Sourdough Piroshki

SourYumMum's picture
SourYumMum

My husband is from a Russian family. Being able to make piroshki is important!

[img]http://static.flickr.com/45/141845113_ff46e8d25e_m.jpg[/img]

They were very yummy.

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TeckPoh's picture
TeckPoh 2006 May 7

Now, now, Carol, you can't get away with posting such a scrumptious-looking bun without sharing the recipe, can you?

SourYumMum's picture
SourYumMum 2006 May 7

TeckPoh,

Russian food is basically bland, pretty ordinary peasant food. I actually have a Russian cookbook - and I'd suggest 'russian cookbook' is an oxymoron! There are maybe half a dozen good Russian recipes! Pelmeni is a good one ... basically Russian ravioli ... lamb, onion, garlic, dill filling, but once cooked in chicken stock, served with sour cream and more dill! Very good.

The filling for piroshki can be whatever you like, but this one is just beef mince, onions, dill, soy, garlic with a little beef stock ... that's about it. Peter's babushka (grandmother - 85 this year) makes hers by letting the dough rise twice (fill them in between rises), but I'm not that clever with dough yet so I make the dough, fill them, then let them rise and bake them with a little egg wash. Piroshki can be filled with potato, cabbage ... anything you fancy, and they can also be filled with a sweet filling. The favourite Russian filling is possibly cherries and sour cream. (Russians eat sour cream on nearly everything.)

I have seen the 'bao' cookoff ... very delicious ... I will try them next.

I haven't yet had a look at how to make jellycake, but that really appeals to me! When my first nephew was one year old, his mother made him a green jelly rabbit for his birthday cake. Of course this was Aeroplane jelly in a rabbit mold, but he was absolutely thrilled by it and every little jiggle it made!

Your webpages are lovely ... I have also sent the link to my husband's aunt as she loves to decorate cakes and is quite clever, too.

Oh, and the boys are giving me a 'real' rice cooker for Mothers Day! Should be perfect for steaming bao!!!

TeckPoh's picture
TeckPoh 2006 May 8

Thanks for sharing your stories on Russian food....a culture which is completely alien to me. Your piroshkis really look good...a lot of filling enclosed by just the right amount of bread.

Why do you need a rice cooker for steaming? A rack at the bottom of a wok, or even any pot will do the trick. LOL, I don't even use a rice cooker to cook rice...

Looking forward to see your baos and jellycake.

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 8

Carol, haroshin piroshki, the only ones I have ever tasted didn't look as good as those.

SourYumMum's picture
SourYumMum 2006 May 8

TP,

An acquaintance of mine is an author of cookbooks, teaches at a cooking school and so on and so forth (no, none of it has rubbed off on me).

She recently said to me that the only appliance you need is a rice cooker. In fact, she thinks all parents should send their children out into the world when they leave home for the first time with nothing but a rice cooker - and that they will be just fine! In fact she's released a book about all the things you can do with a rice cooker ... curries, paella, spareribs ... you name it.

So I intend to do lots more with it than just cook rice and steam things ... although it's my pursuit for the perfect sticky rice for nori rolls that started me thinking about it a long time ago. I notice that all the Japanese folk around here use them ... and I can never get my rice quite right.

I can, however, get my two toddlers to very, very happily eat nori rolls!

So I may end up with another appliance that I never use, but I'm hoping not!

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 8

Carol, I use Chinese steaming baskets fo all my steaming, they work great and if you want more room you just stack them up, I've got three.
If you make your nori rice with mirin and rice vinegar and sugar then PM me and I will give you my recipe.

TeckPoh's picture
TeckPoh 2006 May 8

You sound like quite a cook, Bill! Yup, forgot about the steaming baskets.

Gosh, at the risk of going even further off-tangent, what sort of rice cooker will you be getting, Carol? Reason why I don't use one...haven't used one for over 4 yrs since my confinement lady killed it...is mine was non-stick and there are too many horror stories going around about non-stick surfaces and cooking in aluminium. Somehow, I find steaming rice gives a very nice texture where each grain is nicely separated. My mom says it's more fragrant?!

Having said all that, it [i]is[/i] a very versatile appliance...you can boil rice, make rice porridge, use it for steamboat, steam, cook....have fun!

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 8

Totally off subject TP I make Congee with half chicken stock half water and when cooked add fish or pork balls, shredded egg and shallot greens and serve it with deep fried dough, the kind that puffs up.
Great breakfast.

TeckPoh's picture
TeckPoh 2006 May 8

See? That's why I love Australia! Hot breakfast and people who appreciate all kinds of food. Bill, your congee is truly authentically Asian...if you want, some sesame oil drizzled over is great.

The "deep-fried dough, the kind that puffs up" is yau jar gwai, chinese cruellers. You can dunk it in coffee too. If you've never tried it before, I dare you to....some ppl freak out at the thought of it.

Psst....to get back on track, perhaps, Bill, you can come up with a sourdough crueller recipe?

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 8

[quote="TeckPoh"]
Psst....to get back on track, perhaps, Bill, you can come up with a sourdough crueller recipe?
[/quote]
Now that would be a challenge. The crullers I make are done with alum and baking soda. Soft dough, left overnight, flattened, sliced, doubled up and squashed a little with a chopstick, stretched and dropped into hot oil.
I'm not sure how sourdough would react to that treatment but I may try when I'm in a brave mood.

SourYumMum's picture
SourYumMum 2006 May 8

Oh listen to you lot! Recipes galore ... perhaps we should ask Graham for an "off topic" forum!! (Don't want to get in trouble with the boss! )

TP ... it is a Breville Ultimate - 10 cups, non-stick bowl, lockable lid, keep warm facility. My boys might be only little but I'm preparing for them to eat me out of house and home as they get bigger!

I don't think I believe the stories about Teflon, et al. I'm sure there are probably some unscrupulous, dodgy manufacturers making all sorts of things we shouldn't be preparing food in ... my stove-top coffee pot is aluminium!

Whilst I'm not too sure about the aluminium, I'm fairly confident that the 'teflon gives you cancer' thing isn't quite accurate. The chemical people are concerned about is called PFOA (at least, that is it's short name). And whilst it is used in the manufacture of teflon, there isn't actually any PFOA IN teflon. The major manufacturers of non-stick stuff have also agreed to stop using it in production over the next few years as it does hang around in the environment. And it's not nice. But it isn't actually IN non-stick stuff.

That said, who really knows? We have no idea what chemicals/fungicides/etc our fruit and veg is treated with before we get it at the supermarket ... the list goes on.

This is why I try to grow at least a little of my own fruit and vegetables.

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 8

Carol, a tip, don't open the lid for 10 minutes after it clicks off, better rice.
For those interested we have 7 types of rice in our pantry.
Open talk might be a place where we can discuss "Off Topic" things.

donyeokl's picture
donyeokl 2006 May 9

Hi Bill,

[quote]
Totally off subject Laughing TP I make Congee with half chicken stock half water and when cooked add fish or pork balls, shredded egg and shallot greens and serve it with deep fried dough, the kind that puffs up.
Great breakfast.
[/quote]

Congee huh.... You do enjoy asian food don't you!? Add a little calrose rice into your recipe, it gives the congee more body and a thicker consistenly... Yummmmm

Oooppsss.., apologies Graham for this post.

Cheers...

Don

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