Dumplings can now be bought without any problems in any store in the form of a ready-made semi-finished product – take and cook, a matter of minutes. But what could be tastier than homemade dumplings prepared with your own hands! Although this dish is quite laborious, they can be made for future use and frozen so that they can be taken out of the freezer and boiled at any time. Pelmeni can be perfectly stored frozen for several months. Plus, you can be sure that they are made from fresh meat without the questionable flavor enhancers and soy that many convenience food manufacturers like to abuse.

Filling Ingredients:

Meat or prepared minced meat (pork + beef) 800 g.
Onion 2-3 pcs.
Salt, ground black pepper to taste
Dough Ingredients:

Water 1 glass
Flour 3 cups
Salt 1 tsp
Cooking homemade dumplings can be divided into 4 stages.

Stage 1 – preparing dough for homemade dumplings:

Although now there are more than one or two ways to prepare dough for homemade dumplings, I settled on an unleavened dough, where only flour and water are used, well, and salt, nothing more. Sometimes, in addition to the indicated ingredients, I can add 1 egg to the dough, but because of it, during the cooking process, the dough increases in volume and the dumplings turn out to be a little shapeless and large. So, we proceed to the preparation of unleavened dough for dumplings.

1. Sift the flour and pour it into a deep bowl, make an indentation on top, add salt and pour in water. The water should be warm, not cold.
2. Gradually mixing in the flour, first with a spoon and then with your hands, knead a soft and elastic dough that should not spread and stick to your hands.
The dough should be quite dense, but you don’t need to overdo it with the kneading so that it is not difficult to work with it. Flour may need a little more or less than indicated – it depends on the quality and gluten content in it.

The finished dough must be covered with a plastic bag so that it does not wind up, and left to “rest” for 30-40 minutes. What is it for? The dough will become more elastic and easier to work with. And at this time, you can cook minced meat for dumplings.

Stage 2 – cooking minced meat for homemade dumplings

For dumplings, you can use almost any meat, I used minced pork and beef. Very tasty dumplings also from turkey or chicken. You can immediately use ready-made minced meat. If meat is used, it must be washed, cleaned of films and twisted together with onions into minced meat. Onions can be added to minced meat and finely chopped. Minced meat needs to be salted and peppered, knead well with your hands and add about 100 ml of water, knead again.
Stage 3 – modeling dumplings

There are three different ways to make dumplings.

1 way – using dumplings

This is the fastest and most convenient way, a few movements – and three dozen dumplings are ready.

1. Cut the dough into an even number of pieces, thinly (1-2 mm thick) roll out one of these pieces with a rolling pin into a circle slightly larger in diameter than a dumpling and lay it on a form that must first be sprinkled with flour (so that later you can easier to get dumplings out of it).
2. Then put the minced meat into the recesses and cover with the second same circle of dough.
3. Roll the rolling pin on top – first gently, then hard. The dumplings are ready, you can remove them from the mold and put them on a cutting board or a dish sprinkled with flour.
2 way – do it manually

Handmade dumplings take longer but look beautiful and homemade.

1. Roll out the dough into a bundle of small diameter and divide it into relatively equal pieces. Give each piece a round shape and roll it into a thin cake.
2. Put a little minced meat on each such cake, then fold it in half and blind the opposite edges – you should get a small dumpling in shape. If the dough is dry and it is difficult to connect the edges, the inner contour can be slightly moistened with water.
3. Blind two opposite edges of the dumpling, wrapping them on top of each other and thus forming a dumpling.
Put the finished dumplings on a floured board or dish.
3 way – using a glass

1. Roll out the dough thinly (1-2 mm thick) and squeeze circles out of it with a glass or glass of small diameter.
2. The rest of the dough can be collected, kneaded again, rolled out and squeezed circles.

3. Put a little minced meat on each circle and make dumplings in exactly the same way as described in the 2nd method, starting from the second step.

Stage 4 – cook or freeze dumplings

There are quite a lot of dumplings, so if you haven’t invited a large company to visit you, you can simply freeze some of them. For this put them directly on a cutting board or dish, so that they do not touch or stick together, in the freezer for 20 minutes. After they harden, they can be folded into plastic bags and frozen.

How to cook dumplings? For this закладываем их в кипящую и хорошо подсоленную воду, добавляем лавровый листик (это не обязательно, но ароматную нотку блюду придаст) и варим 5-7 минут на среднем огне, время варки зависит от размера пельменей.
Remove the finished dumplings with a slotted spoon or put them in a colander, put them on a plate and season with butter or sour cream.

You can also season them with ground black pepper and sprinkle with vinegar, and some prefer dumplings with ketchup – this is how you like it!

Now you know how to cook homemade dumplings. Good luck in the kitchen and bon appetit!