My Pelmeni - Seiberian Meat Dumpling Adventure

The name of this dumpling caught my attention - "Siberian".     How often do I cook Siberian dish? This is my first try.    One of my favorite blogger, Nobleva made this.    When I saw the photos, I wanted to try.   Nobleva is a great cook, I can tell from her recipes.    And her photos are gorgeous.   Check them out at:    http://nobleva.blogspot.com/2011/10/pelmeni-siberian-meat-dumplings.html 
To make this Pelmeni, I was bit amused  to see how 'familiar' this dish is.    I think you know what I mean without me explaining.    And I noticed my 'learned way' of folding the Pelmeni kicked in as soon as I held the rolled out dough in my hand and filling it with the meat mixture.    I could not help myself, but fingers just start forming the supposedly the Pelmeni the Chinese style.... geeweez!  give me a break.    It's Pelmeni, not GYOZA, but my fingers won't form it the way I want to like Nobleva's.    I think the next time, I will try to make it much smaller like the small wonton size.    That might work.    And also to purchase a much fatter meat.    I used half pork and half beef.   But I am so accustomed to grab a lean meat package when I shop, it was a mistake.   I forgot that the natural meat fat gives this dish its mouthfeel and taste.    It will also alter the looks of the meat filling of the final product.    Mine definitely looks dry.  

 

When I found out about it after making the first batch, I improvised to mix the meat fillings with vegetables - chopped up napa (liquid squeezed out) and the other half with cooked eggplants.     Luckily I was able to redeem it.
Pelmeni with Eggplants  Medley, I baked previously.

 Then, I made Bechamel sauce, sauted chopped mushrooms with garlics, and I added chopped fresh cayenne pepper from my garden.

Okay, so the whole cayenne on the top as a garnish is a bit overkill.    Maybe a chopped cayenne sprinkled on top would have been better.   The taste?   The bechamel sauce gave the dry meat due to 'lean' meat I used a better mouthfeel.    The fresh cayenne pepper gave it some kicks to open your appetite and wants the second and third bites to counter the bechamel sauce that sometimes would give the 'full' filling right away before the next bite.    Sauteed mushrooms added the interesting textures and enhanced  the taste of the creamy bechamel.

Indian Flavor - Chappati

I purchased this 25lb bag of Chappati flour quite a while ago when I found it at COSTCO.     I did not read what the label said, but I thought this maybe the secret ingredient to make my favorite NAAN.    I can eat 2, 3, 5 NAAN before I even start eating the main dish.    NAAN is such a great comfort food.   But the sack of flour sat there for many months.    My kitchen lab project wondered off to do all other things, except this bag of Chappati flour.    Then, during my Mediterranean food adventure in my class, the flat bread idea starts to warm up again.    After doing some research and learning how this Chappati flour is used for, I got my hands in making this new simple bread called Chapati.      The ingredients are so simple.   Chappati flour and water with a bit of salt.       

 The rest is all in the kneading and rolling technique.    With some gods' interventions, the thin flat dough would puff up - separating itself from the bottom and top layer as though I have intentionally rolled two pieces of doughs together.   

It is a perfect accompaniment to serve with a bowl of chicken curry, etc.    Unfortunately, I did not have anything to dip it into.     Remembering one of my favorite old movie "Thief of Baghdad" and my favorite actor - SABU eating one of this hot stolen bread or the pancake with honey, I did the same - brushed it with clarified butter and honey from the local bee farm - orange blossom honey.  

   Cooking it was a bit time consuming as I did not have the particular flat iron pan to make it in.    I used my iron skillet, instead of the tawa.   As soon as the dough starts to show some tiny bubbles, it's a sign that the dough has become a bit stiffer - within 30 seconds -  I transferred it directly over the gas flame.     

The heat builds up steam within the dough and starts to separate itself from each other and balloons up.     What a fun to watch them puff up like a inflated hot air balloon.     Out of the 24 chapati, I managed to have one chapati that puffed up pretty much all the way around.    

