Frozen khinkali cannot be compared with those that are cooked with your own hands. We advise you to take a chance and make this dish yourself - this way you will understand that the semi-finished product in the store is not worthy of your attention. This article will be useful to everyone who has decided to properly cook khinkali at home. Here you will find the best recipes with pictures, as well as a couple of secrets to help make cooking easier and achieve the best taste.

If you think that homemade khinkali are something similar to dumplings, then you are wrong. There is a significant difference between these dishes. For example, for khinkali, the filling is not prepared using a meat grinder, but by hand - the meat must be chopped into small pieces. According to real culinary experts, this meat filling takes on a special taste.

The classic khinkali recipe does not necessarily contain only one meat; it is allowed to add vegetables, mushrooms, cheese to it. It is also difficult to imagine this dish without the taste of cilantro - Georgians necessarily add it to their favorite treat.

The dough is prepared from three components. You just need to take flour, salt, water. And you should also add hot pepper - this is the rule of the national Georgian dish, but you can not follow it if peppery food is contraindicated for you or you just don't like it.

To properly prepare real khinkali is not only about mixing the ingredients in the right proportion. There are also cooking rules. Cooking a treat is in a large saucepan, sending just a couple of things into boiling water. Boiling large quantities of khinkali can cause them to stick together.

Experienced Georgian chefs believe that care must be taken when sculpting each piece. When making a bag with a filling, the edges of the dough need to be connected, making folds. There are 18-19 such wrinkles in an ideal product. From the first time, such art may not be within your power - do not be discouraged, the ability to make graceful bags of meat comes with experience.

Traditional option

If you started making khinkali at home, a classic recipe with a photo will help you. You can use any type of meat, but we recommend preparing a dish with lamb or a mixture of pork and beef. Buy the following ingredients for the meat:

• 2 cups of flour.
• Salt.
• Water.
• Bulb.
• 300 grams of meat.

We begin to prepare a treat by kneading the dough. To do this, sift the flour on the table in the form of a slide. Let's make a depression in the center, pour half a glass of cold water into it. Then we salt the water, knead the dough. Add water as needed. The dough should be tight and elastic. Now let's put it aside and get busy with the meat.

Ideally, you need to grab a knife, chop the tenderloin very finely. So you can cook khinkali at home with your own hands according to the classic recipe. Chop the onion separately. Add the onion to the minced meat.

It remains to salt the meat filling to taste, add cold water or broth to it. This should be done like this: pour the liquid in a thin stream, and actively stir the minced meat with the other hand (it should absorb water, but remain elastic enough).

We return to the dough, it needs to be divided into parts, which we roll out separately into circles. Put the meat filling in the center of each circle. As the recipe reminds us, you need so much so that it is equal in weight to the amount of dough.

Now you need to collect the edges of each circle with wrinkles. The result is a pouch with a ponytail. We will pull it up a little, twist it with a spiral. Having molded how much khinkali you need, you can freeze them for the future or immediately boil them in boiling water.

It is not difficult to properly cook khinkali at home. We heat the water in a wide enough saucepan. Each creation must be carefully lowered into it by the tail. As soon as the khinkali float up, we mark a little time (the bags are boiled for 10-12 minutes). We serve the dish to the table in the heat of the heat, do not forget to sprinkle with black pepper. The recipe also recommends decorating the treat with coriander, cumin, mint, parsley. The taste of the dish will be amazing - pre-made ready-made khinkali cannot be compared with homemade khinkali.

Making a treat in a double boiler

Now we will suggest a method for preparing khinkali in a double boiler. First, collect the ingredients for the dish:

• 0.5 kg of flour.
• 1 tbsp. hot water.
• 1 egg.
• Salt.
• 0.5 kg of meat.
• 3 onions.
• Pepper, spices, herbs.

Let's start preparing the dish by processing the meat. We cut, add the onion. Now you need to add broth or water to the filling, how much liquid it will take in. It remains to pepper and salt the minced meat for khinkali, add finely chopped greens, mix well.

We will send the filling to the refrigerator, now we need to prepare the dough for khinkali. For him, you need to sift the flour, making a slide out of it. We make a hole in the center, break an egg there, add salt and hot water. Knead the dough quickly. Let it stand a little - about half an hour.

Now we begin to sculpt khinkali. After dividing the dough into parts, roll out each in the form of a circle. Now you need to put the filling in the center. It should weigh the same as the weight of the dough itself in each individual mug.

We carry out jewelry work - we collect the dough in a bag, folding the edges in the form of wrinkles. When each khinkali is molded, we send the bags to the double boiler. Cooking time - 30-40 minutes. By the way, after that, you can additionally fry the khinkali in the oven - so they turn out to be a little crispy.

Immediately after the end of cooking, we will hasten to put the food on the table. Sprinkle it with black pepper. Separately, you can offer greens to your household or guests. Tarragon, cilantro, parsley, mint will perfectly complement the taste of the dish. It will be delicious!

The secret of taste is in the right use

Even if you used the classic step-by-step cooking recipe, you will be able to get to know the taste of the Caucasian treat if you learn to eat correctly. To do this, you will have to forget about the usual cutlery and the rules of etiquette. It is customary to eat this dish with your hands. If you manage to get into a real Georgian khinkalnaya, you will notice that its guests are not shy. Moreover, the modest and quiet eating of the dish will be considered an offense here: it is believed that the guest did not like the treat, since he behaved with restraint during the meal.

Cooked khinkali should be held by the tail, biting the bag with the filling with your teeth. First you need to drink a juicy and aromatic broth, and then proceed to the meat and dough. By the way, real connoisseurs of this delicious dish don't eat tails. They turn out to be quite tough, and the Georgians call them the umbilical cord. Even in Georgia, it is not customary to serve khinkali sauce for treats: the dish is considered perfect, so it does not require additional flavors.

If you are used to eating dumplings or dumplings dipped in sour cream or ketchup, then you can put them on the table. But it is better to just melt the butter - it does not have a too harsh taste, does not interrupt the aroma that real khinkali exudes.