Dumplings Cooked in Yogurt Sauce

It’s said that these dumplings were originally called shish darak — shish meaning helmet, darak meaning soldier — since the shape of the dough resembles a soldier’s helmet. It’s unknown how they became shish barak. Prominent in the Ammara area of Damascus, the dumplings are the sister of mantı, a type of dumpling from Central Asia. Preparation is time consuming, thus home cooks prepare several portions of shish barak in one sitting, pack them in storage bags, and freeze for several months t