Fried Lamb Dumplings (Chebureki)

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:

1. Prepare ingredients: you can substitute 50/50 mix of beef and pork for lamb:

   

2. 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:
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   
   
3. 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):

   

4. Season meat with ground black pepper, paprika and salt to your preference:

   

5. Peel and press garlic cloves:

   

6. 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):

   

7. Add onions to the mixing bowl:

   

8. Mix everything and add 2-3 table spoons of mayonnaise:

   

9. Rinse cilantro with cold water, chop it and add to the mixing bowl:

   

10. Mix it all good to get meat stuffing:

    

11. 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):

    

    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):

    

    Fold dough:

    

    And align edges of bottom and top halves:

    

    Then press edges with your fingers working your path from one side to another:

    

    Make sure there are no holes and edges are sealed tight (you can use fork to press edges):

    

12. 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):

    

13. 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:

    

14. Then turn both dumplings to other side and fry until they are golden brown from this side as well:

    

15. 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:

    

16. Make sure you serve chebureki hot, they taste great with yogurt and cucumber sauce (such as tzatziki) and beer: