Ingredients
-
The Dough:
-
300 g Flour
-
150 ml Water
-
1 small egg
-
1 tsp Oil
-
1/2 tsp Salt
-
The Filling:
-
200 g mushrooms
-
300 g potatoes
-
1 small onion
-
30 g Butter
-
frying oil
-
Salt & pepper
Directions
Vareniki are often seen as a vegetarian alternative to pelmeni, and that is not too far off: wrap some dough around a sweet or savory filling, fry or boil it, and there you go.
However, vareniki are not considered a variation of pelmeni in Russia, but a dish of Russian cuisine. For sweet vareniki, the most common fillings are quark or berries, a variety that is usually eaten for breakfast. Another type of vareniki can be made from potatoes with mushrooms or onions or cabbage. They are very often eaten with sour cream.
Preparation:
- Start with the classic Russian dumpling dough. In a bowl, whisk one egg with water, oil, and salt.
- Sift all the flour into a separate bowl or right onto the cooking surface, and make a kind of crater in the center. Pour the liquid mixture into the crater and start mixing with a fork; then continue kneading the dough with your hands. When all the ingredients are incorporated, put the dough on the cooking surface dusted with some flour, and continue kneading.
- Knead for around 7 minutes until it becomes quite thick but still elastic and very soft on the surface. Round it and let sit wrapped in cling wrap for 30 minutes.
- For the filling, fry the chopped onion in vegetable oil until soft. Add the finely chopped mushrooms and stir until ready. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in salted water until very soft; drain and mash with a generous slab of butter; set aside to cool for a minute.
- Combine the mashed potatoes and mushrooms with the onions.
- Now, back to the dough: use a rolling pin to roll it quite thinly. Cut circles from the dough (about 7 cm in diameter); collect the scraps, firm a ball again, and repeat the process until you run out of dough and have many dough circles.
- Put 1 tsp of filling on each circle and start forming your vareniki: fold into half-circles and seal the edges tightly; repeat with the rest. Leave the edges as they are or decorate however you wish.
- To cook the vareniki, put them in well-salted boiling water; wait until they float, and then cook for 2 more minutes. If cooking frozen vareniki, then boil for another 1-2 minutes.
- Drain and serve with a nice slab of butter or sour cream, as well as some chopped dill.
