Piroshki

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

Title: PIROSHKI
Categories: Russian, Dumplings, Soups
Yield: 4 servings

-----------------------------------DOUGH-----------------------------------
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

--------------------------------MEAT FILLING--------------------------------
1 Medium onion
1 T Oil or butter
8 oz Minced beef / veal / chicken
Seasoning: salt, pepper,
-nutmeg, chopped herbs to
-taste
Optional: 2 T beef suet or
-jellied stock, chopped
-hard-boiled egg
1 Egg for binding

------------------------------MUSHROOM FILLING------------------------------
1 lb Fresh mushrooms
Butter for saute'ing
Chopped herbs to taste
1 Chopped hard-boiled egg
Sour cream to bind

-----------------------------BUCKWHEAT FILLING-----------------------------
8 oz Kasha (buckwheat groats)
1 Medium onion
1/4 lb Fresh mushrooms
1 Hard-boiled egg

FOR THE DOUGH: 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....

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