I thought I'd tell everyone about a traditional mongolian dish my family eat during celebrations or when we've just not ate them in a while. Booz The first is called booz, I didn't know how to spell it actually but this is the most widely used one. It's pronounced as "bauds" but the D is very light (in our family anyway). Booz consists of lots of dumpling type items. If you bring all your fingers and thumb together, they're about the size of the cavity in your hand. Roughly 4-5cm in diameter each. They consist of: A pastry outer coating, which is about 2mm thick, and the top of the booz is pinched to form a flower like pattern with holes. Lamb minced meat inside. The lamb is minced, and then put onto a flat piece of pastry. The pastry is then folded around the meat and then joined at the top with holes to allow air inside. Cooking: The initial cooking stage is steaming. About 40 booz are placed into a multi-tower steaming thing. Then they're left to cook until the pastry hardens slightly and become self supporting. Serving: This is something my mum always does, though I've never cooked it myself. Before serving, take off the lid of the steaming pan, and using a chopping board or other large spanning object waft air onto the booz for about a minute. This apparently stops the booz from sticking together in the pan. Eating: There is usually nothing in the booz except pastry and lamb meat. So, we almost always add soy sauce to each one. Either sprinkle it over, OR you can use the small holes in the booz to drop the soy sauce into it. Inside the booz theres usually quite a lot of liquid fat, which isn't too bad but not entirely healthy. I tend to drain some of it on the plate and eat the rest. the booz themselves are eaten with hands, or if you're a wuss and can't take the heat use a knife and fork. Khoorshoor Another one which I had no idea how to spell. We pronounce it something like "horseshoe" or "hoorshoo". This is quite similar to booz in ingredients and cooking method. Instead of making small ball shapes, the pastry is used to make a large spanning, but ultimately thin item. The lamb meat is placed in the center, and 2 layers of pastry (about 15cmx8cm) in the shape of a pasty are used to enclose it. Again, it's steamed and I think the same air wafting procedure is used as well. Khoorshoor like booz is eaten with soy sauce, I usually bite the top pastry off and pour the sauce into the inside. About 5-6 servings each. Most of the time, gherkins are eaten with these 2, since the sour and strong taste contrasts well with the mild meat and pastry flavour. Damn....you guys don't know what you're missing .
