! Mum would always start making these during autumn and winter. Our freezers would be full of them for fast dinners during the week. It was like our go to pasta meal except we’d have these perfect pelmeni made by mum. The filling for these that I made yesterday were half beef mince and half water buffalo mince. I’m finding most mince meat is so lean these days that it totally lacks in fat and the good stuff, so the buffalo mince that came directly from our friends farm was such a good addition (you can use beef, chicken or lamb mince, pork and beef together also works - but do try get good quality from a butcher you know and one that isn’t lean). I also added puréed onion, ground coriander, black pepper and salt of course. I will share the recipe tomorrow!"
Pelmeni with Adjika Sauce
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- Recipe Card
Prep time 1hr 30mins
Cook time 5mins
Serves or Makes: 6
Recipe Card
For the Pelmeni Dough
ingredients
- 4 cups (550 ounces) AP flour, plus 1 cup (150 grams) for kneading and rolling out the dough
- 2 cups water
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
For the Filling
ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef, lamb or pork
- 1 onion, blitzed into a roughly textured puree
- 1/2 cup water, or more if ground meat mixxture feels too dry
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
For the Adjika Sauce
ingredients
- 7 medium red bell peppers, cores removed and deseeded
- 4 fresno chilies, deseeded
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 1/2 ounces cilantro leaves and stems, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons coriander
For Serving
ingredients
- 1 ounce butter
- sour cream
- black pepper
For the Pelmeni Dough
Method
Step 1
Sift flour into a large bowl. Add the the eggs, salt and water. Using a large spoon or spatula, roughly combine the mixture for approximately a minute or until a textured dough forms. Use a bit of the extra flour to lightly flour a surface.
Step 2
Transfer the mixture onto this surface, coat your hands in some of the excess flour and knead the dough, adding as much or as little of the rest of the kneading flour and until the dough is smooth, soft, well combined and not sticking to your hands. Knead up to 10 minutes (try not to over over knead).
Step 3
Place the dough in a similar sized floured bowl and cover with plastic wrapping, a board or a plate. Let it rest for 30 minutes and make the filling while the dough is resting.
Step 4
After the dough has rested, place it onto a lightly floured surface and knead for another few minutes. Cut the dough in half if you have the space or in to 3 or 4 pieces if you prefer. Place a small bowl of extra flour next to you so that you can use it to sprinkle the flour whenever you need during the rolling out process.
Step 5
Roll the first piece of dough out into a large round shape, to do this – use the rolling pin to press down from the center of the dough and roll out to the edges, flip the pelmeni dough onto the other side before it’s too large and wide.
Step 6
Once the dough is thinly rolled out, use a sharp edged cup to press down and cut out circles in the dough (I just use a wine glass as I find the edges are nice and thin).
Step 7
Repeat the same process with all of the pieces of dough but only roll out each piece of dough once you’ve already filled and made pelmeni with the previous piece. There will be extra dough as well, that you remove once you cut out the little circles, just save those and knead them altogether and roll out last to make more pelmeni.
Step 8
Prepare several sheet trays by covering them in a layer of flour. Begin to make the pelmeni by filling each circle with ½ a tsp of filling, placing the filling on the stickier side of the pelmeni dough. Press it down lightly into the dough and fold each side together to create a half moon shape. Connect the ends together by pressing lightly with your fingers.
Step 9
As you make the pelmeni, place them onto the floured trays. You can even freeze the pelmeni directly by placing a tray or 2 full of them into a freezer then the next day remove the trays, transfer the frozen pelmeni into containers and place back in the fridge until using.
For the Filling
Step 1
While the dough is resting, make the filling. Place all of the ingredients for the filling into a medium mixing bowl and combine together thoroughly using your hands to ensure that all the ingredients are well mixed. Add more water than the above amount if you find that the meat mixture needs more moisture. Cover with a plate and set aside in the fridge.
For the Adjika Sauce
Step 1
Place the bell peppers, chillies and garlic into a food processor and blitz until a rough textured raw puree has formed.
Step 2
Transfer this mixture into a medium bowl and add the cilantro and ground coriander, along with the salt. Stir through and season to taste with extra salt if you like. Transfer into a jar and set aside until serving. Use as much or as little as you like for the pelmeni – you can easily store the rest of the sauce in the fridge to use at a later time.
For Cooking and Serving
Step 1
To cook the pelmeni, bring a large pot of water to boil, season well with salt and then add however much pelmeni you would like serve. Add them in and let them cook for approximately 3-5 minutes or until they have all risen to the top and are floating. To test if the filling is cooked through, you can quickly remove one and slice in half to see if its cooked or still a bit raw.
Step 2
Drain the pelmeni or transfer the cooked pelmeni from the pot into a large mixing bowl. Add some butter to the mixing bowl and coat the pelmeni, then divide onto individual plates.
Step 3
Serve with the toppings either on the side or straight away on the plates. Add a good spoonful of the spicy adjika sauce along with sour cream and a good sprinkle of crushed black pepper.