• Capital: Ulaanbaatar
• Population: about 3 million
• Area: 1 566 000 km²
• Currency: Tögrög

For my Mongolian recipe I made Buuz. Buuz are dumplings filled with ground lamb and some spices and herbs. I served it with a sauce made with soy sauce and scallions.

Buuz

Ingredients:

• 150ml water
• 250g flour
• 300g leg of lamb (or 300g minced lamb if you don’t have a meat grinder)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 3 scallions
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• Soy sauce

Directions:

First, Start by preparing all you ingredients. Ground your meat (if using leg of lamb). Thinly slice the onion and the garlic. Measure all the other ingredients.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the flour and mix with the water. Knead until you obtain a pliable smooth dough. Do not knead too much. If it is too dry, add some water. Set the dough aside to rest for 15 minutes.

While the meat is resting, mix the meat, onion, garlic, caraway seeds and coriander in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the meat and mix well until you obtain a smooth mixture. Heat a small skillet and cook a little bit of the filling to test for seasoning. Once the meat is well seasoned set it aside.

After 15 minutes, cut the dough in half and roll half into a long roll about 1 1/2 inch wide.

Repeat with the second half of the dough until you have a bunch of little balls.

Take each ball and roll it in about 3 inches wide flat circles. The dough should be very thin at this point.

Take each flat dough circle on the palm of you hand and put 1 large scoop of meat filling on it. Fold the edge on one side and press it with your finger. Create another fold next to the first one and pinch it with your fingers too. Rotate the dough on your hand and repeat the folding until you have gone all around the dumpling. You should obtain dumpling pockets with a small hole on top (look at the finished product picture on this article).

Heat some water in a large pot where you can fit a colander on top and close it with a lid to create a steamer. Oil the bottom of the colander to avoid sticking and cook your Buuz in batches by steaming them in the colander over the boiling water in the pot. Steam each batch for about 15 minutes.

Serve with some soy sauce mixed with the chopped scallions.

сайхан хооллоорой!