I would like to exclaim that pies are a real invention of Russian cuisine, but this is impossible.
Despite the fact that our kitchen really has the richest assortment of pastries, there are a huge variety of different recipes for pies in other cuisines of the world.
And this is good because it allows you to exchange experiences in cooking, to make food more diverse.
Meat and Potato Pies - Basic Technological Principles
Indeed, the pies are very similar to the trendy “fast food”, and even more: they are beyond competition. If only because a more durable and reliable method of heat treatment almost eliminates the likelihood of food poisoning. Another feature: pastry dough, having a higher moisture content than a hot dog or burgers roll, bakes with a filling flavor, acquiring a unique taste; and the filling itself in the closed pie preserves its taste and healthy properties better.
Patties can be taken on a hike or a trip, they can serve as a wonderful lunch during a working break. Our ancestors did something like this, but they were also served to the table with borsch or cabbage soup, instead of bread, or with sour cream or milk, as an independent dish.
Home baking at all times will have its fans, if only because it significantly expands the possibilities for their own culinary imagination. Of course, there are catering establishments, where pies are cooked in a special way, like in Mexico or India, like in Hawaii or Japan, or else in some corner of the globe. But, firstly, you need to know where such places are located, secondly, sometimes it will take much longer to overcome the distance to them than to cook the cakes yourself.
Any kind of dough can be used for patties: yeast or fresh. Yeast dough is prepared by sponge and straight way, rich (with milk, eggs, sour cream, etc.) or only on water and yeast. The range of types of unleavened (yeast-free) dough is even more diverse:
Puff;
Bulk;
Shortbread
These types of dough, in turn, also differ in the content of ingredients.
Next: in addition to meat and potatoes, there is a huge selection of additions to the stuffing for the pies. For meat and potatoes a good addition is cheese, mushrooms, vegetables.
The combination of different types of dough and a variety of fillings already makes meat and potato patties a universal and practically non-recurring type of baking.
But that's not all: the methods of heat treatment further expand their range - ordinary frying or deep-frying, baking in the oven adds variety.
If you add to the listed a variety of shapes, sizes and methods of modeling dough, then the scope for culinary imagination and increasing the level of skill has no boundaries at all.
Recipe 1. Pies with meat and potatoes fried from yeast straight dough
Products:
Milk (3.2%) 150 ml
Margarine, cream (or spread) 75 g
Water 100 ml
Eggs 2 pcs.
Yeast, pressed 75 g
Flour 400-500 g
Salt
Sugar 30-40 g (to start the yeast)
For the filling:
Peeled potatoes (boiled) 250 g
Roasted pork 200 g
Liver, beef (stew) 300 g
Luk100-120 g
Spice
Vegetable oil (for frying)
Preparation:
Boiled potatoes, fried pork with onions and liver finely chop and combine the components of the filling to the total weight.
Pour warm milk and water (25ºC) into a large bowl, add beaten eggs, salt, sugar and mashed yeast. Sift the flour and add a small part of it to the liquid components first: wait a few minutes to make sure the yeast is working. As soon as bubbles appear on the surface of the dough, add the rest of the flour and knead the dough of medium consistency. Prepare a work surface by brushing it with oil or sprinkling with flour.
Divide the dough into pieces of 120 g each, and form round cakes. Place the prepared stuffing (50 g) in the center of each portion of dough and connect the edges, pinching them tightly.
Heat the fat in the pan with a thick bottom and start to fry when the dough in the ready-made semi-finished products will increase in volume, 3-4 minutes on both sides. Spread the fried pies on a napkin to remove excess fat.
Recipe 2. Winds with meat and potatoes made from yeast dough
Composition of products:
Flour 0.6 - 0.7 kg
Sour cream (25%) 150 g
Water 300 ml
Yeast (pressed) 100 g
Sugar 50 g
Salt
Egg (for lubrication) 1-2 pcs.
For the filling:
Chicken fillet 500 g
Potatoes 350 g
Dill 120g
Milk 250 ml
Garlic 50g
“Parmesan” 300 g
Spices (to taste)
Oil or cooking oil (for form lubrication)
Tomato sauce, spicy and sour cream (for serving)
Cooking:
Prepare the filling: cut the potatoes into cubes (1x1x1 cm) and boil it in milk, adding chopped dill and garlic. Boil the chicken pulp with spices and, cut into small cubes, fry, adding ground pepper. Cook the cheese chips.
