This is another recipe from my USSR-ian childhood. It takes a bit of time and inspiration to cook these from scratch, but it totally worth it.
Even though it is time consuming, with a bit of organization it can be a fun activity to do for whole family together.
I never been a big fan of lamb meat, but these dumplings taste the best made of it. However you can always substitute equal amount of beef and pork mix for lamb meat.
Ingredients:
1 lb lamb (minced or in whole piece)
3-4 garlic cloves
1 onion
Fresh cilantro
3 table spoons of of mayonnaise
Ground black pepper
Ground paprika
Salt to taste
About 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
For dough:
About 4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of milk
1 egg
2 table spoons of vegetable oil
A teaspoon of salt
How to prepare, step-by-step:
Prepare ingredients: you can substitute 50/50 mix of beef and pork for lamb:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 1
Start of by making dough. I will list recap of how to make it (read detailed instructions here). Mix milk, salt and oil in a cooking pot; bring to boil, then add 1/2 cup of flour:
Mix milk, oil and salt in cooking potBring to boilRemove from burner, mix flour in Cool down and mix an egg inStart adding flourUntil it becomes thick Knead more flour inUntil it doesn't stick to hands anymoreThen cover with plastic wrap
Then prepare meat filling. If you have meat in whole piece grind it finely and put to the mixing bowl (I was lazy and bought ground lamb):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 3
Season meat with ground black pepper, paprika and salt to your preference:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 4
Peel and chop onion (if you have meat in whole peace you can mince onions in the same time when meat, otherwise use food processor or grater):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 6
Add onions to the mixing bowl:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 7
Mix everything and add 2-3 table spoons of mayonnaise:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 8
Rinse cilantro with cold water, chop it and add to the mixing bowl:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 9
Mix it all good to get meat stuffing:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 10
Next step is to prepare dumplings. To make one take a piece of dough (about 1 inch in diameter) and roll it into evenly thin round sheet with a rolling pin (mine were about 8 inches in diameter, you can do more or less):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11a
Arrange about 2 table spoons of meat stuffing you prepared earlier over 1 half of the dough circle, leaving about ⅓ of inch from the sides clear of meat (that is important):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11b
Fold dough:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11c
And align edges of bottom and top halves:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11d
Then press edges with your fingers working your path from one side to another:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11e
Make sure there are no holes and edges are sealed tight (you can use fork to press edges):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 11f
Repeat step 11(a-f) for the rest of dough and meat stuffing (with specified amount if ingredient you will get about 11-12 dumplings of about 8” long):
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 12
Warm up skillet big enough to fit at least 2 dumpling w/o overlapping (it is also good if it has higher sides) with about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil over moderate heat; add 2 dumplings to the skillet and fry until bottom side gets golden brown:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 13
Then turn both dumplings to other side and fry until they are golden brown from this side as well:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 14
Repeat for all dumplings; move cooked dumplings to the plate. Cooking takes time, so to ensure all dumplings are still warm when you serve them – cover plate with dumplings with foil while you cook:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki) Recipe: Step 15
Make sure you serve chebureki hot, they taste great with yogurt and cucumber sauce (such as tzatziki) and beer:
Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki)
Julia, like I said in another comments for zucchini paste, your web site is absolutely wonderful and helpful even for people like me who is cooking for a long time. Sometimes small secret that found in the recipe makes all the deal.
I don’t put garlic and onion, but chopped green onion only to make chebureki more gentle. I put milk to make stuffing juicy. But it doesn’t matter and I sure will try to make stuffing like you suggested.
I have one suggestion in order to make process easier, use uncooked tortilla instead of making own dough. I am not big master for the dough and this why said so.
Thank you
Julia,
Thank you for the nice recipe.
But chebureki is not georgian. It has “crimean tatars” origination and more popular in middle asia then in Caucasus area.
I use kefir or plain balkan yogurt instead of mayo. Temperature of oil should be around 200C.
Thanks.
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Julia, like I said in another comments for zucchini paste, your web site is absolutely wonderful and helpful even for people like me who is cooking for a long time. Sometimes small secret that found in the recipe makes all the deal.
I don’t put garlic and onion, but chopped green onion only to make chebureki more gentle. I put milk to make stuffing juicy. But it doesn’t matter and I sure will try to make stuffing like you suggested.
I have one suggestion in order to make process easier, use uncooked tortilla instead of making own dough. I am not big master for the dough and this why said so.
Thank you
Thank you for ideas, I will try them out. Thank you for nice words as well!
Julia,
Thank you for the nice recipe.
But chebureki is not georgian. It has “crimean tatars” origination and more popular in middle asia then in Caucasus area.
I use kefir or plain balkan yogurt instead of mayo. Temperature of oil should be around 200C.
Thanks.
Thank you, I didn’t know that.
can i bake the dough instead of frying ?
I don’t know to be honest, never tried baking, but I think dough may get very hard if you do so.