Potato Bag!

Have you ever used a potato bag to grow potatoes? 
NEITHER HAVE WE!! But we are trying! It seems really cool! Wohooo! Here's what they look like so far! Can't wait for them to potato: 

Echpochmak - Tatarian Dumpling

After New Year (I know...it's taken a while to post this) we had meat mixture from Manti left over. Weren't sure what to do with it and found this. The original recipe calls for potatoes instead of the pumpkin we had in the manti, but that's okay, it worked out quite splendidly. It would be super fun to try with the potato though!

Here's the original recipe: https://1000.menu/cooking/1603-echpochmak

Ingredients:

600 g flour

200 ml milk

125 grams (1 stick) butter

9 grams yeast

salt

1 tbsp sugar

Filling: 

we used left over manti filling which was 1:1:1 ground beef, pumpkin, onion plus salt and pepper seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Combine yeast with warm milk add sugar and mix in the stand mixer

2. Add softened butter 

3. Mix

4. Add in flour and salt and using the dough hook, mix until the dough is slightly sticky but forms a dough ball. 

5. Put in a warm place to rise. 

6. After dough has risen, I like to split the dough in half, then each half into half again until I get the desired number of dough balls. Then I roll them out. 

7. Add filling and pinch the circles together into a triangle shape. 

8. Bake at 180 C for 30 minutes

Optional - and Egg wash with one egg and some milk will result in a nice crispy, crunchy looking top - if you add sesame seeds to the top it adds to the aesthetics.  

What we liked:

It was fun to try a new recipe and this was a great way to use up leftover manti filling. 

What we didn't like:

It was probably not as good as pirjoki... and we would like to try with the potato filling instead of the pumpkin. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He liked it okay, not too thrilled with it. 

Next time:

try the potatoes mixed with meat!

Pirojki

This time we tried a different recipe for pirojki. We also did both baked and fried. Fried is definitely better. This dough recipe used eggs and was not the standard "bread" like dough. It was a lot easier to work with in regards to rolling it out and making the pirojki as it was not as sticky. However, it was more of a layer, puff type of dough which we are not sure is the best. We prefer the original ones with the "bread" like dough better.
We did make two fillings - potatoes + fried onions (in butter)
and
cabbage + saurkraut + fried onions + carrots - all sauteed in butter until desired done-ness.
However, we made waaaay too much filling and not enough dough as this dough did not produce enough for all the filling, so most of our pirojki were potatoes (Nick's favorite).
We served them with a dipping side of sour cream, but you can eat them plain or with salsa or however you'd like! They are a great and versatile dish.

Ingredients:

Dough:
Approx 3 cups flour
1 stick butter
1/3 cup oil (we used olive)
2 eggs
3/4 cups milk
2 tbsp yeast
2.5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Potato Filling:
1 large onion
5 large potatoes - cooked (we usually steam)
salt and pepper
4 tbsp butter to fry the onion

Cabbage & carrot filling
2 cups cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup saurkraut (to taste)
1 onion
4 tbsp butter for frying

Directions:

for the dough:
1. Melt the butter. Mix butter, room temperature milk, yeast and sugar together. Let sit for about 15 minutes.
2. Mix salt and flour together. Make a well and pour in the milk yeast mixture, oil and eggs. Mix well. The dough should be soft and not stick to your hands.
3. Let the dough sit for about 1 -2 hours before cooking. The dough will rise.

Fillings:
Potato:
1. Mash the potatoes.
2. Saute onions until softened and add onion plus any remaining butter in the pan to the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cabbage:
1. Mix all ingredients together and sautee until cooked.

Pirojki:
1. Roll out the dough to about 3" circles.
2. Add filling.
3. Pinch ends together by bringing the two sides of the circle together and rolling over the edge to make a pretty folded edge.
4. Fry in oil (should come up about 1/2 way to the pirojok, we like canola oil) until the first side is golden brown. Flip, fry until the second side is golden brown. Take out onto a drying rack or paper towels to allow oil to drip off. 

What we liked:

We liked trying the new recipe for the dough. 

What we didn't like:

We liked the old recipe much better. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He actually loved them and enjoyed them for lunch a few days later as well. 

Next time:

Use previous dough recipe. Do not bake!

Pirojki (Bread Pockets with filling)

Pirojki are traditional Russian bread pockets with filling. We fry them, but they can also be baked. We made ours with potatoes and cabbage/saurkraut/carrot mixture. However, they can be stuffed with many different things. They can even be made sweet too. We made some extra potatoes yesterday, and instead of making mashed potatoes with them, we fried up some onions and combined the potato with onions to make the filling - we put it in the fridge until today to use for pirojki.
The breading is a basic bread dough which is rolled out and cut out into circles. The circles are stuffed with filling and then we fry them.

Pirojki!

Kaspian's potato pirojok

Cabbage/onion/carrot/saurkraut stuffed pirojok

Set on a rack!

Frying!

Formed pirojok

We used the red thing to cut out our circles. 

Dough after 3 hours

Dough 

Potatoes + onions +salt

cabbage and carrots and salt 

saurkraut/cabbage/carrots and onions stuffing

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 yeast packet
2 tablespoons oil
flour
5-6 cups flour (add til correct consistency)

Potato filling:
4 cups Potatoes steamed or boiled, mashed up
2 large onions fried in lots of oil
Directions: combine together mashed potatoes and fried onion and oil.

Saurkraut filling:
1 package saurkraut
2 cups carrots
2 cups cabbage
1 cup onion
Directions: combine all ingredients and fry until soft

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. Knead by hand. The dough should stop sticking to your hands but still be soft. Cover and let rise for a couple of hours.
2. Make the fillings while dough rises
3. Get a piece of dough, roll out into a big sheet and cut circles.
4. Place filling in the middle of the circles and put the edges of the circles together like a taco.  Seal the edges by pinching them together.
5. Fry in a pan of canola oil - fill oil to go about halfway to the pirojok. Fry until golden on one side, then flip and fry a couple of minutes until the other side is golden brown. 

What we liked:

These turned out very good and yummy and crispy! The dough came out perfect this time. 

What we didn't like:

Nothing, they were great. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He did not want any "potato pockets" only bread, but after having a bite of the potato pirojok, he devoured the whole thing while dipping it into sour cream. 

Next time:

No changes needed.