Whenever we celebrate a birthday, the birthday person gets to choose their birthday dinner.  We all choose something that we can make at home, no one ever chooses to go out to eat.  We prefer to make it ourselves, together!  Kelly usually chooses spaghetti with sauce and apple pie.  Sometimes she broadens her horizons.  This year’s choice was pelmeni and Key Lime pie.  Pelmeni are little Russian dumplings, reminiscent of tortellini. Kelly fell in love with them during the year she spent in Russia.  They can be filled with just about anything. Kelly’s favorite at the Moscow pelmeni restaurant she frequented was filled with mushrooms.

We stuck to a more traditional pork-lamb mixture for the ones we made for Kelly’s birthday.  Our version combines recipes from The Nourished Kitchen website and the book, A Year of Russian Feasts by Catherine Cheremeteff Jones.

Pelmeni, Traditional Siberian Dumplings

Dough:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups flour plus about a cup to assemble the pelmeni
  

  Pelmeni & Pelmeni, Kelly’s favorite pelmeni restaurant in Moscow.

Filling:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 pound ground lamb
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Cooking broth:

• 2 cups water or broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 whole peppercorns

Start with the filling:  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined.  Refrigerate the meat mixture until the dough is ready.

Prepare the dough:  Break the eggs into a measuring cup and add enough water to make one cup.  Pour it into a large bowl and whisk the egg-water mixture until it is fluffy.

Add the salt and flour and mix the dough with a wooden spoon until it begins to come together.

Using your hands, knead the dough on a floured pastry board until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth.  Form the dough into a ball and cover it with plastic wrap.

Using a pasta machine, cut fist sized chunks of dough off and run it through the well-floured pasta machine on successively closer settings until you have a thin dough. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter (or a standard sized drinking glass) to cut out circles of dough.

Fill each circle with a scant teaspoon of filling.

Fold the circle in half over the filling and pinch the edges closed, then bring the two corners together in the front, pinching them together.  (If the edges are not staying together, wet one edge of the circle with water before folding it in half.)

Place the folded dumplings on a floured tray. They can be cooked immediately or they can be frozen at this point.  Once the pelmeni are completely frozen, transfer them from the tray to a freezer bag for up to a month.

To cook the pelmeni, boil 2 cups of water or broth with a pinch of salt, a bay leaf and 5 peppercorns.  Once the water or broth is boiling, add up to 20 pelmeni at a time.  Cook for about 3 minutes for fresh pelmeni or 5 minutes for frozen pelmeni. The pelmeni will float when they are done. Pelmeni can be served as a soup if it is boiled in broth or they can be drained before serving if they are cooked in water.  Serve the pelmeni with sour cream, fresh dill or hot mustard and don’t forget the vodka & pickles!

Happy Birthday, Kelly!  Love you!     ~Linda

Pelmeni, Traditional Siberian Dumplings

Dough:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups flour plus about a cup to assemble the pelmeni

Filling:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 pound ground lamb
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Cooking broth:

• 2 cups water or broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 whole peppercorns

Start with the filling:  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined.  Refrigerate the meat mixture until the dough is ready.

Prepare the dough:  Break the eggs into a measuring cup and add enough water to make one cup.  Pour it into a large bowl and whisk the egg-water mixture until it is fluffy.

Add the salt and flour and mix the dough with a wooden spoon until it begins to come together.

Using your hands, knead the dough on a floured pastry board until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth.  Form the dough into a ball and cover it with plastic wrap.

Using a pasta machine, cut fist sized chunks of dough off and run it through the well-floured pasta machine on successively closer settings until you have a thin dough. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter (or a standard sized drinking glass) to cut out circles of dough.

Fill each circle with a scant teaspoon of filling.

Fold the circle in half over the filling and pinch the edges closed, then bring the two corners together in the front, pinching them together.  (If the edges are not staying together, wet one edge of the circle with water before folding it in half.)

Place the folded dumplings on a floured tray. They can be cooked immediately or they can be frozen at this point.  Once the pelmeni are completely frozen, transfer them from the tray to a freezer bag for up to a month.

To cook the pelmeni, boil 2 cups of water or broth with a pinch of salt, a bay leaf and 5 peppercorns.  Once the water or broth is boiling, add up to 20 pelmeni at a time.  Cook for about 3 minutes for fresh pelmeni or 5 minutes for frozen pelmeni. The pelmeni will float when they are done. Pelmeni can be served as a soup if it is boiled in broth or they can be drained before serving if they are cooked in water.  Serve the pelmeni with sour cream, fresh dill or hot mustard and don’t forget the vodka & pickles!