Mongolian Khuushuur with Pan-Fried Mutton Pastries, Toasted Cumin, Pickled Cabbage Slaw and Sichuan Pepper Salt

Make the dough: combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add warm water and oil and stir to form a shaggy dough. Knead on a clean surface for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for at least 30 minutes. The rest is essential — it allows the gluten to relax for thin rolling.

Ingredients

• For the dough:
• 400g (3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 240ml (1 cup) warm water
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• For the mutton filling:
• 500g (1.1 lbs) ground mutton — substitute lamb shoulder ground, or 70/30 lamb/beef
• 1 medium onion, very finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground caraway
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 60ml (1/4 cup) cold water — keeps the filling juicy
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• For frying:
• Neutral oil to a depth of 1cm in a wide flat-bottomed skillet
• For the Sichuan pepper salt:
• 2 tbsp coarse salt
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, dry-toasted and ground
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• For the pickled cabbage slaw:
• 300g (3 cups) finely shredded green cabbage
• 1 medium carrot, julienned
• 60ml (1/4 cup) rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• For serving:
• Suutei tsai (Mongolian salted milk tea) — optional traditional pairing
• Cilantro sprigs and chili oil

Instructions

1. Make the dough: combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add warm water and oil and stir to form a shaggy dough. Knead on a clean surface for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for at least 30 minutes. The rest is essential — it allows the gluten to relax for thin rolling.
2. Make the slaw: combine cabbage and carrot in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and toss. Let sit 10 minutes, then squeeze gently to remove excess water. Add rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Toss and set aside.
3. Make the Sichuan pepper salt: toast the Sichuan peppercorns in a dry pan over medium heat for 90 seconds until aromatic. Cool, grind in a mortar with the salt and white pepper to a coarse powder.
4. Make the filling: in a bowl combine mutton, onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, caraway, salt, pepper and oil. Add cold water and mix vigorously in one direction with chopsticks for 2-3 minutes until the mixture becomes sticky and emulsified. This step is critical — the water binds with the protein to create a juicy interior. Refrigerate while shaping the dough.
5. Shape the wrappers: divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 12cm round wrapper, slightly thicker in the center than the edges. Stack with a thin dusting of flour between each.
6. Fill the khuushuur: place 2 heaped tablespoons of filling in the center of each wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half over the filling. Seal the half-circle by pressing the edges and crimping with a fork or pleating decoratively. The seal must be tight or the juices escape during frying.
7. Pan-fry the khuushuur: heat oil in a wide skillet over medium heat to 175C (350F). Working in batches of 4, place the khuushuur in the oil and fry for 3-4 minutes per side, until deep golden brown and crisp on both sides. The hot oil should come halfway up the side of the pastry — turn carefully with a slotted spatula.
8. Drain and serve: transfer to paper towels to drain briefly. Khuushuur should be eaten immediately while the pastry is shatteringly crisp and the filling is still very hot.
9. Serve communally: arrange khuushuur on a large platter. Pile pickled cabbage slaw to one side. Provide small bowls of Sichuan pepper salt, chili oil and cilantro. Diners dip the pastries into the spice salt and tear them open to release a fragrant cloud of cumin and lamb steam. Serve with hot suutei tsai if available.
10. Khuushuur (хуушуур) is the most beloved street food of Mongolia and the iconic celebration food of Naadam — the country's annual mid-summer national festival of wrestling, archery and horse racing. During Naadam, every family makes hundreds of khuushuur, eating them throughout the three-day festival. Mongolian cuisine is shaped by the country's pastoral nomadic tradition: lamb and mutton are the foundations, dairy is processed into dozens of forms, and dough wrappers (which descend from the same root as Chinese jiaozi and Russian pelmeni) are eaten daily. The combination of cumin, caraway and coriander in the filling reflects the spice routes that crossed Mongolia for two millennia, while the Sichuan pepper finishing salt is a modern addition popularized in Ulaanbaatar restaurants over the last twenty years.