Khuushuur

Ingredients

• Flour500 g
• Water220 ml
• Lamb — fatty600 g
• Onions2
• Garlic4 clove
• Broth or water150 ml
• Cabbage — optional150 g
• Oil for frying500 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Knead an unleavened dough from the flour, water and salt and work it ten minutes to smoothness.

   14 min

2. 2

   Cover the dough and rest it thirty minutes.

   32 min

3. 3

   Chop the lamb fine by knife, fat and all, and mix it with the onion and garlic.

   25 min

4. 4

   Pour the broth into the filling and work it to a loose but not runny mass.

   8 min

5. 5

   Divide the dough into balls and roll each into a twelve-centimetre round.

   20 min

6. 6

   Put filling on one half, fold it over and crimp the edge tightly and evenly.

   25 min

7. 7

   Fry them in a centimetre of oil, three minutes a side, to a blistered crust.

   35 min

About the dish

The filling is let down with water or broth until loose. The steam inside is what makes a khuushuur juicy; dry mince gives a dense lump.

The dough is unleavened, without yeast or egg. It has to be thin and crisp rather than risen — yeast dough makes something else entirely.

Khuushuur are fried for Naadam, the summer festival, and are counted in hundreds. In those days they are sold on every corner and eaten hot in the hand.

Worth knowing

• — Check the seam against the light. Any gap lets the juices out and the oil puts on a firework display.
• — Pour a centimetre of oil — this is not deep-frying. A khuushuur should lie in the oil rather than float in it.
• — Prick them with a fork before eating. The steam inside scalds, and Mongolians let it out first and bite afterwards.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

28 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

52 g

More from Mongolia

• Buuz — Large steamed dumplings of chopped mutton. The centrepiece of the Mongolian lunar new year.
• Tsuivan — Home-made noodles steamed directly over the meat, then tossed through it.
• Suutei tsai — Mongolian salted milk tea with butter, boiled rather than brewed.