March 6, 2010 in Recipes · No comments

NOTE: THESE RECIPES ARE CURRENTLY BEING RE-TESTED FOR MY PCC COOKS CLASS PACKET, SO THIS VERSION MAY NOT BE UP TO DATE.

Back in December, when I posted the Olivier salad recipe, my goal was to post one new recipe each month. That is still my goal… I am just not achieving it. I have a million excuses for not posting more regularly, but none of them seem good enough right now, so the only thing I will say is “better late than never,” and then I will give you these recipes for pelmeni and vareniki. (Yes, I am trying to make up for the prolonged silence by posting two recipes instead of one. Although it’s more like one and a half recipes, since the dough part is the same, only the fillings are different. Oh well.)

First, a bit of background…

What are pelmeni?

Pelmeni are small dumplings consisting of seasoned ground meat wrapped in a dough pocket and shaped similarly to tortellini (occasionally, you’ll see semi-circular or hexagonal pelmeni – this usually means they were made by a machine or with a special pelmeni-making device that some people use at home). Pelmeni are cooked in boiling water and served hot. They are thought to have descended from Chinese wontons or pot stickers. In Russia, they first became popular in Siberia, where they are still a favorite dish, especially during the cold months. Eventually pelmeni spread all across Russia.

In Russia, you can buy a pack of frozen pelmeni at nearly every grocery store, and you will have a hot meal minutes after coming home. There are also cafes (called pelmennye) that specialize in pelmeni. However, homemade pelmeni are considered superior to the store-bought or restaurant ones. They are somewhat time-consuming to make, but if you have a couple of hours, you can make hundreds of pelmeni and store them in the freezer for months, pulling out and cooking as many as you need for dinner that night.

What are vareniki?

Vareniki are essentially a vegetarian version of pelmeni (although there is a version that is filled with meat that’s been cooked, then ground into a paste and mixed with sautéed onions). Unlike pelmeni, they are not very common in Siberia but are quite popular in western parts of Russia and are also widespread in Ukraine. Traditional fillings for vareniki include mashed potatoes with sautéed onions (see recipe below) ; tvorog (Russian farmer’s cheese); cherries; and cooked buckwheat (kasha). Just like pelmeni, vareniki can be made ahead of time and frozen until ready to cook.

And now the recipes:

Pelmeni filling

1 lb ground meat (50/50 mixture of beef and pork is traditional; you can also try lamb, chicken, or turkey or any combination of the above. If using chicken, turkey, or beef, increase the amount of onion or consider adding some chopped fresh herbs for extra moisture. You can even add some water to the filling.)

½ medium onion

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Finely grate the onion or chop it into very small pieces in a food processor. Add it to the ground meat along with salt and pepper and mix everything very well; using your hands works best. If you have leftover filling, you can freeze it until you are ready to make another batch of pelmeni or use it to make meatballs, chili, hamburgers, kotlety (Russian-style burgers), etc.

Vareniki filling – potatoes and onions

2 large potatoes

1 medium onion

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Vegetable oil or butter for sautéing onion

Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks, and boil until tender. Drain and mash. Peel and trim the onion and chop coarsely or finely, as you prefer (I like approximately ¼ inch pieces). Sauté the onion in vegetable oil or butter until tender, translucent, and lightly browned. Add to the mashed potatoes, season with salt, sugar, and black pepper, and mix well. Let the mixture cool before filling the vareniki.

If you have leftover filling, it can be frozen. As I learned through personal experience, you will not be able to use it for another batch of vareniki because it will become watery once defrosted, and, even if you drain it, the excess liquid will still prevent the edges of the dough from staying closed. However, you can use it to make Russian potato patties known as kartofelniki or kartofelnye kotlety. Mix the leftover filling with an egg, a few tablespoons of flour, and another sprinkle of salt and pepper to form a mixture that is thick enough to be shaped with your hands. Form round patties about 2 to 3 inches across and ½ inch thick, coat in flour or breadcrumbs if desired, and fry in vegetable oil until browned on both sides. Serve with sour cream or your favorite sauce.

Dough ingredients

2.5 cups all-purpose flour (plus a few more tablespoons as needed)

½ cup water (plus a few more tablespoons as needed)

1 egg

1 tsp salt

Making the dough

Mix the flour with the salt in a bowl, turn the mixture out onto a clean, dry surface such as a very large cutting board or a tabletop and shape into a mound. Make a hole in the middle and break the egg into the hole. Gradually add the water as you mix the dough with your hands. It will look like a mess at first, but the dough will come together after a few minutes of mixing and kneading. (Alternately, you can start by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then turn the dough out onto the table or cutting board for kneading. It’s a little less messy this way.) You may need to add up to a few tablespoons of flour and/or water if your dough is too dry or too wet. Keep kneading until the dough no longer sticks to your hands and is smooth, elastic, and not too tough. (If the dough does become too tough, cover it with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rest for about 20 minutes, which should make it more pliable.)

Making the dumplings

Divide the dough into several portions and roll one out with a rolling pin on a very lightly floured surface, turning the dough over several times. Keep flattening and stretching the dough until it is about as thick as 10 sheets of paper. Use a cookie cutter or a thin-rimmed glass 2 to 3 inches across to cut circles out of the dough. (I use SVALKA wine glasses from IKEA, which are 2.5 inches across, and they work very well.) The scraps of dough that are left over after you cut out the circles can be mixed with your next piece of fresh dough and used again – but don’t reuse them too many times or they will make the dough too tough.

Another method is to shape the dough into “sausages,” slice them with a knife, and roll out each slice individually to the required thickness and size. Personally, I find that this takes longer and does not produce uniformly-sized dumplings.

Place about ½ tsp of filling at the center of each circle, fold the dough over to make a half-circle, and pinch the edges closed. (Your seam won’t hold if there is too much flour on the dough or if you accidentally get it wet. If the dough is floury, moisten the edges very lightly with a drop of water; if it is wet, add a tiny bit of flour.) Now bring the ends of the half-circle together until they overlap a little and pinch them closed to form a tortellini-like shape.

Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, placing the finished pelmeni or vareniki on a lightly floured surface and making sure they aren’t touching each other. At this point, you can either cook them or freeze them for later use.

The above dough recipe makes anywhere between 50 and 100 dumplings, depending on the size of your dough circles, the thickness of your dough, and whether or not you reuse the dough that’s left over after you cut out your circles. A typical main-course serving is about 15 dumplings.

Cooking the dumplings

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add pelmeni or vareniki and stir so they don’t stick to the bottom. If cooking pelmeni, you can add a couple of bay leaves to the pot. Technically, they are ready once they float to the surface, but I usually cook them for 2-5 more minutes (about 5 minutes for pelmeni because of the raw meat and about 2 minutes for vareniki).

Freezing the dumplings

Place pelmeni or vareniki on a cookie sheet and freeze until they are hard to the touch, about 30 minutes. Quickly (before they have a chance to thaw out and stick to each other) transfer them to a plastic bag and return to the freezer, where they can be stored for up to several months. Use several plastic bags or a heavy-duty Ziploc bag if you plan to store them for more than a couple of weeks.

Serving

Vareniki are served drained, while pelmeni can be served either drained or with the cooking water, which becomes a light broth after the pelmeni are cooked. Vareniki are usually served with butter or sour cream (or mayonnaise, if your vareniki are filled with pre-cooked meat). Toppings for pelmeni are more varied and can include one or more of the following:

Butter

Sour cream

Mayonnaise

Chopped fresh herbs such as dill or parsley

Chopped green onions

White vinegar

Hot mustard

Hot chili sauce

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