​Here’s the recipe for Pylamani! (a.k.a. Russian Raviolis/Dumplings)

©T.B. Cooper

I originally posted this on my timeline on Facebook on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, and I just "found" it again, and thought I'd share it. I'm a full-blooded Russian. No I don't speak it, I never learned it at home. I grew up in the 80's and my dad didn't want us kids being harassed as "Commies" in school. I never was, but my sister and brother were and had to lie and say they were German, just so people wouldn't give them a hard time.

Photo credit: http://russia-travel-guide.com

and yeah, I'm such a douche, that I had to put this picture from wikipedia.com on here since after spending two hours looking for a picture of pylamanis in all of our photos, I found exactly: none. WTH? Like what kind of family are we that we have no pictures of a dish we make ALL the TIME!! Ugh!

Anyway, my niece who is pregnant with her first baby and lives in Michigan, was craving these so I typed it up and posted it for all of my nieces and nephews, friends etc.
​Now I am sharing the recipe with you!

Pylamani (you'll see this spelled MANY, MANY, different ways. Very common spelling is "pelmeni." We've just always spelled it this way, and I refuse to change, especially when the common way of spelling it is still just a matter of how some people hear it phonetically){pronounced (kinda-like)"pillow-many"}, 
is a Russian "ravioli" (dough with meat filling, aka: a dumpling), that is usually served in a broth or with sour cream.


​I hate it with sour cream, but the rest of my family LOVES it that way, including my kids... which when they ask for the Pylamanis in sour cream, I usually question them and ask if they are in fact, mine...
​
BTW, I love sour cream, just NOT in my pylamani!

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So here it is. I've cleaned it up a bit, but otherwise it's pretty much what I shared in March. Enjoy!

Ingredients for meat:

• 1 (5 lb) roll of ground beef (or just 5 lbs of ground beef, just don't go too lean because.. well just don't)
• 2 eggs
• diced/finely cut green onion
• 10 shakes Dill Weed
• 5 shakes of Lawry's Garlic Salt 
• 15 shakes of Low sodium Morton's Nature's Seasons

Ingredients for dough:

• Roughly 5 cups of flour
• 5 large eggs (6 if small)
• 2-3 shakes of salt
• water (probably no more than two cups)

Directions: 

1. For the meat, mix all ingredients together. That's easy!, but You should probably prepare the meat while the dough sets. 
2. For the dough, mix all ingredients together, adding the water a little at a time, and flour as needed to get the consistency right. ................knead, knead, knead on a floured surface..... then when the dough is firm and well mixed (will be slightly sticky and resemble... pizza dough, maybe?..... place in a bowl and cover with a towel and let sit for about a half hour........
3. Now, when the meat is ready and you are ready, grab a chunk of dough (like with two hands, a clump), and on a floured service, knead it some more, then with a knife cut it in half.
4. Throw one half back in the bowl.
5. The half you have left out, roll, roll, roll it into a large fat snake.
6. Cut the snake in half.
7. Throw one half back in the bowl.
8. The remaining snake, roll until the diameter is somewhere between a quarter and a half dollar. Smaller/closer to a quarter=better.
9. Now with your knife, start cutting chunks off the tip about 1-1 1/2" pieces. As you cut these, push them into a pile of waiting flour and then "fluff" them with your fingers~ you know.. "fluff," uh...just make sure the damn pieces are floured.
10. Then, with a rolling pin, flatten each piece into discs the size of a jelly jar lid. (My Babushka, my Dad's mom, used to roll the dough into a large flat sheet then use either a cup, or a cookie cutter, the size of jelly jar lid, and by-pass this snake rolling step. It really probably is the better/easier option, but, my Mommy has always done it this way, and her family before her, So this is how we do... how we do...that's just how we do... Sorry, where was I?
11. Okay, well you remember the putting together part, but for those of you who don't: grab a disc in one hand, hold flat. With a fork, grab enough meat to fill in the center of the disc, about half of the circle's area.
12. Now, fold the disc in half, being sure to squish the meat down into the now "half moon" shape, pocket.
13. Then pinch the "pocket" closed.
14. Then take the tips of the half circle and fold together to make them match and then put one "flappy tip" under the other and pinch together.... (If the dough is not sticking together, wet your fingers a bit. If it is too sticky, add a bit of flour).
15. As you make these, line them on a tray. We use cleaned styro-foam trays (the kind you get meat on), but you can use wax-papered cookie trays. As each tray is done, place flat in freezer. Once frozen, you should have enough to fill 2 maybe 2 1/2 gallon freezer bags. You could cook immediately, but there's just some kind of better form-holding thing going on with them when you freeze them.

When you're ready to cook:

1. In a large pot (like the really large stainless steel stock pot) bring water (about 3/4 full) to a boil.
2. Using Knorr chicken bouillon (In the brown plastic jar with the yellow label), scoop some into the water and stir (I like my broth YELLOW and SALTY [don't judge] so I probably put somewhere around six heaping tablespoons, maybe more {I have a scooper in the jar, and I put three scoops}.
3. Then, dump the pylamanis (about half a gallon bag at a time) into the pot and let boil until they are floating at the top.
4. Then fish them out and put into a side bowl (so they don't get bloated)

When Ready to Eat:

• Garnish with: Nature's Seasons, Dill weed, Soy Sauce (optional), and/or Sour cream (Like the heathens like {I don't}, with, or without the bouillon. I like mine with bouillon.

Hope this helps. If you need clarification, just message me. Love you!