Spicy Lamb Manti
For her version of this Turkish dumpling dish, Cassie Piuma, chef of Sarma in Boston, makes a filling of ground Australian lamb, Aleppo pepper, ground onions with some of the juice drained out, garlic, parsley, Turkish red pepper paste, the Middle Eastern spice Baharat, salt, and black pepper.
Separately, she rubs lamb shoulder with the garlic paste toum and Turkish red pepper paste, along with a spice mix of Szechuan peppercorns, black pepper, Urfa biber pepper, fennel, cumin, a little allspice, and salt. She roasts that low and slow over a pan with a little white wine and white wine vinegar until it’s very tender, cools it and then slices it into bite-sized pieces.
She makes creamed corn cooked with onions, Fresno chiles, ginger, and garlic, plus some Szechuan peppercorns, and a little bit of saffron, turmeric, and allspice. That’s all simmered in cream and water and then finished with yogurt, honey and salt. A little more than half of it is puréed and passed through a fine chinois and then added back to the rest.
She stuffs the lamb filling between pasta squares, ravioli-style, boils the dumplings and then adds them to a pan with a sauce of tomatoes and butter.
The lamb shoulder is reheated in oil with red onion, sweet pepper, and shishito pepper until the meat is crispy, and then she finishes it with more of the Szechuan pepper mix.
She plates the manti over the creamed corn, tops it with the crispy lamb shoulder and garnishes it with parsley, mint, and dill.
Price: $28