If I find a burnt hole with steam escaping, I placed the flat surface of a wooden spatula or large spoon with long handle and place it over the hole.    Immediately the steam distributed to the other part of the dough and started to lift the rest.     I've seen other bloggers with a perfect spherically risen chapati.    The key is truly as many  bloggers pointed out is to roll the dough out completely flat and evenly  -- "EVENLY" is very important.     You see what a difference it makes when the dough is rolled out evenly or unevenly.                              (Unevenly rolled dough)

                                       (Thin and evenly rolled out dough)

Serve it as soon as it comes off the stove.   

I noticed, it would change to 'cracker' like crumb when it cools and bit tough to bite into --- this maybe because I am not doing it right?  or the dough mixture needed bit more liquid. . . . . . . .back to the kitchen lab and test some more.    The next time, I will try to make the Poori - fried bread. 

Polly's Arancine Adventure

Arancine,   arancini,   suppli al telefono,   rice croquettes?      I never heard of these words until I watched the foodnetwork's Iron-Chef America challenge a while back.    The secret ingredient was the Mozzarella.      I was very thrilled with this particular show because of the products the chef challengers were making.     Arancine,   Italian rice croquettes,  or the suppli al telefono were some of the names mentioned.     While I could not associate the words to anything I have ever tasted,  I was just totally excited with joy to have found the food that I promised to myself at the age of five that I will  find out what it is.      Arancine is a childhood mystery that was implanted in my memory after watching this Sunday summer foreign movie festival when I was five.       I only spoke Japanese, then.     The movie was in Italian.     I have no clue what the movie was about, except one scene - a boy met a father at a waterfront restaurant.      They sat down, and they were chatting.     Then,  a waiter came and took the order.     After a while,  the waiter reappeared,  and the boy was in joy clapping the hands.      I was puzzled with his excitement.     The waiter served a plate with round fried balls.    The boy and father pick one up,  and bite into it.     Then,  what I saw were two people stretching this fried balls as far as their arms would allow and with big smiles.      Then,  I noticed this long white stringy gooey thing stretching out from the ball to the bite in the mouth.   That's when I promised to myself that I will get one of those some day.      I am going to eat it and have fun eating it.    Eleven years later,  when I first ate Pizza,  believe it or not - in Viet-Nam, at one of the church's Friday fellowship,  I saw the gooey cheese,  I was very intrigued,  but I know that was not exactly the ones as it is not in the ball shape.       Then,  if you all recall,  someone came up with the fried Mozzarella sticks that you can find in the frozen food section.      But,  again,  believe it or not,   I did not go for it.    It could have been the right ones, but the "stick" did not impress me.     I waited another 13+ some years when my culinary curiosity heightened and decided to get formal education on the subject.     I paid more attention to the cooking channels,  and it was while watching the Iron-chefs of America program - I saw the balls.    I was convinced then that was it - the fried rice balls filled with cheese that the boy in the movie was eating.

 So,  here it is,  with The Mozza cookbook in my kitchen,  I fulfilled my promise.       Thanks to the chefs who worked hard in the making of this "The Mozza cookbook" to assure the ingredients are readily available or can be made at home,  I was able to make this arancini or the suppli al telefono successfully in my home kitchen.

 Making Risotto - very interesting method.    (double click on any of these images to enlarge)

 Elongated ones enveloped the extra mozzarella sticks in the center.

 The smaller size's cheese center melted easily within the time the outer crust browned.       As for the biggie size - I think the solution is to use the fresh mozzarella. 

 Even though the crust is well browned, the mozzarella in the center is not quite ready.

 I could serve the biggie size suppli al telefono as the main course with the vegetable side dish.      Other than that,  maybe my memory of the size of the gooey ball got exaggerated over the past fifty-years.     After all, everything appear gigantic in the eyes of the five-year-old's world.    Stick with the recipe instruction and make approx 1 inch ball for your first adventure,  they produced the best result as prescribed in The Mozza cookbook.     On the other hand,   the traditional orange size ball or the small round shape will do beautifully.