It's a Great Day for Some Bosnian Klepe!

Mangia McCann
3 hours ago
3 min read

Today is the day - when the ultimate stakes begin. Lose and you’re out of the World Cup. Win and continue on to more tense and difficult matches. Tonight, the US Men’s National Team will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you’re not into geography, relax - it’s just one country. Advancing in the World Cup is hard enough for the men’s team than to take on two separate opponents at once! Since we finished first in our group, we get to take on a 3rd place opponent and we’re roughly 40 places apart in the FIFA world ranking.

However, you can’t be too safe and similarly, I wasn’t about to take on my first Bosnian dish without going direct to a resource to pull a recipe for today’s Eat ‘em and Beat ‘em dish. These Klepe (courtesy of Armel Sukovic of Food House Mostar) are tasty little dumplings filled with beef (or a beef and lamb mixture) nestled atop cold, garlicky yogurt sauce and topped with a delicious and vibrant paprika butter sauce. This meal is a little involved as you need to make your own pasta dough. But, you can prepare everything else while the dough rests and have this delicious meal, made from scratch, on your plate in less than 90 minutes.

Bosnian Klepe adapted from Armel Sukovic, Food House Mostar

Dough

2.5 cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 egg
⅔ cup warm water

Meat Filling

⅔ lb of ground beef
Small onion (or 2 shallots) finely minced
Garlic clove minced
½ tsp paprika

Yogurt Sauce

14 oz plain yogurt
4 garlic cloves, minced

Paprika Butter Sauce

Stick of butter
1 tbsp paprika

Prepare the dough. Place the flour and salt in a large food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the egg and blend. With the motor running, pour most of the water through the feed tube and allow to mix for about 20 seconds until the dough balls up on the blade. You can add a little more water if the mixture is too dry.

Flour a work surface, the dough and your hands and knead the dough by hand for 5-7 minutes until it is smooth and pliable. Wrap in cling film and set aside for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the meat filling and yogurt sauce. Combine the meat filling ingredients in a large bowl. Season with kosher salt and black pepper, along with a tablespoon of water, and mix until thoroughly combined. Reserve.

Combine the yogurt sauce ingredients in a medium bowl, along with a pinch of salt. Stir until combined, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve the meal.

Place a large pot of salted water on the stove and bring to a boil.

After the dough has rested, place it on a floured work surface, and roll it out as thinly as possible, about 2 mm thick. Using a 7 cm biscuit cutter, or a drinking glass, cut out rounds from the dough. N.B. Ball-up the scraps and wrap in cling film and rest another 10-15 mins before rolling out to make more dumplings after you finish assembling the first sets of dumplings.

Take a small amount of the meat mix, just under a tsp, and place in the center of each cut round of dough.

Fold the dough over the filling, making crescent shapes, and pressing the dough together.

Use the tines of a fork to secure and crimp the seal.

Heat your oven to 250 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Once the water is boiling, place 6-8 dumplings in the pot and cook for about 5 minutes. The dumplings will rise to the surface - cook for an additional minute thereafter.

Remove the cooked dumplings and place on a paper towel to absorb the water, then to the prepared baking sheet. Keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining dumplings.

When the last set of dumplings are in the water, melt the butter over medium-low heat.

When the butter has melted, add the paprika and stir to combine. Keep warm over low heat.

To serve, spread the yogurt sauce on a plate using the back of the spoon. Top with 4 dumplings, and spoon the sauce over each dumpling. These go well with a dijon vinaigrette dressed salad.