Armenia

Menu: Sini manti (beef dumplings and garlic yogurt sauce) | Recipe Source: mission-food.com

A note before I dive in: this dinner deserved a MUCH better photoshoot than it got. I don’t have a light ring, so my photos need good natural light in order to turn out well, and in winter in my kitchen, good natural light is in short supply. Assembling these dumplings took way (and I mean WAY) longer than I thought it would, and by the time they were done cooking, it was totally dark out and the pictures turned out a little meh. Which is seriously unfortunate, because these tasted amazing!

Now that that’s off my chest, another confession: prior to cooking this dish, the sole facts I knew about Armenia were

• that it’s a country with an extremely troubled history (its people have suffered through multiple genocides)
• that the Kardashians are Armenian

That’s a woefully short list for a country that’s considered an integral part of the Cradle of Civilization. Armenia’s recorded history spans over 3,500 years, beginning with the Hayasa-Azzi culture and culminating in the Armenian population of today: a proud, indomitable people who occupy the highland steppes and, as it turns out, make very good dumplings.

Thoughts: This is one of those recipes that tastes infinitely better than it looks. I was a little skeptical about the yogurt sauce, but it added an amazing coolness and smoothness to the dish. I don’t know that I’d make this one again simply because the assembly took SO long, but was it worth all the work? Yes, yes, yes.

Ready to cook?

Sini Manti: https://mission-food.com/homemade-manti/ 

Alterations: I used a gluten-free flour and also added some tomato sauce to the broth (based on a different recipe that I came across). The tomato sauce adds some good acidity that pairs perfectly with the yogurt.