Buuz (Mongolian Dumplings)

The way we pronounce "buuz" is "bodes." They are Mongolian dumplings. One time I signed up to feed the sister missionaries in town. One of them was from Mongolia, and while I didn't know her, I wanted to make something that was more reminiscent of where she was from than the spaghetti and pizza she was probably used to having in the states. One of my friends had served a mission in Mongolia, so I asked him what they frequently ate in Mongolia. This is what he told me. I enlisted Dad's help to make this dish because I kind of didn't know what I was doing. We guess that it turned out okay because the sister missionary basically ate all of them. Her companion told us that she hadn't really been eating previously and hadn't ever seen her eat like that before. We counted it as a success, and I hope that the meal was a blessing to her and helped her acclimate a little better to being in the U.S. Since then we've made buuz a few times, which we had to do since she ate most of them, and we didn't get much of a taste.

Buuz (Mongolian Dumplings)

Shells:
Flour
Water

Mix the flour and water to make a dough. Flatten the dough to about 2 or 3 millimeters in thickness. Cut the dough into discs using a cup, glass, or a circle cookie cutter.

Filling:
Minced or ground lamb
Chopped onion
Chopped garlic
Salt
Pepper

Be generous with the salt and pepper to give the meat a better flavor. Otherwise, since the shells are pretty bland, the dumplings don't have much of a flavor. The meat doesn't carry enough in and of themselves to make the dumplings tasty.

Place a ball of meat in the dough shell. Pinch the edges together, leaving an opening on top. Steam the dumplings for about 20 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

We served this with rice and made up a gravy-type sauce to go with it. The Mongolian sister just ate them how they were.