Recipe#10519

Title: Piroshki 02

Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 From: Diane Duane dduane@owlsprings.win-uk.net 
 Subject: Pirozhki 
 Message-ID: <248@owlsprings.win-uk.net> 
 Organization: Taronga Park BBS 
 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 15:44:56 

Servings:  4
 2 1/2 t dried yeast
 Pinch sugar
 5 T  warm water
 2 1/2 oz butter
 1 lb flour
 pinch salt
 8 T  milk
 2 eggs
 1 medium onion
 1 T  oil or butter
 8 oz minced beef / veal / chicken
 salt
 pepper
 nutmeg
 chopped herbs 
 2 T beef suet or jellied stock
 chopped hard-boiled egg
 1 egg for binding
 1 lb fresh mushrooms
 butter 
 chopped herbs 
 1 chopped hard-boiled egg
 sour cream to bind
 8 oz kasha (buckwheat groats)
 1 medium onion
 1/4 lb fresh mushrooms
 1 hard-boiled egg
 Dissolve the yeast and a pinch of sugar in the warm water.  Sprinkle
 in a teaspoon of flour and leave for 15 minutes in a warm place.
 Pour into a bowl, mix in the softened butter, sifted flour and
 salt, the milk and the beaten eggs, and knead into a smooth dough.
 Leave to rise until it has doubled in volume.  Knead again and roll
 out.
 Cut out in small circles:  you will be folding these in half to
 enclose the filling in a semi-circle or canoe shape.  Brush the
 inner edges with a little milk to help them seal firmly.  Then
 either brush the piroshki with egg and bake in a moderate to hot
 oven for about 10 minutes, until golden brown:  or fry them,
 uncoated, in deep fat.
 For the meat filling:
 Lightly fry the onion in the oil or butter, add the meat and cook
 for 5 minutes.  Combine in a bowl with the seasoning and herbs and
 allow to cool.  Pirozhki often come out rather dry  because of the
 small quantities of filling which cannot, as with a pie, be moistened
 by the last-minute addition of stock.  Both suet and frozen stock
 in little chips have been recommended to me by conscientious Russian
 pastry cooks to cure this fault.  My objections are that suet makes
 the pirozhki undesireably fatty, while the chipped stock needs
 forethought and a sledgehammer, both of which go missing when I am
 in a hurry.  A better solution, I think, is to use stock either
 naturally or artificially jellied with gelatine.  Add 2 teaspoons,
 finely chopped, to the mixture when it is absolutely cold from the
 refrigerator, bind with egg and use immediately.
 For the mushroom filling:
 Chop the fresh mushrooms into quarters and cook gently in butter
 with finely chopped herbs for 15 minutes.  Season, add a little
 chopped onion, chopped hardboiled egg or rice or both, and enough
 sour cream to make a fairly moist filling.
 For the buckwheat filling:
 Cook the kasha in salted water for about 15 minutes until soft but
 not mushy.  Drain well and combine with chopped hard-boiled egg,
 chopped fried onions, and chopped mushrooms saute'ed in butter.
 Add seasoning and herbs to taste.  Allow the mixture to cool
 thoroughly in the refrigerator and add little pieces of very cold
 butter.  Use immediately.
 These are basic traditional fillings, but there is plenty of scope
 for invention along non-Russian lines;  for example, egg and mushroom
 filling, moistened with butter.