Everyone has managed to become known around the world with their unique special dishes. When Kayseri is mentioned, manti comes to mind throughout the world, as in all of Turkey. Although manti, one of the most important pastries of Turkish cuisine, is made in many different cities, Kayseri manti is a much more special and distinct taste. The dish we call manti in Turkish cuisine is made with similar names in different world cultures.
Manti, a very popular dish in Turkish cuisine, is produced by combining meat and dough. The most basic detail in its consumption is to use garlic yoghurt and tomato paste and light pepper sauce. What needs to be done for this consumption is to follow a classic ravioli recipe. In this regard, I have been using the classic and wonderfully delicious manti recipe that I got from Ali Caliskan in my kitchen for years. You should definitely try this special recipe with your own hands and feel the taste of this manti on your palate.
How to Make Ravioli at Home?
I will share with you the manti recipe, with all its ingredients and steps, which I have obtained from Ali Caliskan and which I have preferred to use at home for years. You will all see how easily the ingredients for this recipe can be obtained and how easily the recipe can be implemented if you pay attention. First of all, to prepare the manti, we need to prepare the following list of ingredients in 3 different sections.
To prepare the manti dough, we need to prepare the following ingredients.
- 6 cups of flour
- 2 glasses of warm water
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
We will need to prepare the following ingredients to create the filling we will use in the ravioli.
- 0.5 kg lean ground meat
- 2 medium sized onions
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon of chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
To serve the manti, it will be enough to prepare these ingredients.
- Garlic yoghurt in desired amount to pour over it
- At the last stage, 2 spoons of tomato paste sauce melted in 2 spoons of butter to be poured on top.
After obtaining all the ingredients listed and getting them ready, we can start by kneading the manti dough. To knead the dough, we can start kneading the dough by adding flour first, then egg, warm water and salt into the middle of the flour in a clean bowl. After the dough reaches a consistency that does not stick to your hands, it will be enough to leave it closed for 5 minutes to rest.
After the dough is ready, for the mortar we will use with raw minced meat, we first need to grate our onions and add them to the minced meat, then add the spices and knead the mortar thoroughly. After our minced meat mixture is ready, it is important to divide the dough into pieces and roll these pieces out as thinly as possible with a rolling pin. When turning thinly rolled dough into ravioli, you can use square slices of any size you want.
With the ravioli mixture you added to the dough you sliced, each piece that we closed by squeezing the corners is covered with flour on a separate side and kept to prevent it from drying out and cracking. Once you have prepared the manti by rolling out all the dough pieces, you can now proceed to the cooking phase of your recipe. To cook, you will need to boil plenty of water in a deep pot beforehand, throw the manti into this water and cook for about 20 minutes.
After the manti are cooked, butter and tomato paste sauce is prepared in a suitable bowl, and garlic yoghurt is prepared in a separate bowl. Adding some of the water from the manti into the tomato paste sauce we prepared will thin out its consistency and make it more usable. After placing the manti with a strainer spoon on a deep plate where we will serve the meal, you can first pour garlic yoghurt and tomato paste sauce on top, and at the last stage, you can add spices such as chili pepper and sumac on top.
What Should You Pay Attention to When Making Ravioli?
Manti is not a dish that can be made by simply rolling out the dough and closing it by adding a filling. Although making manti seems like such a simple process for everyone, it is actually a very laborious dish that needs to be made with care. Only in this way can you get a manti that you can’t get enough of and whose taste you will never forget. In this respect, the two most basic points are to roll out the manti dough as thin as possible and to prepare the filling with the right ingredients in the right amount.
When you prepare manti carefully, paying attention to the tips, you will encounter a truly troublesome and demanding cooking adventure. However, when you make manti correctly, both you and everyone sitting at your table will not be able to get enough of this taste. A real manti, which you open by hand and make with care, will provide a more special and indescribable taste than many traditional Turkish dishes.
While performing the operations I will mention in each of the recipe stages, of course, there is no top secret or any process that requires mastery. However, as I mentioned before, it will be beneficial to pay attention to the dough rolling process while preparing the manti. When making dishes such as ravioli, eggs are especially added to the dough to make it easier to roll out. However, especially people with a vegan diet or people with egg allergies may wonder how to make ravioli dough without eggs.
One of the biggest problems you may encounter while cooking manti is that the manti open while cooking. The reason behind this problem is that you are not careful when closing the manti and the corners of the manti do not stick to each other well. In this case, after wrapping the manti into a bundle, you will need to pinch the corners tightly. In fact, to make this easier, you can also use the ravioli preparation apparatus that has been sold in many markets in recent years. When you squeeze two layers of dough tightly on top of each other in this apparatus, the ravioli grains fall out of the strainer easily and there is less chance of them opening.
Another important point is that you should pay attention to the amount of salt and spices while preparing the filling for the manti. If you want the manti stuffing to be spicy, you can use more chili pepper or henna pepper. Depending on your taste, you can add walnuts to the stuffing, use parsley, or choose to use different spices. You can even cook the manti in tomato paste to make a difference. If you want, you can add some turmeric to the cooking water or you can choose to use mild henna pepper in the cooking water to make it red. However, it is important that you remember to consume the manti by cooking it for about 15 minutes without closing the lid.
How to Make Eggless Ravioli?
If you do not want eggs in the ravioli dough and you are not going to use meat in the filling, you can also prepare eggless ravioli dough and meatless ravioli recipes. In this case, while preparing the dough, you can add flour, salt and some oil, as well as water while kneading the manti dough, to bring the dough to the required consistency and use it. In this case, rolling out the manti dough may be a little more difficult. But of course, the dough will be rolled out even if it takes longer. Soybeans, green lentils or different types of vegan foods can be used in the stuffing of manti.
You Can Add Homemade Ravioli to Your Stocks
While I can prepare this recipe, which I obtained thanks to Ali Caliskan, fresh whenever I want, I often prefer to make it in excess and keep it in the deep freezer. Because, as you can see in the recipe, the amount of flour and stuffing I use allows me to achieve this advantage. You can also prepare a certain portion of the manti you have prepared with these ingredients by cooking them for your meal. You can have ready-made manti whenever you want by keeping the rest of it in refrigerator bags without cooking it.
It is beneficial to fill the manti, which you can easily prepare at home, in a container or tray beforehand, without sticking them together, to prevent them from sticking together when stored in a refrigerator bag. In this way, the leftover manti can be stored in a container or bag. You can consume the manti you have kept in the freezer whenever you want, by adding them to boiling water and preparing various sauces.
See you in the next post,
Anil UZUN