The main reason I chose Mongolia as a country is because I realized early on when researching the culture is that the cuisine is very poorly represented here in the United States. I am sure that when the words Mongolia and food come together the first dish that comes to mind is Mongolian Beef. However, this dish is not Mongolian in origin at all, try Chinese-American. Such deception! So I’m here to set the record straight.
Mongolia has a very cold climate where it can reach -40C (brrrr) – in case you are geographically challenged like myself, it shares a border with Russia where it gets pretty freaking cold. Due to the climate the cuisine is heavy in fats, both animal and dairy fats, and many of the recipes I discovered heavily encourage using slices of meat containing the most fat. Due to its climate, vegetables and spices are uncommon, which was the first clue concerning the false origins of Mongolian Beef, which contains broccoli and other greens. Finding a Mongolian recipe I could stomach, kind of an unexpected challenge for me. Just ask anyone in my family, fatty meat is not my kind of food. I’m the one who meticulously cuts away any ounce of fat from my meat. In other news, I’ve decided I could never live in Mongolia.
I discovered that the majority of the traditional Mongolian dishes are either a type of soup or dumpling. With few vegetables in sight, I decided to try my hand at making a very typical Mongolian meat dumpling called Khuushuur. Another is called Buuz and the only real noticeable difference between that and Khuushuur is that Buuz is steamed while Khuushuur is fried. Otherwise, the ingredients for the filling and the dough were the same.
I chose Khuushuur over Buuz because there is a very unique practice associated with it. I learned that fresh Khuushuur is held between the palms to simulate nerves and blood circulation. I also didn’t think we had a steamer to make Buuz (turns out we do). I suppose the practice of holding a piping hot dumpling for heat makes sense given how cold it can get in Mongolia – I would get pretty desperate for warmth too. In some cases it is also placed on the soles of feet to treat neurosis. I’m not quite sure how sticking dumplings on your feet cures you of mild mental disorders since the whole act seems a bit mental, but who am I to judge what I’ve never tried right? Maybe there’s a reason I’m still an arachnophobe.
Another interesting tidbit, by eating Khuushuur you are also helping balance the air element, which is one of the five elements composing the human body. The others are fire, water, wind, earth, and space. After some more digging I discovered this practice is known as Ayurveda or “science of life” and that each element can be portrayed in various foods. For example space is represented by light foods such as wafers and fire by very spicy foods like chilies. In the case of air, ingesting a food of this element should increase dryness, movement, and circulation. Needless to say, I found this practice of balancing the body’s elements through food fascinating since in theory if all of the elements are balanced, your diet would also be balanced. I’ve heard of pH balanced diets and everyone is familiar of the food pyramid, but I never thought of my body containing elements and working towards somehow balancing those. I swear I’ve learned more things about Mongolian dumplings than the religions liberal studies class I took three semesters ago.
To wrap this up, the Khuushuur was pretty good with a slightly crispy outside and I liked the overall simplicity of it, only five ingredients! There are no spices and the dish relies on the subtle garlic flavor and the meat. However, because of the rather simple taste, my mom and I felt the dumplings would be better with some sort of sauce to dip them in and would make a good appetizer. Not quite in line with traditional Mongolian food, but it just felt like it was missing something. If you decide to make this dish and lack the skill to make dumplings quickly (like me), be sure to leave yourself enough time as it took me about an hour to make about ten of these little guys from start to finish. I really should to perfect my dumpling making skills, that’s just shameful.
Oh did I mention the recipe had no quantities or dumpling folding instructions? I’m nice enough to have written some in, recipe in the comments!
Serving: ~10 dumplings
ReplyDeleteFilling
0.3-0.4(ish) lbs minced beef or mutton, fat included
dash of salt
2(ish) Tbsp. onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Dough
Flour
Water
Salt
To make dough, mix flour and water with (very little) salt until dough is of stiff consistency.
→I honestly had no idea what this meant so I just mixed in enough water to make the dough so it wasn’t sticky and easy to roll.
Mix filling evenly and spread spoonful on dough. Fry in oil until brown.
→I found these directions very vague so I invented my own. I wanted to make sure my meat was cooked properly so I actually sautéed my onions and garlic for a little in a pan and cooked my beef until it was brown. I then rolled out my dough and cut circles that were about 8 cm in diameter, placed a little bit of the filling on each circle, then folded the circles in half pressing the edges together with a fork. I fried them on each side for about two minutes and set them on a paper towel to catch some of the oil. If you are having issues with your dough, try adding more flour, this worked wonders for me.