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The Cooking Corner                                         by .... Vera Neroni

          It is time for cooking corner again! And I would like to start the this month with one of my familys favorite recipes that is as fun to make as it is tasty to eat. It is a traditional recipe variations of which are used all over the world I am talking about pelmeni. Pelmeni are similar to Italian ravioli, only they are larger, are half-moon shaped, and have more meat and thinner dough than in the traditional Italian recipe. This recipe was one of the ways Siberians, who depended on hunting for a living, stored their meat throughout the winter. This was possible because not only do the pelmeni freeze well, they sometimes taste even better when they have been pre-frozen, and can store in a frozen state for almost a year! Very large batches of pelmeni (up to a few hundred pounds!) were made at once.
          The following explanation does seem long, but it is just to explain the process in detail. There are actually so many ways to make pelmeni, there are cookbooks about it! To make pelmeni does not take that long, especially if you have some help dont be afraid to get your kids or even friends involved. When we make it at home, it becomes a family get-together. It is a great reason to socialize and gives one something to do on those long cold weekends. The pelmeni are great, whether served at your next party garnished with freshly chopped greens, and with lemon juice, sour cream, or vinegar as dips, or as a warm and steamy home-cooked meal for your whole family to enjoy. So here they are:

Pelmeni

Dough: 3 cups flour, ¾ cups warm boiled or filtered water, 3 eggs, 1 tsp salt (amount may vary to taste), 1 tsp sugar (optional)
Filling: 9 oz. Beef, 9 oz. Pork, 1 onion/green onion shoots, ½ cup cold boiled or filtered water or cold beef broth , 1 tsp salt or any other seasoning to taste, (like pepper, a steak seasoning, etc.)
          For making the dough: Sift the flour with the salt onto a smooth clean surface. Start adding the mixture of the liquids into the pile of flour in small amounts, trying to incorporate the liquid into as much flour as possible each time. After a while all the flour will be moistened; keep adding the liquid in small amounts, kneading the dough very vigorously after each time. The dough might seem soggy right after you add the mixture, but after you beat it for about minute, it takes in the moisture out, and more has to be added, actually. Keep adding the liquid until the dough becomes mixed throughout very evenly, soft enough to manage, but resilient to the touch, and very stretchy. I usually have 1 or 2 ounces left of the water mixture after the dough is done. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 30-40 minutes.
          For the filling: to save time, you can load all the ingredients into a good food processor with a meat-cutting blade, and ground them evenly, but not too finely. Add seasonings to taste. Now you are ready for the fun part.
          To assemble pelmeni, first you have to make thinly rolled circles of dough. You may roll out large portions of dough and cut the circles out with a glass, or roll out the pieces of dough separately. The dough should be very thin, approximately 1/32 of an inch, and look translucent (although I can almost never get it to that thickness its a thing of the pelmeni masters). While one person is making the circles, the others can be putting the filling by tablespoons onto the middle of each circle and sealing the meat tightly. There are many ways to do this, and in every region in Russia they have their own way. In our family we fold the circle over in half, squeeze the edges together all the way around, and gradually pinch the edge down as you would on a pie crust, until it looks like a braid. To make the process go faster, you could skip the braid the purpose is to make the meat and its juices stay inside the pouch, so as long as the pelmeni are tightly wrapped, you are fine. Also, when you are wrapping, please make sure there are no holes in the dough if there are holes, the meat tends to be hard after cooking. As you are making the pelmeni, put them onto a flour-dusted plate, and keep dusting between layers, so they dont stick together.
          To cook the pelmeni, bring a large pot of salted water or broth (for better flavor) to a boil, and load you pelmeni into the pot. They will be ready when they float to the top. Take the pelmeni out with a strainer (you could use the water for soup later, if you would like), and serve hot, drizzled in butter, with lemon juice, vinegar and sour cream in separate dishes to be used as a garnish. You could also add a small salad made of coarsely chopped tomatoes and cucumbers in sour cream to add some refreshing color and a burst of vitamins.
          If you feel you have made too many pelmeni, feel free to freeze them before they are cooked; they keep in a freezer for a very long time. I hope you enjoy trying this wonderful dish!!
A fun fact about pelmeni:

          To make the dish a little more interesting people used to make fortune-telling pelmeni: when shaping, instead of meat, they would be made with bread, pepper, a coin, or even a piece of hair! Finding bread meant you were the kindest in the family, pepper meant a fiery attitude, and a coin meant good luck. The hair was for a long life but just think about finding hair in your food!

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