Homemade Turkish Mantı Recipe

Mantı is a thin dough pieces filled with beef, cheese or chickpeas. I am sure that this sound familiar to you because every culture has their own version. If you go to Italy, it is ravioli. If you go to Asia, it is dumpling, momo, shumai… you can travel the world by eating mantı. They can be fried, boiled, oven roasted or steamed. In our cuisine it has so many variations but the most popular one is Kayseri Mantısı famous for their small size, on top garlic yoghurt like a cloud and, the legend, butter with red pepper flakes. Today I will be making an easier and bigger version but fell free to make them smaller if you like the challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iX5esCecnQ

Servings: 6-8
Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Prep time:40-50 minutes
Cooking time: 3,5 minutes

For Mantı Dough,
300 g all-purpose flour, little less than 3 cups, plus more for dusting
125ml water, ½ cup
1 egg
3 pinches salt

For Beef Filling, you can fill with whatever you like, mushroom, chickpeas, cheese or veggies
250g double-ground minced meat
1 onion, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

For Garlic Yoghurt Sauce
6-8 tablespoons strained yoghurt
2 large cloves of garlic
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of black pepper
+ Cooking water

For Butter Sauce
1 tablespoons butter
2 pinches red pepper flakes
Dry mint, for topping
Sumac, for topping

• Start by preparing the dough. Put the flour in a large bowl. Mix the flour with the salt, water, and egg using a wooden spoon. Prepare a clean surface to knead the dough. Keep kneading by hand for 8-10 minutes to get a soft dough. Depending on the flour you can add extra half cup if the dough too sticky. You can also knead with a stand mixer if you want. Then, divide the dough into 2 lumps. Cover them with a damp cloth and set them aside for a while.
• To prepare the meat filling, add the minced meat, black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, and grated onion, and knead well until all the ingredients are combined. Set filling aside.
• Before rolling out the rested dough, lightly flour the counter and rolling pin so that the dough does not stick. Take one of the doughs, sprinkle flour on it, and start rolling it with a rolling pin. When the shape is elliptical, flip it over and rotate it 90 degrees. Continue until the dough is 50 cm in diameter and 1.5 – 2 mm thick.
• Cut the dough into small squares around 3cm, traditional mantı is smaller but this size is better to start with a mantı cutter, knife, or pizza cutter. Place a bit of minced meat filling in the center of each square. Stick the opposite ends of this dough, which you put in your palm, by slightly moistening your fingers. Then fold together all four edges of the dough on top of the meat. Repeat this technique for all the dough.
• Fill a large saucepan halfway with water and when it boils, add a pinch of salt and 2 large cloves of garlic. Then slowly add the mantı. Taste the mantı pieces after about 3-3.5 minutes, if they are not doughy, it means they are cooked. After turning off the stove, add 1 glass of cold water. This will prevent mantı to overcook.
• Then take 1 glass of water from the pot and add it to the room temperature strained yogurt and whisk it well. Crush the garlic you put in the boiling water and add it to the strained yogurt. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper to taste.
• To make the butter sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan. When butter sizzles, take the pan from the direct heat and slowly shake to form a foamy texture. Add red pepper flakes and shake again, this way pepper wont burn and give its colour to the butter.
• With the help of a skimmer, remove the mantı from the boiled water and transfer them on a serving plate. Spoon the garlic yoghurt sauce first, then the butter sauce over the mantı. Finally, add dried mint and sumac if you wish and serve. Enjoy your meal!