Khuushuur
Khuushuur (Mongolian fried meat dumplings) * basics of kneading doughhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG4YbtfbkuEKhuushuur (Mongolian fried meat dumplings)Filling:about 1 lb. minced meat (beef or mutton is traditional)small onion, diced smallseveral garlic cloves, mincedPepper and/or paprikaCumin1 Tbsp or more salta little wateroil for fryingDumpling dough:about 3 c. flourabout 1 c. warm waterMix 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.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.At some point, though, I stumbled across a series of 14 videos called “Hu’s in the Kitchen.” I haven’t watched all of the videos because the earlier ones appear to be the band and crew eating at restaurants or at people’s homes, and it’s frankly kind of boring. But the last few videos are the band cooking for themselves, and the very last one definitely was recorded while the band was in quarantine in Australia.I love these last few videos, because it’s just the band. They’re adorable and I admit that at first I was just interested in watching and listening to them, especially Gala who has the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen. But then I started paying attention to what they were cooking. And it’s that very last episode, released in July of 2020, that features khuushuur. Gala, by the way, is the guy who introduces the video at the very beginning. He’s so adorable.I had to try making the recipe, and luckily my first effort turned out AMAZING. It wasn’t perfect and it definitely wasn’t pretty to look at, but it was delicious, which gave me the enthusiasm to keep working on my khuushuur-making skills. This episode is the culmination of what I’ve learned, both by