Mantu

Ingredients

Dough

• 400 gplain flour
• 1 tspsalt
• 230 mlwarm water

Filling

• 500 gminced beef (roughly 15% fat)
• 500 gonions, chopped as finely as you can manage
• 2 tspsalt
• 1.5 tspground coriander seed
• 1 tspblack pepper
• ½ tspground cumin
• 2 tbspsunflower oil

Lentil sauce (qorma)

• 200 gyellow split peas or brown lentils, soaked 1 hour
• 3 tbspoil
• 1onion, finely diced
• 2garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsptomato puree
• 200 gtinned chopped tomatoes
• 1 tspground coriander
• ½ tspturmeric
• ½ tspchilli powder
• 400 mlwater
• 1 tspsalt

To serve

• 400 gyoghurt, strained 3 hours with ½ tsp salt
• 2garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
• 2 tspdried mint, rubbed to powder
• 1 tspchilli flakes

Directions

1. Knead flour, salt and water for 10 minutes into a firm, smooth dough, then rest it covered for 45 minutes; it should feel like an earlobe and stretch without springing back.
2. Mix the beef with the onion and all the filling spices, working it with your hand for 2 minutes until it turns sticky and pale. Do not cook it. The onion releases its water in the steamer and keeps the filling juicy.
3. Simmer the split peas with the sauce onion, garlic, tomato puree, tomatoes, spices, water and salt for 40 minutes over low heat until the pulses collapse and the sauce is thick enough to sit on a spoon.
4. Roll the dough as thin as a coin, about 1 mm, and cut 9 cm squares. Work with a few at a time and keep the rest under a cloth or they dry and refuse to seal.
5. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in each square. Bring two opposite corners together and pinch, then the other two, then pinch the four open seams shut to form the classic four-cornered purse.
6. Oil the tiers of a steamer well. Steam the mantu over vigorously boiling water, lid on, for 35–40 minutes; the dough turns translucent and the filling is firm and grey-brown with clear juices.
7. Whisk the strained yoghurt with the garlic paste and a splash of water to a thick pouring consistency.
8. Spread half the yoghurt on a warm platter, lay the mantu over it, spoon the hot lentil sauce down the middle, then finish with the rest of the yoghurt, dried mint and chilli flakes. Serve immediately.

Technique

• The onion should weigh as much as the meat. This is what separates Afghan mantu from a Central Asian manti; the filling is more onion-sweet than beefy.
• Steam time is long because the meat goes in raw. Cutting it short leaves a pink, gritty filling; test by opening one dumpling.
• Salt the yoghurt and let it strain: unstrained yoghurt slides straight off the dumplings and floods the plate.

Substitutions

• No tiered steamer? Line a colander or a bamboo steamer with oiled baking paper punched with holes and set it over a wide pan.
• Wonton wrappers will do at a push, but they are eggy and softer; reduce steaming to 20 minutes.

Variations

• Aushak, the leek-and-chive cousin, boiled rather than steamed and dressed with the same yoghurt and qorma.
• A Mazar-i-Sharif style with the split-pea sauce made without tomato, so it stays pale gold.

History

Steamed dumplings filled with minced meat and onion, topped with a garlic-yoghurt sauce and a spiced tomato-and-meat sauce, part of the same wider Central Asian and Turkic dumpling family that includes Turkish manti and various Central Asian manty, reflecting Afghanistan’s position along historic Silk Road trade routes that carried dumpling technique across a huge swath of Asia over many centuries. Afghan mantu’s specific double-sauce presentation, combining both a dairy-based and a tomato-based topping together on the same dish, distinguishes it from some neighboring versions that use only one or the other. Its labor-intensive preparation, individually filling and folding each small dumpling by hand, made mantu historically more of a special-occasion and guest-hospitality dish than routine daily cooking within many Afghan households.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mantu?

Mantu is a main from Afghanistan: steamed beef-and-onion dumplings topped with yoghurt, lentils and dried mint. Steamed dumplings filled with minced meat and onion, topped with a garlic-yoghurt sauce and a spiced tomato-and-meat sauce, part of the same wider Central Asian and Turkic dumpling family that includes Turkish manti and various Central Asian manty, reflecting Afghanistan’s position along historic Silk Road trade routes that carried dumpling technique across a huge swath of Asia over many centuries. Afghan mantu’s specific double-sauce presentation, combining both a dairy-based and a tomato-based topping together on the same dish, distinguishes it from some neighboring versions that use only one or the other. Its labor-intensive preparation, individually filling and folding each small dumpling by hand, made mantu historically more of a special-occasion and guest-hospitality dish than routine daily cooking within many Afghan households.

How long does Mantu take to make?

Mantu takes 1 hr 15 min of preparation and 50 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings (about 32 dumplings). It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Mantu?

Yes, within limits. No tiered steamer? Line a colander or a bamboo steamer with oiled baking paper punched with holes and set it over a wide pan. Wonton wrappers will do at a push, but they are eggy and softer; reduce steaming to 20 minutes.

What is the most important thing to get right in Mantu?

Mix the beef with the onion and all the filling spices, working it with your hand for 2 minutes until it turns sticky and pale. Do not cook it. The onion releases its water in the steamer and keeps the filling juicy.