#6. Sha Phaley

Hey guys!! Today, I welcome you all to experience another tempting dish which is Sha Phaley. As the name suggest, this wonderful days indeed is a heaven on the taste buds. With several people having various demands, this dish has been given a great of variations which has made it even tastier than before. Due to repeated requests, this dish is for non vegetarians. Being a vegetarian, I did not try this one at home but attempted to gather all the required materials just for you guys.

Sha Phaley, also known as Shapale is a tibetan fried meat pie. Like momos, shaple are also widely loved by people especially the Tibetan community.😚

So, as always the required ingredients are:

Dough Ingredients 

• 8 cups all- purpose flour (no self rising flour, yeast or baking powder.)
• 3 cups of cold water. (Don't  use warm water. Water out of the tap is fine.

Filling Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef (Try to use organic, grass fed beef)
• 2 cups chopped baby bol choy. You can also use cabbage
• 1/3 cup minced ginger
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 stalks green onion
• 1 and 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of salt, or to your taste
• 1 tablespoon of beef bouillon 
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1/2 tablespoon of Emma or Yeram (Also called Szechuan pepper)

So, now here is the recipe:

Dough Preparation 

1. Mix flour and water, forming a ball.
2. Knead at least 5 minutes until dough is smooth and flexible.
3. Place dough in a dish with lid, or cover with plastic, or put in a plastic bag.
4. Let rest for 2 or more hours so that the dough will be softer when shaping the shapale.
5. Ultimately you want the dough to be soft enough to roll out and to stick together when you pinch together the edges of each shapale.

Roll out Dough 

1. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with a Rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thickness.
2. Use an inverted glass or cut out circles. Set the circles of dough aside.
3. As you cut out the circles you will be left with the dough outside the circles. Pick it back up, form it into a ball and repeat rolling it out until you have nothing left.

* Note: Many people make the circles one by one by making a small ball of dough and then rolling out each one, but we're lazy and we're not good at rolling them out one by one, so we use the cup. You can see the Rolling out method demonstrated in this video.*

Prepare the Filling

1. Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl. (We use a metal one)
2. Mince the ginger and garlic and add to the beef in the bowl.
3. Chop the bok choy, cilantro, green onion, and onion and place in the mixing bowl.
4. Add the soy sauce, salt and bouillon to the bowl.
5. Mix everything well. We use our hands to mix it but that's up to you.

Fill and Shape the Shapale

1. Place a heaping tablespoon or so of filling on one circle of dough, then place a second circle of dough on top of the first one.
2. Pinch the edges flat together very firmly going all around the circle. This is important as you don't want the juices to run out.
3. Then, start anywhere on the circle, fold over a small piece of the edge, and pitch it down, repeating this all around the circle. This results in a crimped, pretty edge.
4. Keep the shapale you have finished on a lightly oiled flat dish or surface, to avoid the dough sticking on to the surface. If the shapale are going to be sitting for a long time, you can place a damp cloth over them to keep them from drying out.

Cook

1. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a large and until the oil is very hot and then place one layer of shapale in the pan and lower heat to medium. You don't want to burn the outsides before the inside is cooked.
2. Cook until golden brown on both sides turning frequently. Cook about 7 minutes for each side cover for a total of 12 to 14 minutes the meat was cooked through.

* Note: Be prepared to turn the fan on or to open the windows as the cooking process can be quite greasy and hot.*

Serve

1. Shapale go well with something light, like our trang tcel salad.
2. For a diping sauce, try patak's lime pickel mixed with some say sauce, Tibetan hot sauce.😄

So, along with the facile recipe, these were some of the tips which can be paid attention at while baking the dish. It is just like a cake walk. Though, it'll take some of your precious time, it will be worth being made!! I suggest you people to surely give it a try. Will update you all soon with the new finger licking dishes.

Till that time. Stay tuned.😋