Delicious Russian Pelmeni

Like Borsch or Pirojki, Pelmeni are a classic Slavic tradition. They are commonly made with beef. These pelmeni recipe may be time consuming, but they are very fun to make when you get your whole crew involved.

The little fingers in your family will love making shapes out of the dough. Try cooking their creative little shapes, butter them up and enjoy with sour cream; they’ll love it! We had Christmas trees and all kinds of critter shapes in the pot. Recruit some muscle to roll out your dough.

Steps to Make It

For Your Filling
Heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet. Sauté onion until golden and soft. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Mix together remaining meat filling ingredients and stir in the onion and garlic. It will be stiff like hamburger patty meat.

For Your Dough
Using a whisk attachment for kitchen aide or by hand, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, water, eggs, and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Switch to dough hook if using, and add 4 cups of flour. Mix until well blended. Add 3 more cups of flour, one cup at a time, waiting until each is well blended before adding more. Add the rest of the flour until the dough is no longer sticking to the side of the bowl. Once it is no longer sticking to the side of the bowl, continue to mix 5 minutes. Total time to mix the dough is approximately 20 minutes.

Roll out dough onto floured surface.

Cut off tennis ball size balls of dough and roll out into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 3 “ cookie cutter, cut out disks of dough. Place a small amount of meat on each disk, about a tsp worth. Fold over the dough like a hot pocket, and use the prongs of a fork to pinch the edges together. Make sure they are very tight. Place Palmeni on a floured cookie sheet. Repeat until all the meat is rolled into the dough. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer until the Palmeni is stiff, then transfer to a gallon size ziplock or container. You will freeze your Palmeni until ready to eat.

Final Step
Bring a pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt. Add the Palmeni FROZEN directly from the freezer. Return to a boil. They should float to the top and then boil for 3 minutes longer. Or until meat is fully cooked. Drain the Palmeni carefully, even patting dry with a paper towel. Serve hot with sour cream and dill, or your choice of toppings.

Alternate option would be to glaze the Palmeni with melted butter and bake in the oven but we have not tried that yet.

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Enjoy!!!