Khinkali with lamb and fat tail fat
4 servings
30 minutes
Khinkali was supposedly brought to Georgia by the Mongols. But the thing is that khinkali is a highland food. They are eaten, for example, in Tusheti and Khevsureti - and the Mongols did not reach there.
1
We cut the onion and meat into small pieces. We pass them through a meat grinder mixed together. It's better to take fatty meat so the filling is juicy. If the lamb is tough, you can add a bit of tail fat to the mince — it will become juicier.
- Onion: 3 heads
- Mutton: 0.5 kg
- Fat tail fat: 50 g
2
We season with salt and pepper and add warm water — as much as the minced meat can absorb (about half a cup). We knead the minced meat thoroughly for about ten minutes to ensure the meat absorbs the water evenly.
- Ground black pepper: to taste
- Sea salt: to taste
3
The dough is very simple: you need water, flour, salt — and that's it. Experience is also needed. For example, the first time, you might get perfect dough, but the second time — not so much. Sift the flour onto a wooden board — it's better to use coarse second-grade flour. Gather the flour into a mound, pour in a glass of water, add salt, and knead a soft dough. The dough should not be kneaded for long; it's a quick process.
- Wheat flour: 2 glasss
- Sea salt: to taste
4
Then you need to roll out the dough into a thin layer (3-5 mm thick) and cut out circles the size of a saucer. But we don't have a suitable mold, so we roll the dough into a slightly thicker pancake, cut it with a glass, and then roll each one out again to make it larger and thinner — otherwise, they will turn out not as khinkali, but as dumplings.
5
In the center of each circle, place 1 tablespoon of filling and, gathering the edges into folds, wrap the dough at the top into something resembling a cone. This top part is called the navel. No one really knows how many folds a khinkali should have.
6
We add khinkali one by one to salted boiling water and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Occasionally, we gently stir the khinkali with a spoon to prevent them from sticking to the bottom. After the khinkali float, we keep them on the heat for another 3-5 minutes, then remove them with a slotted spoon. We serve black pepper with khinkali.
- Ground black pepper: to taste