If you’re a sweet and savoury kind of person, then these Sardinian Seadas are for you. Whether you choose to eat it as a side dish, appetiser, or dessert, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Seadas Dough
This pastry is simple. It’s made with flour, water and a touch of lard to soften the mixture, resulting in a smooth and elastic dough.
Why lard?
Lard produces a wonderfully crispy and flaky crust. Moreover, due to its high melting point, it’s easier to work with than butter because it doesn’t soften as quickly.
However, if you don’t have access to lard, you can also substitute it for butter. The end result will be slightly less flaky, but equally as delicious.
The Cheese Filling
The oozing centre of this pastry dumpling transports you to the meadows of Sardinia. Hence, the chosen cheese for this delectable dish is Pecorino; sheep’s cheese.
The most commonly known type of pecorino is Pecorino Romano, a hard, white, grating cheese that is aged for around 6 months or more. However, for this dish, you want to pick out Pecorino’s younger sibling, a fresher and softer variety. You will have to venture to the cheese counter at a food market to find this cheese, but it’s totally worth it. With a slight tang, it marries perfectly with the lemon zest and runny honey.
Seadas Toppings
To compliment the sheep’s cheese, it’s traditional to smother the Seadas in a warm runny honey. For this dish, I used honey from ‘Let It Bee’, a wonderful business set up by two sisters producing all natural and sustainable products with Birmingham honey and beeswax.
About my Dumpling World Tour Series
I've set myself a challenge to go around the world in 80 dumplings. Why? Because so many countries share a love for dumplings and every country’s dumplings have their own unique twist. From Vareneki in Ukraine to Banh Bot Loc in Vietnam, dumplings are a way for us to celebrate various cultures and culinary differences from all parts of the globe.
Not all my dumpling recipes are up on my website, yet! So, if you’d like to check them out, head on over to my Instagram for the video tutorial and full recipe!
Sardinian Seadas (Cheese & Honey Pastries)
Ingredients
Dough
- 100g Plain flour
- 20g Lard or Butter
- 50ml Water
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Filling
- 60g Pecorino cheese, chopped into little cubes
- ½ Zest of a lemon
Topping
- ½ tablespoon Honey
Other
- 300ml Frying oil
Instructions
For The Dough
- In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, water, and lard/butter. Add more water if the dough is too dry. Knead for 5 minutes, cover and set aside for 20 mins.
- Roll out the dough until it's 4mm thick and cut into 6 circular wrappers (using a cutter or glass - around 2.5 inches in diameter).
For The Dumpling
- Place several cubes of cheese and a pinch of lemon zest into the centre a wrapper. Place another wrapper directly on top and seal with a fork. Repeat for this step for the other 2 Seadas.
Cooking
- Heat up the oil in a frying pan. Use a chopstick to check if the oil is ready. Place the end of the chopstick into the pan, if bubbles begin to form around the chopstick, the oil is ready!
- Place the dumplings in the pan and fry on medium to low heat for 3 minutes on each side or until golden.
- Remove and place on a paper towel to remove any excess oil.
Serving
- Place the Seadas on a serving dish.
- Drizzle over the Seadas with warm honey and enjoy!
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