Lamb manti

Serves 68 Makes 3040

WHEN I’m in Turkey, I always look forward to visiting the local imam and his clever cooking wife, Dordu, who live up in the hills on one of the islands off the coast of southern Turkey.

Dordu told me that growing up in a family of 12 children, she and her sisters would spend several hours each day making mountains of these manti to feed everyone for dinner.

In Turkey, everyone makes their own pastry, but I find it easiest to use storebought wonton wrappers.

The addition of a starchy vegetable into the filling is not traditional, but I find it makes it much lighter and more tender.

Filling

300g lamb mince

1⁄2 medium onion, peeled and grated 150g kumara/potato/pumpkin, boiled 10 minutes, then grated

2 cloves garlic, crushed with 1 teaspoon salt

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1⁄4 tsp regular chilli flakes

2 Tbsp chopped coriander

Zest of 1 lemon 1⁄2 tsp salt 1⁄4 tsp fine black pepper

To assemble:

3040 small dumpling or wonton wrappers (about 810cm) A little rice flour or cornflour to dust 1 egg, lightly beaten

Yoghurt sauce (to serve)

2 cups natural yoghurt 1 clove crushed garlic 2 Tbsp chopped chives 1⁄2 tsp salt Smoky chilli oil (to serve) 1⁄4 cup olive oil 1 tsp smoked paprika A pinch of chilli flakes Sprigs of mint to garnish

Method

Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl, working with a heavy spoon to achieve a pasty texture.

To assemble manti, brush a little beaten egg around the rim of each wrapper and drop small spoonfuls of filling in the centre of each (about 610g depending on size of wrapper). Pull up sides and press to seal at the centre top then draw in and seal edges on either side to form triangleshaped ends (see photo).

Place prepared manti on a tray sprinkled with a little rice flour or cornflour to stop them sticking.

Mix all the ingredients for the yoghurt sauce together in a bowl and put to one side.

Make the smoky chilli oil by gently heating olive oil with smoked paprika and chilli flakes. Don’t let it burn. Reserve to one side.

Bring a very large pot of wellsalted water to the boil and gently simmer about 1218 manti at a time, so as not to overcrowd the pot. Once they rise to the top of the pot, cook a further 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer cooked manti to a serving bowl.

To serve, spoon yoghurt mixture over cooked manti and drizzle with smoky chilli oil. Garnish with mint leaves.

NOTE: Prepared manti dumplings can be frozen then cooked straight from the freezer, in which case they will take an extra 23 minutes of cooking time.