Khuushuur (Mongolian fried meat dumplings) * basics of kneading dough

Khuushuur (Mongolian fried meat dumplings)

Filling:

* about 1 lb. minced meat (beef or mutton is traditional)

* small onion, diced small

* several garlic cloves, minced

* Pepper and/or paprika

* Cumin

* 1 Tbsp or more salt

* a little water

* oil for frying

Dumpling dough:

* about 3 c. flour

* about 1 c. warm water

Mix the meat, onion, and garlic and add plenty of spices. Mix a generous amount of salt with a small amount of warm water and add to the meat mixture, and mix it in well.

Make a well in the flour in a large bowl and slowly add water, mixing with your hand until the dough has a pliable but firm texture thicker than biscuit dough. Knead the dough a few times if you have trouble getting all the flour combined. Let the dough rest, covered, for 15 minutes before working.

Cut the dough into quarters or thick slices. Work with one piece at a time and keep the others covered so they won’t dry out. Roll into a rope and slice off pieces about two inches thick. Roll these pieces into balls, then flatten and roll out into little round pastries, ideally about 4” across. Roll only one or two at a time, since they become harder to work with as they dry.

Place a spoonful of the meat mixture onto the piece of flattened dough. Fold the pastry over and pinch the edges closed to seal them. This is traditionally done with a pretty pattern that makes the edge look braided. Gently flatten the filled pastry so that it resembles a taco that just ate too many tacos.

Place dough pockets into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides. Eat hot, out of hand. Makes about 25-30. This recipe can be halved.

“Hu’s in the Kitchen” #14

The Hu “Wolf Totem” official video

The Hu “Yuve Yuve Yu” official video

Interview with The Hu about their Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order soundtrack song (you get to see Gala and his wonderful smile a lot in this one)

The green in my meat mixture is green pepper; the green in the Hu’s meat mixture is onions:

My dough wasn’t as nice-looking (this was from my first attempt, with too much water; you can see I’d tried to pull apart my pieces, not cut them, and they resisted) but I also didn’t have a bunch of bandmates to help me:

 

Well, I cannot fold right with or without gloves:

Again, this picture is from my first attempt and the khuushuur are a little overdone:

This batch was my fourth or fifth attempt, and they look a lot better:

 

Gala (right) laughing, omg my heart:

Welcome to the Real Life Cooking Podcast. I’m Kate Shaw and this week we’re going to learn how to make khuushuur, a traditional Mongolian dish that’s basically a deep-fried meat and onion pie, or fried dumpling. Hopefully I’m pronouncing the word right, since it’s 100% of all the Mongolian I know. I’ve seen it spelled different ways, sometimes with just an H at the beginning, more commonly with a KH. The sound seems to be a soft H that’s sounded in the back of the throat.

I learned about khuushuur because I’m currently obsessed with a Mongolian folk metal band called the Hu. Their music is amazing and I was supposed to see them live in May, but they had to cancel the rest of their tour because of Covid-19. I follow the band on social media and knew they had spent at least a while quarantined in Australia before they were able to return home to Mongolia.