If the going gets tough, the tough goes cooking
Lazy Kuban dumplings in tomato sauce
From my favorite Russian site. We will talk about it, think about it, understand the process, and enjoy every minute. The one thing that I love about my favorite Russian food site is the many pastries and pastry dough. It seems every babushka can figure a simple pastry from collective memory. I’ve never been a good pastry chef, so I love these different methods from people that are not scared of pastry. This one is not going to be baked. And the filling opens up a raft of various possibilities, as long as one remembers a few things.
The KUBAN part of the name refers to a strumby. Strumby is a dumpling version made in Kuban in the south of Russia. The simple name is dumplings with meat. The feature is the way they’re shaped. These are small meat rolls stewed in tomato and cream sauce. They are called ‘lazy’ because you roll out the dough only once, fill it with meat or stuffing of your choice and then cut it into circles. Imagine a lazy pastry! A sharp thin-bladed knife is really recommended for this.
We will first fry these circles and then stew them in the sauce. I hope you have some last lost sweet overripe tomatoes left in the cold areas.
You can use any kind of meat or vegetarian filling. The formal recipe has beef, pork and the fatty part of a brisket. So here is the first problem – too much meat and I don’t like pork at all, but it was clear we are looking for a rich filling. So I checked out some vegetarian filling options but as I have not tried them, I’ll just mention them. Mine were made with simple tasty fried ground beef, and some cooked mashed dry beans that kept the ground beef together. Seasoning was simple – black pepper and tamari soy sauce. If I did not have soy sauce, I would have used sea salt. Chicken will work and a filling like this is the place to add most everything that is leftover in the fridge. The filling has to be cooked and don’t go mixing raw and cooked ingredients now! The filling only has to hold together. For vegetarian, one should look at cooked lentils and search for vegetarian pie fillings where the secret is in the way it is seasoned. You’ll find something even if it is with a firm tofu, crumbled and fried – The best meat substitute. Again, seasoning is the secret. I’m not sure if tofu is reasonably priced where you are, but I’m lucky sometimes and get a block that is cheaper than any other protein. Cannot complain about that.
What pretty little fellows there on their plate.
This is what is needed :
Dough:
- Flour -170 g
- Egg – 1 egg
- Water – 2-3 tbsps
- Salt – 1 tsp
Stuffing: (or whatever you have – it does need the onion of course – get your stuffing prepared first)
- Mixed stuffing (beef and pork) – 250 g
- Bacon or smoked pork belly – 40 g
- Onion – 1 pc
- Salt and pepper to taste
Sauce:
- Tomatoes (large) – 3 pcs
- Onion – 1 pc
- Carrots – 1 pc
- Garlic – 2 pcs
- Tomato paste – 1 tbsp
- Cream (30%) – 150 ml
- Water – adjust as desired
- Oil for frying
Preparation:
Pastry dough: Place flour, salt, an egg and two spoons of water in a bowl and knead the dough by hand or with a mixer. Add a third spoon of water if necessary. For more elasticity, just do it in a mixer and mix for 15 minutes.
2. While the dough is kneading, prepare the sauce. While the sauce is very tasty, I would add some dried herbs to enhance the flavor. I would also not put the cream in to cook, but add it at the end. Don’t go use a bottle or box of pasta sauce now .. it looks the same but fresh is better in this case. Yes I know, this whole recipe looks like stuffed pasta in sauce, and in a sense it is.
Finely chop onions and carrots and fry in vegetable oil. Add tomato paste. Add tomato pulp. The fastest way is to grate them over the pan and let the skin remain on top of the grater.
Add salt and pepper and cook the sauce for a while until it starts smelling fragrant and full of ripe tomato. Then add the cream and extra water if it needs it. It is going to thicken slightly so it does not have to be very thick. Let it stew slowly while preparing the strumby.
Back to the pastry dough: When the dough is smooth, let it sit (covered) for 15 minutes and finish the stuffing if that is not done yet. Roll out with flour on your board to a single layer. Put the filling on there and roll a tight roll.
Be sure to pinch the edge together with a little water on your fingers. You do not want it to burst open. The original recipe says to ‘sew’ it together, but good heavens, finger pinches will do it as well.
Cut your roll into 2.5 – 3 cm rounds and place in some flour to hold together, and also will thicken the sauce.
Now comes the change in preparation. No oven .. Fry these rolls until both sides are golden brown.
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Then pour the sauce over and for a little more flavor, add crushed garlic, a bay leaf, check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Cook for 30 minutes under a lid on low heat – you do not want them to burn and you don’t want all the sauce to cook away.
Serve hot with a handful of fresh chopped herbs and a further dollop of sour cream. I had some plain yogurt and used it in place of sour cream, as cream is not a staple in our household. A green salad works as an accompaniment, or something like peas or green beans – you definitely want a little green.
Mine came out very nice. I could have had some more herbs. All I did for the green, was to chop some lettuce. This is relatively more fiddly than my usual very simple recipes but it made a nice change from yet another pot of pasta. Oooh my tomato sauce was spoonlicking gooood!