Mante

A community recipe by SamIAm

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

Mante is a well known Armenian dish composed of boat shaped dumplings, open at the top, stuffed with a mixture of ground beef and lamb, grilled, then simmered in a thin tomato stock, served with a garlicky yogurt. It is not to be confused with the Turkish version which carries the same name but has a totally different cooking method.

Ingredients

Serves: 5

1 tablespoon salt
1 cup water
¼ cup flour (for rolling)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1¼ cups beef
1¼ cups lamb
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
3 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons tomato paste
3 cups yoghurt
½ teaspoon salt
2 cloves crushed garlic

Method

Mante is a community recipe submitted by SamIAm and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

To prepare dough, filling and to bake pastries

Mix flour and salt. Add enough water to make stiff dough. Take a quarter of the dough and roll thinly on a floured surface. Cut into 4 x 3 cm rectangles.

Place about Â¼ teaspoon of the filling in the center of each square, fold up short sides of each 2 corners together and press to seal, the finished pastries will look like canoes with the meat filling showing.

Continue rolling, cutting, and stuffing the rest of the dough.

Brush a 30 cm. baking pan with vegetable oil and place pastries side by side in close proximity and in circular fashion. Place pan on top of stove over medium to low heat turning the pan evenly when the bottom of pastries are colored, about 15 minutes (top of pastries will not color).

Brush top with the melted butter and place in a preheated 180 CÂº (350 FÂº) oven for 10 minutes. (Pastries may be frozen at this stage for 3 months).

To serve

Mix chicken broth and tomato paste and bring to the boil.

Add pastries and simmer for few seconds. (If frozen, do not defrost before simmering and simmer few minutes more).

Mix topping ingredients.

Serve mante and broth hot in a bowl accompanied with the topping in a separate bowl. When ready to eat, put a large dolop of the topping onto the hot broth that contains the mante.

Decorate with a sprinkle of sumac spice.

Additional Information

When I serve this I put the Mante on a side low table making it a feature. On the table is a deep soup dish containing the broth and Mante pieces, next to them the Labneh topping in a separate bowl and scattered all around them are large cups and saucers for people to serve themselves this most delicious dish.