Bollos Pelones
Bollos pelones are a great example of Venezuelan home cooking. The dumplings consists of corn flour dough balls filled with seasoned ground beef. They’re boiled, then covered with a tomato sauce. They remind me if you crossed a tamale and a matzah ball. These meat dumplings can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner as an appetizer or as your main course.
Equipment
- immersion blender
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/4 cup masa harina
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- 1/2 tsp salt
Filling
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tsp oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 medium white onion finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 roma tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 pinch sugar
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat up the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Brown the ground beef. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Heat up olive oil in a small pot over medium high heat. Sauté the onions and garlic for 5 minutes.
- Addin the tomatoes. Season with salt. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender, purée the sauce. Set aside.
- Mix together all of the dough ingredients.
- Form into a dozen balls.
- Make a hole in the center of the ball with your thumb. Fill it with 3 tbsp of the filling.
- Close up and re-roll the balls.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the balls.
- Boil for 10 minutes. The balls are ready when they float to the surface. Drain the balls. Hehe.
