Khinkali
A historical dish of Georgian cuisine. Khinkalis are large dumplings filled with seasoned meat and eaten hot. Originally, Khinkalis were made from minced lamb, nowadays mostly from a mixture of pork- and beef mince. Black pepper, chili flakes, and cumin are traditionally used for seasoning. Dumplings are folded and the number of folds shows how good chef you are. I’ve read about 19 folds as the correct number of folds, someone told 24 folds, but also the number 36. In any case, these dumplings are folded to form a closed “bag” with a meat filling, which is boiled and eaten hot. Khinkalis should only be eaten with your hands. Since the meat put in Khinkali is rather liquid, which is achieved by adding water or broth, these dumplings contain liquid that is sucked out of the khinkali after the first bite. Georgian people never eat the remaining end, which is called kudi, this part is only used when cooking Khinkali and placing them in the pot. The ends are left on the plate so that later it can be seen how many Khinkalis someone has eaten.
It is believed that the way of making dumplings similar to Hinkali came to Georgia with the Mongols around the 13th century.
Food that is fun to prepare and that tastes much better when made at home than store-bought options. Khinkalis are boiled for 7 minutes and seasoned with plenty of salt. They are eaten either as they are or with the addition of black pepper.
Preparation time: 60-90 minutes, plus 7 minutes for boiling.
Level: Medium
Quantity: 14 Khinkalis
Ingredients:
Dough:
500 g wheat flour
200-250 ml of water
1 teaspoon of sea salt
Filling:
500 g of good quality minced beef and pork
2 medium onions pureed
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon of caraway
Salt and black pepper
Preparation:
- Prepare the dough. Mix the flour, salt, and water together by kneading the dough. The dough must be firm and relatively dry because the Hinkals must be strong so that the liquid does not break them. Knead for about 10 minutes. If necessary, add water little by little.
- Let the dough stand under the lid for at least 30 minutes so that the dough does not lose too much water and does not become even drier.
- Peel the onions and put them in a food processor, add about 100 ml of water, and crush until homogeneous.
- Place the minced meat in a bowl, and add salt, pepper, cumin, and chili flakes. Add onion and mix well. Add about 150-200 ml of water or broth to the mixture. The meat must be more watery, not the kind that can be used to make cutlets.
- Roll a 4 cm thick sausage about 30 cm long from the dough and cut a disc about 2.5 cm thick. Sprinkle flour on the work surface, flour the piece of dough, and roll it into a dough sheet about 15 wide and about 2 mm thick. When rolling, use such a technique that you roll from the center to the edges, so that the center of the dough plate is a bit thicker and the edges are rather thinner.
- Place the dough plate on the palm of your hand, place a heaped tablespoon of the meat filling in the center of the dough plate and start folding the Khinkali. When folding, such a technique is used that with one hand you fold the edge of the dough and with the other hand you squeeze the folds firmly together with your fingers. When folding like this, you have to make a whole circle so that ideally 19-20 folds are created, but this number is not certain. A strong tip of the dough remains in the center of the folding, which at the end of the folding should be strongly compressed so that the contents of the Hinkaali do not spill out and it stays firmly together. Cut the folded tip shorter.
- Prepare all the Khinkals in this way, and place them on a floured surface before cooking.
- For cooking, boil water in a large pot, season the water lightly with salt and put the Khinkals into it one by one in such a way that you hold them by the tail, and before releasing them, keep them in the water so that the surface starts to harden and does not stick together during cooking. If necessary, stir Hinkalis carefully with a spoon during cooking.
- Boil Hinkalis for 7 minutes from the moment of boiling. Take the Hinkals out of the water, sprinkle with black pepper if desired, and eat hot. Be sure to use only your hands when eating. After the first bite, suck out the meat juice left in the Hinkali and then eat the rest. All that remains is Khinkal’s tail, kudi, which classically is not eaten.
Ready!!
