Khinkali are made of twisted knobs of dough, stuffed with meat and spices. It is considered to be one of the national dishes of Georgia. The dumplings are a little time consuming to make and are not for the faint of heart! Recipe courtesy of Georgian Recipes.
Ingredients: For 30 Khinkali
Dough:
- 3lbs. of flour (2.5 lbs. for the dough and the rest dusting and kneading).
- 2 eggs.
- 2 cups of warm water.
Filling:
- 1.5 lbs. of ground beef and pork mix.
- Salt.
- Half tsp of dried red pepper.
- Quarter tsp ground caraway seed.
- 2 small onions (optional).
- 2 cups of water.
Cooking:
- Water and salt for the cooking pot.
Preparation:
- Add 2.5 lbs. of flour to a mixing bowl. Make a depression in the middle of the flour and add the eggs.
- Add 2 cups of warm water.
- Mix the ingredients from the middle of the bowl until all the flour is mixed.
- The dough should now be formed into a ball.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces.
- Sprinkle a work surface and one of the balls of dough with flour and knead (very firmly) and fold the dough.
- Continue kneading and folding until the dough is very firm.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 1/3 of an inch thick.
- Cut out circles of about 2.5 inches in diameter with a drinking glass.
- Carefully remove the excess dough.
- Repeat the whole process of kneading, folding and cutting and rolling of rounds with the remaining ball of dough. You will then have enough rounds to make about 30 khinkali.
- Prepare the khinkali filling by adding the meat, spices, 2 finely chopped onions (optional) and salt to a mixing bowl.
- Mix the ingredients by hand and then add ¼ of a cup of water and squash and squash the mixture. Repeat this process 20 times until you have mixed at least 2 cups of water with the meat. This will ensure that your khinkali have lots of ‘juice’.
- The meat should look like the picture opposite at the end of the process.
- Take one round of dough from your pile of rounds.
- Add 1 heaped tbs of the meat mixture to the center of the round.
- Use your thumbs and index fingers to make an accordion type fold all around the outside.
- It will become easier with practice! 19 folds are considered ideal.
- When all pleats have been formed the khinkali should look like the one in the picture opposite.
- Roll the nubbin of the dumpling between your finger and thumb and pinch off extra dough. The khinkali should look like the picture opposite..
- Carefully place the dumplings into a deep pan of boiling salty water, about 10-15 at a time (depending on the size of your pan).
- Boil for 12 to 14 minutes. If the dough has been made properly the dumplings will not burst.
Eating khinkali:
There is an art to eating Khinkali. The doughy top, where the pleats all meet, is never eaten, but used as a handle for holding the hot dumplings and is left on the plate to show how many have been eaten. In Georgia, this top is called the “kudi” (Georgian for hat) or “kuchi” (Georgian for belly button).