Name: Reseña de Manti por hurkanakbiyik en Belly Pepper, Amsterdam, Países Bajos
Item: Manti
Rating: 4.9
Author: hurkanakbiyik

Tiny parcels of dough, each pinched around a pea-sized knot of spiced minced lamb, boiled and served under garlic yoghurt with hot butter stained red with pepper and a dusting of sumac and dried mint: mantı is the Turkish dumpling, and Kayseri is the city that made it a test of patience, with the old boast that forty should fit on one spoon. The dumpling family runs along the Silk Road from Chinese mantou and Central Asian manty, which are large and steamed, to the Armenian manti baked in broth, and the Turkish version is the smallest and the only one dressed with yoghurt. It is home cooking first, rolled and folded by several pairs of hands at the kitchen table, and in Kayseri it is served at weddings and to visitors as a point of pride; the city's mantı houses sell little else.

The dough is flour, egg, water and salt, kneaded firm and rested, then rolled with an oklava to a sheet thin enough to see the pattern of the cloth through, and cut into squares of about a centimetre and a half. The filling is lean lamb or beef minced fine with grated onion, salt, black pepper and sometimes parsley or a pinch of red pepper, kept moist. A piece of filling the size of a chickpea goes onto each square and the four corners are brought together and pinched, or two opposite corners for the open boat shape of Sinop. The folded mantı are either boiled straight away in salted water or stock for eight to ten minutes until the dough is tender, or dried first on trays, which is how Kayseri sells them. They are drained and sauced in order: a spoonful of thick yoghurt beaten with crushed garlic, then butter heated until it foams with sweet or hot red pepper, then sumac and dried mint rubbed on top. Some kitchens add a thin tomato sauce under the yoghurt.

Judge the size first, because it is the measure of the labour: Kayseri mantı should be small enough that several fit on a spoon, with the dough thin, the fold tight, and the filling in every piece. Then the dough, which should be tender with a slight chew and no raw floury taste, cooked through at the pinched top where it is thickest. The meat should be juicy inside its parcel and seasoned so the onion and pepper register. The yoghurt should be cold and thick, the butter hot and poured just before service, and the whole plate should be eaten before the yoghurt warms. Mark down large, thick-skinned dumplings sold as mantı, pieces that have split and lost their filling in the water, a gluey mass from being left in the pot, yoghurt that has been thinned to a sauce, cold butter, and frozen factory mantı, which are uniform and taste mainly of dough. Count what is on the plate and look at the folds.

Manti

Netherlands

Belly Pepper

Wonderful!

The ratio of the ingredients, taste of the meat and flour was great. Spices were enough and fresh. Yogurt was also enough.

and the real touch was the bone marrow… You can only eat this on Thursday 🤗

Reseña de Manti por hurkanakbiyik en Belly Pepper, Amsterdam, Países Bajos

Manti

Belly Pepper

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