Manti: Turkish Oven-Simmered Beef Dumplings

For my first attempt at making paper-thin shao mai-type dough, these didn't turn out too badly.  The dough, made from flour, water, egg yolk, olive oil and salt, was a little too thick in places, but still delicious and functional.  Not to mention bright yellow.  The filling called for lamb (I substituted beef), onion, oregano, mint, salt and pepper.  I'm not normally a big fan of mint, but in this recipe it was amazing.

After mixing and resting the dough, I rolled it as thinly as possible, and then cut it into roughly 2"x2" squares.  I put a rounded teaspoon of filling on each one and bunched the dough around it, squeezing the top so that it resembled a little drawstring pouch.  The dough was strong and malleable, and even if it did break in places, the filling stayed put.

This recipe is unusual in that the dumplings are first baked in the oven, then simmered in chicken broth while still in the oven.  I served these with a garlicky-minty yogurt sauce, which was a perfect offset to the hot and little-too-salty dumplings.