Mongolian Meat and Caraway Pockets

Name: Mongolian Meat and Caraway Pockets
Yield: makes 24 pockets, serving 4 as a main course, 6 to 8 as a snack or starter
Ingredients: 3/4 pound ground beef (preferably chuck) or lamb, coarsely chopped to loosen; 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion; 2 cloves garlic, minced and crushed into a paste; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 teaspoons ground caraway seeds; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 2 tablespoons canola oil; 5 tablespoons water; 1 pound Basic Dumpling Dough (page 22); Canola or peanut oil, for deep-frying; 1 1/2 cups Spicy Roasted Tomato Sauce (page 218)

December 9, 2011

A traditionally nomadic people with little arable land, Mongolians have a small variety of vegetables and spices to enhance their cuisine and instead enjoy a hearty diet of mostly meat and dairy products. The creative use of a few ingredients is a hallmark of Mongolian cooking, and these very popular deep-fried stuffed pockets prove that less can be more. Cultivated in Mongolia, caraway leaves its warm yet sharp imprint on the filling, which remarkably amplifies the natural sweetness of the wheat wrapper. (If you have whole caraway, lightly toast it, then grind it in a clean coffee grinder.) Fresh mutton or air-dried meat called borts is traditionally featured in the filling, but beef or lamb is a fine substitute. The wrapper fries up to a nubby, chewy-crispness that’s hard to resist. In a pinch, stir together a spicy-sweet sauce of ketchup and Sriracha sauce or Chile Garlic Sauce (page 216), instead of the roasted tomato sauce. This filling can be used for boiled and steamed dumplings, which are called bansh and buuz, respectively.

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