Another Georgian Delight - Khinkali

Khinkali is the Georgian version of dumplings or Ravioli. They are filled with meat and spices and boiled in large pot of salted water. The Meat can be substituted with lamb for filling.

For the dough:

4 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

For the filling:

Mix of 2lbs ground beef and pork
4 peeled and ground onions
1 cup of freshly chopped cilantro
1 cup of freshly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of ground red hot pepper
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of caraway
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Start with mixing the ground meat, onions and herbs. Stir in the spices into the meat mixture, add cup of water, salt and mix it thoroughly. Set aside.

One trick making khinkali is to mix flour with warm water. Pour the flour into a basin, sprinkle it with salt, add water and make the dough. Flour the board and roll the dough out not too thin. Cut circles with a help of a glass with 6-8 inches of diameter. Roll each circle out and place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each round. Fold up and wrinkle the edges of the dough like dumplings.

Place them in salted boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes.

Khinkali are served hot, with no garnish other that coarsely ground black pepper. And there is an art in eating them…

Leftovers

No worries for leftovers, since they are better the next day, just fry khinkali in butter with yogurt and enjoy it for breakfast.