Steemit Iron Chef 2018 Act 02 #02 : Vegetable pelmeņi.

Fun Fact: I threw up the first time I tried spinach. I was a kid and the look and taste of the green stuff was a big NO.

Regardless of that, this week I knew immediately what I wanted to make. I am not a huge fan of spinach. Meh, right?! ;D But it is good if you make it right. And use fresh spinach instead of frozen. In most recipes. I used the frozen version as I needed my leaves to have less water and more green part. In frozen consistencies, you kind of know what to expect as most water is already gone.

Here is the Iron Chef contest

I made something that is really popular in Latvia. Usually, we make pelmeņi with meat and I prefer them that way as well. But I have been getting used to making them quite healthy for my boyfriend. And they taste amazing even with vegetables.

When I was little, we would always buy pelmeņi frozen and every kid loved them. Boiled, cooked, no matter how. I ate mine with sour cream and spring onions. Some dill even. But that was it. However, I only remember one time that we made the pelmeņi ourselves, at home. It is a long and tedious work that leaves your palms red as you have to roll the batter out very thinly. It is the perfect food to store for later as you have to keep pelmeņi in the freezer at all times if you are not cooking them immediately.

You can put anything in the meal, mushrooms, veggies, meat, the more classic ingredient. And, you do not need a lot of the batter. In Italy, what we call ''pelmeņi'' is more yellow. They use more eggs. In the East ''pelmeņi'' are rolled out thinly and transparent. Of course, in every country, they are called differently but for most, at least one kind of this food is known.

It took me two hours (maybe a little more even) and I prepared food for around 4 portions. The recipe is not hard but the batter takes time to work through. There are special forms that you can buy in the store but I did it the old-fashioned way, with a glass.

Ingredients

250g flour
1 egg (the only un-vegan ingredient)
125 ml warm water
A dash of salt

300 to 400 g frozen spinach
1 red onion
1 onion
1 carrot
3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
greens (spring onions, parsley, dill)

First things first: clean your work surface. We are going to use a table for food preparing today.

Take the flour and pour it on the table, in a pile, make a hole in the middle.

Take the egg and beat it in the flour, dash a little bit of salt over the pile.

Mix the egg with the flour. Best to do this with clean hands as any gloves will just make the process feel clinical :D

When the egg is mixed in, the flour WON'T be very wet.

Take the warm water and add a little bit to the flour, mix it. Repeat the process until the batter is a little bit flexible and the flour does not fall off anymore.

I have made pelmeņi myself three times and this was the first time the batter came out perfect. That means it was less hard rolling it out. Do not worry if, for the first time your consistency is not ideal, we all live and learn.

The batter should not be wet. It should not stick to your hands but it should be soft-ish.

It will take you a while to make the batter, around 5 minutes. Roll the batter in a ball and cover it with a towel for around 30 minutes.

Your ball will be small, do not worry, it is supposed to. You have no idea how many pelmeņi will come out of it! I even ran out of my veggie mix and had to use only spinach for the last couple of guys.

While your pelmeņi batter is resting, let us make the filling. That will take the 30 minutes that the batter rests so do not waste a minute!

Cut up both of the onions and grate the carrot. Heat up a pan and add oil(I use coconut oil). Add the cut/grated ingredients on it and cook them.

After first five minutes, add the frozen spinach to the pan to get out the rest of the water. Leave for 5 more minutes.

Take a bowl and add spices to it. Whatever you would like. Crush the garlic cloves in it and add greens.

Add enough salt. There is almost no salt in the batter and the water while boiling will pull out some of that salt as well. If the mix will be a little salty, not worry, after cooking it is going to be just perfect.

When you have finished cooking the veggies, add them in the bowl of greens and mix everything together. The mix is going to be warm but you have nothing to worry about. It is going to get cooler.

Take the batter that you covered with a towel. Cut it in four parts and leave three under the towel.

Roll out the batter very thin. I cut my 1/4 in half another time, for it to be easier to roll.

Your batter has to be thin but not too thin. So you can almost see through it. It should be easy to roll and not too resistant. It should not break at all.

Take a big glass and make circles from the batter. I had 5 to 7 circles from one piece of rolled batter. The leftovers(the cuts from the batter that were too small to use) I added to the next piece of batter that I took from under the table.

Put a teaspoon of the veggie mix on each circle piece of the batter. Then fold it over and push it closed. Like a hot pocket? Use the glass to apply pressure on the side and push the batter together. That way there is a smaller chance that the batter will come undone.

When the batter is closed, fold it like in the bottom picture, immediately put the pelmeņi in the freezer. They must not be soft, there is a bigger chance they will come undone in the pot if they are. That is why I put my pelmeņi in the freezer for around 30 minutes. Each piece separately.

This part will take you the most time. To make all pelmeņi I spent at least an hour and a half, gradually putting them in the freezer.

When the last pelmeņi were ready, the first ones were frozen already. That is when you put a pot of water on the stove and let it boil.

I did not add any salt to the water as I already had enough in my pelmeņi. When the water was boiling, I added part of my pelmeņi and boiled them for 5 minutes.

I left the rest for another time and another meal.

Garnish with more greens, sour cream or a sauce of your liking. Children like to use ketchup.

My favorite pelmeņi are with a mix of chicken and pork. I love my meat and they taste amazing. These tasted as good as well, though. I was pleasantly surprised myself as last time I didn't even try my veggie pelmeņi. I made them all for my boyfriend as I had my own food and I was not really attracted to the veggies :D Big mistake, these are amazing!

Oh, and here is a photo with my ''spice garden''. We do not have a terrace so I grow my spices on the window. I even found a bell pepper seed growing out of our drain and planted it. It is going to bloom soon, the flowers are there. That means we are going to have our own bell pepper! In my imagination it is the yellow bell pepper :D We will see!

Have a great day! Today, tomorrow, and forever.
Linda