Ingredients:
Approx 100-120 pieces depending on size
Dough:
- 4 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Approx. 1.5 cups water
Filling:
- 500g Iamb or beef mince
- 2 finely diced onions
- 1/2 teaspoon 7spice
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
Yoghurt Sauce:
- 1 kg thick Greek style yoghurt
- 1 litre cold tap water to start
- 2 heaped tablespoons cornflour, diluted in 1/3 cup cold water
Additional ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 8 cloves of garlic or measure with your heart!
- 1/2 cup finely chopped coriander
Method:
For the dough:
- In a stand mixer, combine the flour with the salt & water. Mix until combined & you’re left with a smooth non sticky dough, You can use your hands if you don’t have a stand mixer. Cover & set aside for at least 30 minutes while you prepare the filling.
For the filling:
- For the stuffing cook off the onions in olive oil, add mince & brown. Add spices and salt & cook for 15min before throwing in your pine nuts & mixing through. Set aside to cool before making dumplings.
To make dumplings:
- Give the dough a quick knead, cut dough into 3 & cover the other portions.
- Roll out into approx. 2-3mm thickness, not too thick or it will be too doughy.
- Using a 7cm cookie cutter to cut the dough, fill with 1/2 a teaspoon of mince mixture & close into a moon shape, pinch the two corners together to close into a dumpling.
- Put the dumplings on a floured tray so they don’t stick & continue with the rest of the dough pieces. Freeze half for a later date.
For the yoghurt:
- In a large pot with no heat yet, add the yoghurt, water & cornflour slurry. Whisk it through. Add this mixture to the pot & whisk until smooth.
- Turn the heat on high & bring to boil while whisking, do not leave its side or it will curdle. It needs a continuous whisk until it hits boiling point so it doesn’t curdle.
- At this point check the consistency, if its too thick you can add boiling water bit by bit until its the consistency of thickened cream.
- Carefully drop the shishbarak dumplings in, don’t disturb them until it comes back up to a simmer.
- In a separate small pan add the ghee along with as many garlic cloves you can handle & the coriander. Let it sizzle for a couple minutes before adding it to the yoghurt. Season with salt & simmer on medium half covered until shishbarak is tender, approx. 15-20 minutes.
Notes:
- This amount serves 6-8 people, to make a smaller amount simply half the quantities
- For the dough, different flours vary so you may need more or less water to get the dough to come together smoothly.
- You can freeze the dumplings on the tray, once hardened portion them into freezer bags
- Serve with either vermicelli rice or mujadarra
