Manti Recipe
The first time I tried to make manti, which was three years ago, was the day I felt proud of myself. Manti is one of the most difficult dish of Turkish cuisine for novice cooks like me. But if you are a Turkish mom, it is very easy for you. Of course, I didn’t know this bitter reality until that day. I always made it with my mother ( I’m the hepler of course) and I thought it would be easy again when I made it myself. But it wasn’t. I phoned mom and asked her things several times. Fortunately I succeeded, not as good as my mom’s, but it was OK. So here is my mom’s manti recipe.
Ingredients
•   2 cups flour
•   1 egg
•   3 teaspoons salt
•   Warm water
•   400gr minced meat
•   4 onions
•   1 teaspoon black pepper
•   Half bunch of parsley
•   1,5 liter water
For its sauce:
•   4 garlic cloves, mashed
•   1 bowl yogurt
•   2 tbsp olive oil
•   1 tbsp red pepper flakes
•   1 tbsp dried mint
•   1 tbsp tomato paste
Step 1
Put 2 cups flour, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Pour warm water little by little and make a quite hard dough.
Cover this dough with a wet piece of cloth and wait it until you finish other preperations.
Step 2
Now you will prepare a mixture to stuff the dough in pieces.
Mince the onions and parsley in small pieces. Combine them with 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Knead it for 5 minutes.
Step 3
Now it’s time to make manti.
Divide the dough in two. Roll them seperately. Then take one of them and roll it out to half milimeter (it will be quite thin). Then cut it in strips of 1,5 cm. then superpose them and cut in squares of 1,5 cm. do the sam efor the other piece of dough.
(1 inch = 2,54cm)
Take a piece of minced meat mixture and put it on those squares and maket hem bundles (close the squares from diagonal sides).
Step 4
When you finish with squares, boil 1,5 liter water in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon salt. When it starts to boil, add those squares in it(similar to cooking pasta). Stir it gently with a wooden spoon, do not mash them. Do it a few times, don’t stir continually. And do not put the lid on until they are done. If those manti pieces come to the surface of boiling water, it means they are cooked. They should be as soft as a piece of pasta. You can check it by tasting one. After about 15 minutes or so, they will be ready.
Sieve them to serve and put them in bowls with little water (in which you boil them).
Step 5
In a small bowl, mix grated garlic and yogurt. Pour it on your manti in each bowl.
Then broil 1 tbsp tomato paste, red pepper flakes and dried mint in olive oil and finally garnish your manti with this sauce.
Enjoy it!
To have a reddish color in quince jam or compote, put its seeds while boiling.
Rico on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 11:05 am
In my mind I am thinking this is delicious and very very pleasing to the eye. I saw you first on Foodbuzz and had to have a closer look. Thx for sharing and keep it up.
Zerrin on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 11:13 am
Thank you for your nice comment. I can say, if one tastes Manti, s/he can never forget it.
Nate on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 11:28 am
It sounds very interesting. I would have liked to see some of the step by step process to get a better idea of how this dish is prepared.
Do you really have to boil the dumplings for 30 minutes? That seems like a long time for such small dumplings.
Thanks for adding us as a friend on Foodbuzz. We welcome you to come visit our site!
Zerrin on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 12:00 pm
Thank you Nate. Sorry for not having any photos on the process. Promise, I’ll add them soon when I make manti again.
In fact, that 30 minutes include the water’s boiling time as well. You’ll boil manti pieces for 15 or 20 minutes, they will come to the surface whn they are done. But I think it’s not clear enough here. Thank you so much. I’m correcting it right now.
Sweetcharity on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 10:57 pm
Manti were my favorite thing I ate in Turkey, which says a lot because I really loved all the food I ate when I was there… I would go back just to eat.
Zerrin on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 11:14 pm
Happy to hear you liked it. Just come again. We, as Turks always love guests.
Lydia on Thu, 5th Mar 2009 6:22 pm
There is a video of making manti that didn’t have the recipe, but showed the process. Made me want to get a turkish rolling pin. Manti tastes fantastic and i have started putting the garlicky yogurt sauce on beans and rice. I am afraid my manti dumplings might be a little too big-i get impatient doing them myself! And the bigger ones still cook through and taste great.
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