Mushroom Piroshki Variation Recipes

MUSHROOM PIROSHKI

Steps:

• Prepare the pastry and chill it.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Heat the butter in a skillet and add the onions. Cook, stirring, until the onions are wilted.
• Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they give up their liquid. Cook until most but not all of the liquid evaporates. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir.
• Add the sour cream, dill, chopped egg and rice. Blend well. There should be about four cups. Remove to a mixing bowl and let cool.
• Roll out the pastry as thinly as possible (less than one-eighthinch thick). Using a 3 1/2-to-5-inch cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds. We used a 4-inch cookie cutter to produce 30 rounds. The dough will shrink after cutting. You may roll out the circles or rounds to make them larger or you may stretch them carefully by hand. Beat the egg with the water. Brush the top of each pastry round with the egg mixture.
• Use about two tablespoons of filling for each circle of dough. Shape the filling into an oval and place it on half of the circle of dough. Fold the other half of the circle of dough over to enclose the filling. Press the edges of the dough with the fingers or the tines of a fork to seal. Brush the tops with egg mixture to seal.
• Arrange the filled pieces on a lightly greased baking sheet.
• Place in the oven and bake 25 minutes.

TAYLOR'S PIROSHKI

Steps:

• In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef until evenly browned; drain. Stir in the onion and cook with the beef until translucent. Sprinkle in salt, pepper and dill weed to taste. Allow to cool before using.
• Dissolve the yeast in the 1/4 cup of warm water and place in a warm location until frothy, about 10 to 15 minutes. In a medium saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and gently whisk in the eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Remove from heat.
• Place half the flour in a large mixing bowl and gradually stir in the milk mixture. Then add the yeast solution alternately with the remaining flour, stirring after each addition. Mix well. Knead until the dough forms a ball and does not stick to the bowl. (Note: Start with the 4 cups of flour. You may need to add more, a little at a time, as you knead the dough). Cover the bowl with a clean cloth. Set in a warm location and allow to rise until doubled in volume.
• Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Pinch off pieces approximately the size of golf balls. Roll the pieces into disks about 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.
• Fill center of each disk with a heaping tablespoon of the cooled meat mixture. Fold disks over the mixture and firmly pinch edges to seal. Arrange on a flat surface and allow to sit approximately 10 minutes.
• In an large, heavy skillet or deep fryer, heat the oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Deep fry the piroshki in batches until golden brown on one side; gently turn and fry the other side. Remove and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

EASY PIROSHKI

Steps:

• 1. Begin cooking ground beef in skillet. As soon as the beef has begun to firm up, add the onion and saute until beef is nicely browned (add a tablespoon or 2 of butter if beef is too dry). Remove from heat and set aside. Rest pan tilted at an angle to allow excess grease to pool.
• 2. Prepare a place to roll out the crescent roll dough by sprinkling a little flour on a large flat surface. Open the tube and carefully unroll one of the dough bundles. Flatten it on the floured surface and push the perforated areas together to make one large slab of dough. Roll dough with rolling pin to even out the surface. Dough should become somewhat wider as you do so. Cut dough into 8 or 10 evenly sized squares (I used a pizza cutter).
• 3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• 4. Pour off excess grease from meat mixture, then add seasoning salt, garlic powder, and sour cream. Mix well, taste and adjust seasonings. Using one half of mixture, place equal portions of filling on each square of dough; try to use up all this half of filling in this half of dough (eat whatever won't fit!). Then fold over one corner of each square to make triangle-shaped pockets, pressing the edges to seal (if you have trouble getting seal to form, take a corner of paper towel and dry the edges, then press together again). Place piroshki on a cookie sheet and repeat process with second roll of crescent dough and second half of filling.
• 5. Once all piroshki have been sealed, cut a small slit or poke holes with fork in top of each pocket. Mix egg yolk with 2 tbs water and brush wash onto tops of pastries. Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown.
• 6. Variation: Another piroshki recipe I have uses mushrooms and and onion sauteed in butter as a filling--don't forget to include the sour cream and seasonings. Although...in virtually all of the several fillings given for this other recipe, dill is an ingredient, so you could substitute dill weed for the seasoning salt and add a bit of salt to compensate. Additionally, hard boiled egg is also included in nearly every filling variant; shredded cabbage is also a common ingredient (cooked first to soften, of course). Experiment; enjoy!
• 7. *(Continued from Personal Notes above--that area is never big enough for me!) Wikipedia has a thorough discussion of pierogi and a lesser entry for piroshki, specifying the two are distinct foods from each other (pierogi being more dumpling-like than piroshki). It indicates that "pirog" is a full sized pirozhok (singular of piroshki) and that "pirogi" is the plural of pirog. However, for purposes of cooking, it says pirogi/piroshki is a different dish from pierogi. Confused yet? Me, too. In the real world, no one makes that distinction so I have included both words (as well as several other alternative spellings) in the Key Words section. (To honor copyright law, I am using my own words to describe how I prepared this dish in my home kitchen.)

MUSHROOM PIROSHKI VARIATION RECIPE

Steps:

• To make the crust, cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or 2 knives. Mix in the water until it forms a ball. You may need additional water. Roll the pastry 1/8-inch thick and cut into six 4-inch-diameter circles. Stem and slice the mushrooms. Save the stems for duxelles (see recipe). In a sauté pan or skillet, melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms for 5 minutes. Add the green onions, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the flour on top and, quickly stirring, add milk to blend. Allow it to cool. Add the sour cream. Set aside. Chop the hard-cooked eggs. Place 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooled filling on half of each circle. Sprinkle some chopped hard-cooked egg on top. Moisten the edge of the circle and fold over, pinching the edges together. Transfer the piroshki to a buttered baking sheet. Brush the egg-water mixture on top. Sprinkle on sesame seeds, if you like. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the crusts are golden. This recipe yields 6 turnovers.

WILD MUSHROOM PIROSHKI

Steps:

• In a large pan over medium heat, saute the shallots in the butter until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, and continue to saute until mushrooms give up their liquid, about 4 more minutes. Add the cognac and continue to cook until liquid has been reduced to a glaze, about 5 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Roll out the puff pastry to 1/8 inch, and cut into 2 1/2-inch squares. Place one teaspoon of filling in the center of each square. With a pastry brush, apply a little ice water to two opposite corners of the square and bring them together. Crimp the edges to seal. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper; place piroshki on sheet, with center points tucked under.
• Beat together the egg yolk and cream, and lightly brush the tops of the piroshki with egg wash. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.