armenian yoghurt soup w chicken & pistachio dumplings

I had dreamt of making this recipe for some time so I made it one of my 2010 Food Challenges to make sure I finally did it.

I liked the idea of a warm, sour, creamy soup. It seemed wholesome and hearty, but somehow still fresh. And the tasty dumplings stuffed with spiced chicken and dotted with pretty green pistachio were pretty.

The soup actually has a very mild flavour. It might be considered bland to some people, or homely and comforting to others.

The dumplings were also gently flavoured, although the mild spice added more impact. The nuts add a soft chew to the texture and I certainly would prefer to eat the soup with the mante rather than on its own.

It wasn’t a bad meal, it just probably wasn’t as exciting as I’d imagined, but you can’t win them all.

Tahnaboor (Armenian Yoghurt Soup)
Based on these two recipes. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
¼ cup rice
1 teaspoon salt
500ml chicken stock
1 litre water
1 egg
250ml plain yoghurt
1 tablespoon cornflour
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve
½ teaspoon dried mint, to serve
Method:
1. Boil rice in stock and water with salt until very soft.
2. Beat together the egg and cornflour, then add yoghurt and mix well. Add 2 teaspoons water to loosen the mixture a little.
3. Pour the yoghurt into a large pot and cook on a very, very low heat to prevent curdling. Cook for 15 minutes stirring continuously.
4. Slowly add in rice/water/stock mixture, a bit at a time, stirring continuously to combine.
5. Turn heat to medium, allow mixture to come to the boil, then turn down again and cook for another 10 minutes. (meanwhile boiling mante)
6. To serve, ladle into serving bowls, top with mante then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of dried mint.

Mante (Chicken & Pistachio Dumplings)
Recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
100g minced chicken
20g coarsely chopped pistachios
½ small onion, finely chopped
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
40 wonton wrappers
Method:
1. Combine all ingredients except wonton wrappers in a bowl and season to taste with sea salt.
2. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of each wonton wrapper, brush edges with water, place another wonton wrapper on top and join ends together, pressing to seal.
3. To cook mante, boil a pot of water and gently lower in dumplings, cooking for 3 minutes or until mante float to surface. Be careful to prevent them sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Note: the original recipe called for 20 round wontons, folded in half, but I used two wonton wrappers pressed together per dumpling, to create more substantial dumplings.

This is my entry for the Presto Pasta Nights event. This week's PPN is hosted by Daphne from More Than Words, so be sure to visit her blog for other pasta and noodle recipes. PPN's founder however is Ruth from Once Upon A Feast.

khachapuri: georgian cheese bread

We had a Georgian friend once upon a time. His name was Mamuka and we met him when he was studying English in Australia. He lived in Moscow but he was fiercely proud of Georgia and we all loved to watch him write in the beautiful Georgian alphabet.

I wonder what happened to Mamuka? We lost touch about a year after he moved back to Russia, although not before he sent photos of his summer home in a picturesque Georgian valley.

I have always wanted to visit Georgia.

It seems fitting then that Jonas made a Georgian bread for this month’s Bread Baking Day with the theme “cheese breads”. Our host is Temperance from High on the Hog.

Khachapuri are the cheesiest breads there are. In fact you could easily label them Georgia’s answer to the pizza. They commonly use a traditional Georgian ingredient called sulguni (სულუგუნი), a pickled, salty cows’ cheese from the Samegrelo region.

There are as many different styles of khachapuri as there are regions in Georgia and some of the better known as Adjaruli khachapuri (topped with a raw egg), Megruli khachapuri (topped with more cheese) and Ossuri khachapuri (filled with mash potatoes).

Jonas made the standard khachapuri, although we don’t have access to the rare sulguni and had to make do with another cheesey combination. It was delicious nonetheless.

This is also a 2008 Food Challenge, which has rolled over into the 2009 batch since it didn't get made last year.

Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)

Recipe from The World Encyclopedia of Bread. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
Bread:
225g unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
15g fresh yeast
150ml lukewarm milk
25g butter, softened
Filling:
225g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
225g Taleggio, cubed
1 egg, lightly beaten
15ml butter, melted
Salt and pepper
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
15ml water

Method:

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

2. Cream the yeast with the milk, add to the flour and mix to form a dough.

3. Knead in the butter, then knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.

4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover lighting with oiled clear plastic film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 – 1½ hours or until doubled in size.

5. Meanwhile put the cheeses in a bowl and stir in the egg and softened butter for the filling. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

6. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes.

7. Divide the dough into four even balls. Roll each ball out into a rough circle.

8. Grease a muffin tin or ramekins, and place each circle into the holes. Drop in the cheese mixture into the centre then fold over the dough to seal the cheese inside.

9. Cover with oiled film to rise again for another 20 minutes.

10. Preheat oven to 180’C.

11. Mix egg yolk and water together to form a glaze then brush bread with glaze.

12. Bake for 50 minutes, or until brown on surface.

13. Cool for 5 minutes then remove from tin/ramekins and serve warm cut.

Variations: instead of Cheddar & Taleggio you can use many other cheese combinations such as Munster & Havarti or Red Leicester & Parmesan.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes khachapuri bread cheese khachapuri recipes cheese recipes bread recipes georgian recipes georgian food georgian cuisine