Mantı is one of the great comfort dishes of Turkish cuisine: small parcels of dough wrapped around a seasoned meat filling, boiled and topped with garlicky yoghurt and a sizzling paprika butter. İkra's Etli Bolu Mantısı comes frozen in a 600 g transparent bag with a minced-beef filling, and the folded, triangular dumplings can be seen through the bag. According to the multilingual label, the recipe uses beef, onion, water, flour, eggs, vegetable oil, salt and spices, and the pack carries a halal mark.
Preparing it takes very little effort. The label suggests adding the dumplings to plenty of boiling salted water, cooking them over medium heat and then draining them through a sieve; follow the cooking time printed on the pack. Serve them hot with plain yoghurt mixed with crushed garlic and a drizzle of melted butter coloured with red pepper flakes or paprika, plus a pinch of dried mint or sumac if you like. The label describes a 600 g bag as roughly four portions, which makes it handy for a family dinner.
Keep the bag frozen at -18 °C or below until you are ready to cook. The label also advises using the product promptly once thawed and not refreezing it. Flour and eggs appear in the ingredient list, so please read the allergen information on the pack before serving, especially if anyone at the table has a food allergy.
