Mantije are an old Balkan dish, somewhere between a pie and a pastry, with a fantastic taste that rewards the extra effort.
Ingredients
- 1 kg minced meat (600 g beef, 400 g lamb)
- 3 red onions
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- salt
- pepper
- 800 g flour
- water, about 4-5 dl
- 100 g butter
Instructions Link to heading
- Mix the flour with salt and gradually add water until you get a soft dough.
- Knead the dough well, then divide it into three equal parts and shape them into balls.
- Cover the dough balls with cling film or a cloth and let them rest for 30-40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Finely chop the onions and garlic, then mix them with the minced meat, salt, and pepper using your hands.
- After the dough has rested, stretch each ball to about 20 cm in diameter and brush it with 3 tablespoons of butter.
- If you have a large work surface, stack the sheets on top of each other and roll them out into one large thin crust. Otherwise, roll them out separately.
- Place the meat filling along the edge of the dough across its full length, then brush with a little more butter.
- Roll the dough into a long snake-like roll and cut it into pieces about 3-4 cm wide.
- Shape each piece into a small ball and arrange them in a baking pan.
- Pour melted butter or cream over the top.
- Preheat the oven to 250 °C and bake for at least 30 minutes, or until the mantije are nicely browned.
- Optionally, pour a sauce made from sour milk or yogurt mixed with finely chopped garlic over the baked mantije, then return them to the oven for a few minutes until the sauce turns golden.
Notes Link to heading
The preparation is not exactly easy. For the dough, you only need wheat flour, salt, and water, but the tricky part is rolling it out very thin. The best way is over a table covered with a linen cloth, brushed with a little butter.
I did not get the rolling right from the start either, because the dough kept tearing. But with a lot of practice I got better at it. 😊
Vesela kuharija 😋👌