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Experiences of a Dutch Journalist
Pelmeni Party, 7 January 2003
We celebrated Russian Orthodox Christmas with a traditional Pelmeni party at our house (A WHAT??).
This is Pelmeni, dough with meat filling, the Russian variant of dumplings or ravioli. It is usually prepared in large quantities in winter, a relic from the past when people didn't have a freezer (people stored the freshly prepared Pelmeni outside). To assure a freezer full of Pelmeni, you invite a bunch of people over to your house and let them do the work...
Eric here was to roll out the pastry.
Julian had to cut rounds out of the dough.
This group was to put the filling in the rounds.
As were these ladies.
Emile supervised the lot while enjoying a beer and a cigarette.
Russians use minced pork and beef. We came up with a new variant: vegetarian Pelmeni with spinach and feta.
This is what you get if you fold it the right way.
We ended up with an empty freezer as the guests ate ALL the Pelmeni they had just prepared..... No problem, we didn't like the stuff in the first place!
