Pie from Russian
Nonna was a Russian workmate of mine who shared this delicious recipe with one of my ESL classes - English through Cooking and Culture!! :-) We actually made this in class and nothing much was left at the end of the lesson.
Very inexpensive recipe to make the night before a party and reheat in the oven just before serving...
Pastry
350 grams high quality flour
15 grams sugar
1 egg
75 litre milk or cream
30 grams Sour cream
1 tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder (1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp cream of tartar)
Cabbage Filling
1 small white cabbage
3 eggs
100 grams butter
salt to taste
Sugar (if the cabbage isn't sweet)
350 grams high quality flour
15 grams sugar
1 egg
75 litre milk or cream
30 grams Sour cream
1 tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder (1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp cream of tartar)
Cabbage Filling
1 small white cabbage
3 eggs
100 grams butter
salt to taste
Sugar (if the cabbage isn't sweet)
This is how you make it...
To make the pastry, melt butter, add milk, sour cream, egg, salt, sugar together. Mix thoroughly, put in flour mixed with baking powder. Stir and knead until you get a well-blended pastry.
To prepare the Cabbage Filling, shred the cabbage head finely. Next, melt the butter on the frying pan. Add the cut cabbage and simmer it until it's semi cooked. Break the eggs and add it to the cabbage. Add salt and sugar to taste and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.(depending on the texture you like to achieve)
Leave cabbage filling to cool.
(an important step otherwise it will break the pastry)
Divide the pastry into three parts. Roll each into a rectangular sheet with a thickness of an inch (the thickness is to your preference, so long it's thick enough to hope the cabbage filling).
Drain the cabbage filling(make sure it's very dry otherwise it will leak out of the parcel while baking in the oven) and put it on the rolled pastry and roll it up. Press the pastry together to on all the edges. It should look like a giant spring roll. Take a fork and poke some holes to on the top of the pastry (this is to allow the stream to escape from the parcel when it's baking).
Put it into the oven pre-heated to 170 celcius and bake it until the pastry turns golden brown.
If you can be bothered, apply a glaze of beaten eggs on the top when it's just turning brown. And continue to bake until golden brown.
To prepare the Cabbage Filling, shred the cabbage head finely. Next, melt the butter on the frying pan. Add the cut cabbage and simmer it until it's semi cooked. Break the eggs and add it to the cabbage. Add salt and sugar to taste and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.(depending on the texture you like to achieve)
Leave cabbage filling to cool.
(an important step otherwise it will break the pastry)
Divide the pastry into three parts. Roll each into a rectangular sheet with a thickness of an inch (the thickness is to your preference, so long it's thick enough to hope the cabbage filling).
Drain the cabbage filling(make sure it's very dry otherwise it will leak out of the parcel while baking in the oven) and put it on the rolled pastry and roll it up. Press the pastry together to on all the edges. It should look like a giant spring roll. Take a fork and poke some holes to on the top of the pastry (this is to allow the stream to escape from the parcel when it's baking).
Put it into the oven pre-heated to 170 celcius and bake it until the pastry turns golden brown.
If you can be bothered, apply a glaze of beaten eggs on the top when it's just turning brown. And continue to bake until golden brown.
My Modification
Instead of using the pastry recipe above, I turn to the all reliable Filo pastry. To the cabbage filling, I put in the following additional ingredients:
1) 1 can of butter nuts
2) 100 grams of bacon pieces (cut into small pieces)
3) 1 bay leave (crushed into small pieces)
4) 50 grams Add to bacon pieces in with the 50 grams of butter ( I cut the butter by half because the fat from the bacon pieces will make up for the remaining fat requirement).
1) 1 can of butter nuts
2) 100 grams of bacon pieces (cut into small pieces)
3) 1 bay leave (crushed into small pieces)
4) 50 grams Add to bacon pieces in with the 50 grams of butter ( I cut the butter by half because the fat from the bacon pieces will make up for the remaining fat requirement).
Fry the bacon pieces till it turns brown and nearly crispy. Add the crushed bay leaves in with bacon pieces to fry for a few seconds. Add the cabbage and cook it as per the instruction in the above recipe.Add drained butter a few minutes before the cabbage is cooked.
