Pel'Meni

Juneau has a restaurant that all late night creatures flock to when their night is coming to a close. It's a late night meal that can heal anything the night has done to you. It is not something you can explain. It's something you must experience. This restaurant only has 2 things on the menu - meat or potato. But the final product, no matter the filling. Is the tastiest Russian dumpling ever!

I've been craving these like no other the past few days. So I did a lot of looking online to find recipes...but no matter how much I looked it just didn't sound right....it didn't sound like what I knew and loved. So I went to my "go-to-guy", Josh, and got the rest of the info I needed. (You must understand, Josh knows everyone and everything and he is one of the best chefs I know...this combined meant there was no way he would let me down.)

So I picked what I thought looked like the best base recipe for pelmeni. I found it on Natasha's Kitchen Blog. Then I went to town for 3 hours! I even got Mom to help with the assembly line and stuffing the little buggers. Once we had the first cookie sheet full I popped it in the freezer quickly. By the time the rest of the meat and dough was used up the first tray was frozen and ready to be boiled.

We used a really large stock pot and I boiled the whole tray at once (28 dumplings total) for about 10 minutes (3 minutes after they float to the top). They stuck a little and that many frozen guys at once cooled my boiling water, so I would probably do fewer at a time in the future. (Note that I only boiled 1 out of 4 trays which means I will have plenty in the freezer for a quick dinner later!)

Once they were ready I got 7 into each bowl (like I said, a LOT of dough so this was a bit much, but once I figure out the portion sizing when I create them again this might be a good serving size?) I dribbled some white vinegar, Sriracha (hot sauce),

 (this is one of my most favorite hot sauces! You can find it in the Asian section of most grocery stores), chopped cilantro, yellow curry  powder (doesn't seem that important, but makes a huge difference in flavor!), and dollop of sour cream. Pick your favorite soda out of the nearest vending machine or fridge, and you are set!

I still need to work on the amounts to use for the toppings....they were close, but not close enough to my Juneau favorite :) But at least I know all the ingredients. This is one dish worth mastering. It's so unique and flavorful. If I remember right, they are served with a slice of sourdough bread (true to Juneau style).

Weight Watchers Point Value = 10 (including sour cream) (though this can change drastically as I better master sizing and how many in a portion....I'll update this number as I master the final outcome :)


Once again - lesson learned -- take more pictures!!! I didn't take any during this whole experiment. So now I'm scrambling.....bad blogger! Bad! :D

PS...Here's a great blog post describing Juneau's Pel'Meni. It can give you an idea of the ambiance of the place and why so many around the world have a soft spot for the little, dirty, odd place of "fine dining" :) It also starts to illustrate why I have such a love/hate relationship with cruise lines.....evil necessity for now :(