INGREDIENTS FOR 16 PIECES:

Stuffing 

250 g of minced beef (or lamb)
½ medium size, minced white onion
1 minced clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of minced parsley
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of seed oil 

Shell

1 medium size potato
250 g Riso Scotti native rice
Salt
15 g flour 00
Plenty of seed oil to fry

PROCEDURE:

Heat the oil in a pan, join all ingredients of the stuffing (apart from parsley) and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. At the end, put out the fire, add the parsley and stir. Put the meat in a bowl and let it cool down. In a pan, boil the potato with the skin until it’s soft. Remove the potato, salt the water, add the rice, and cook for 20 minutes. Peel the potato. Pour the rice in a bowl and mix it by hand with the potato until the mixture is merged. Add the flour, until the mix is sticky. Divide the mix in 16 equal parts and, with damp hands, form the balls. Place a ball in the palm of the left hand and press in the middle of it with the forefinger of the right hand in order to make a hollow. Keep on widening the ball until a shell takes shape. The hands have always to be damp, in order to facilitate the preparation of a thin shell. Fill in the shell with the meat stuffing, close the shell by forming an oval and press carefully. Keep on with the other balls until they are finished. Keep the Gelin Budu in the fridge until it’s time to fry them. Heat plenty of seed oil in a pan a fry them in groups of 4-5, until they are golden brown. Serve them hot with a pinch of salt. 

The traditional Turkmen nomadism and the harsh life conditions in the desert modelled the cooking habits of Turkmen people. The main feature of Turkmen cooking is its simplicity both as to ingredients and to cooking methods. The Turkmen cooking is more similar to the one we can find in Turkey, Middle East, China and in Muslim Countries than the Russian one. The reason is that Turkmenistan is a Muslim Country, therefore pork is almost lacking in the traditional cooking, whose recipes based on meat provide the employment of mutton, sheep, and poultry. The most popular Turkmen dish is Pilav, better known as pilaf, or Plov in Russian. It’s prepared with lamb, carrots, rice and onion. The most popular fruit in Turkmenistan, and in general in Central Asia, is melon. Sweet, delicious, and rich in water, it’s served as a dessert or together with tea. Markets are full of huge piles of melons, that are often given as a gift or as a welcome or farewell gesture.