Pour warm water into deep dishes, mix it with sour cream, add dry ingredients (salt, sugar and yeast), 1/3 of the sifted flour. Cover the bowl with the dough film and wait until the dough begins to “breathe”. Add the remaining flour and knead the dough. The finished dough should not stick to the surface of the table, dishes and hands. The consistency is not too dense, but stable.
Make blanks from the finished dough: circles with a diameter of 10 cm, thickness - 1-1.5 cm. Put a spoonful of potatoes in the middle of the round tortillas, and on top - a spoonful of fried chicken cubes. Pinch the edges of the dough, leaving the middle open. In the middle of each semi-finished product, pour 30-40 g of tomato sauce, sprinkle with chopped greens, and on top - with grated cheese. Prepare a baking sheet and heat the oven until the semi-finished products rise. Increased open cakes, transfer to a baking tray and bake at 180ºC, 15-20 minutes. Five minutes before the end of baking, remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush the surface of the pies with a beaten egg using a silicone brush.
Serve with sour cream, seasoned with lemon juice, garlic and chopped greens.
Recipe 3. Meat and potato patties deep-fried from unleavened, bulk dough
Ingredients:
Kefir (1%) 250 ml
Eggs 3 pcs.
Baking powder 40 g
Salt
Flour 400 g
Filling:
Minced meat 300 g
Mashed potatoes 350 g
Cottage cheese, fat 100 g
Onions, chopped 70 g
Pumpkin puree 100-150 g
Broccoli puree 200 g
Cooking:
These are unusual turn-cakes, which can decorate any holiday table, because they are baked in baskets. Start by preparing the ingredients for the filling.
Cook as usual, mashed potatoes.
Divide the mashed potatoes into 3 parts: combine one part of the mashed potatoes with cottage cheese; wipe the mass through a sieve. Combine the second part of the potato in the same way with pumpkin puree, and the third part with broccoli puree. Place all three masses in pastry bags with a large metal nozzle, an “asterisk”.
In a small amount of water or broth, add spices and chopped onions, simmer the minced meat; during the cooking process, the liquid should evaporate.
Beat the eggs into the foam, add kefir, salt, sifted flour and, finally, baking powder for the dough. The consistency of the dough should be liquid, as for a pancake.
Grease parchment or foil baskets with grease. Each of the prepared baskets is not completely filled with minced meat by filling in a half-volume form; Pour the stuffing on top with the prepared dough.
Transfer the baskets to a sheet and bake them in the oven until tender, and then cool. From the prepared pastry bags, seed vegetables on the baskets, colored mashed potatoes: you can put all three types in one basket, in layers or in rows, or separately. Ready baskets once again put in the oven to brown mashed potatoes. Serve ready baskets can be with sour cream sauce and greens, as a separate dish.
Recipe 4. Patties with meat and potato from puff pastry
Composition of products:
Dough, puff (fresh) 450 g
Boiled eggs 6-7 pcs.
Mashed potatoes 300 g
Eggs 1 pc.
Meat pate (or liver) 200 g
Flour 100 g
Onions, browned 150 g
Preparation:
Boiled and peeled eggs cut lengthwise, halved. Remove yolks, combine them with meat pate and passaged onions, killing the mass with a blender to a puree-like consistency; add spices to taste. Stuff the squirrels by giving them egg shape. In the finished mashed potatoes, add the flour and raw egg. Stir the potato mass.
Roll the puff pastry into a thin rectangular layer, cut circles (ᴓ 15 cm); Place the stuffed egg in the center of the dough pieces, spoon the mashed potatoes on top, and cover the edges with an overlap to form folds. Place the semi-finished products on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour, and bake at 180ºC, 10 minutes. Serve with mustard or sour cream sauce.
Recipe 5. Pies with meat and potatoes - samsa from puff pastry
Composition of products:
Yeast dough, puff 500 g
Filling:
Frozen Green Peas150 g
Cooked 100 g
Grilled chicken (pulp) 300 g
Boiled potatoes 200 g
Cilantro, Ginger, Mint
Pepper (chili or cayenne)
Oil (for frying)
Preparation:
All ingredients prepared for the filling, cut into cubes and chop fresh greens. Connect them and mix; Optionally, you can spice up your favorite spices.
Roll out the dough, cut into circles. In the middle of each piece of dough, place the filling and, wrapping the edges on three sides, pinch them. Put triangular pies on a prepared baking sheet, a centimeter apart; leave for proofing to raise the dough. Bake at 180ºC, 20 minutes.
Recipe 6. Pies with meat and potatoes in the Jamaican style
Ingredients:
Yeast dough (see recipe number 1) 1.4 kg For the filling:
Chopped onions and garlic (to taste)
Mashed potatoes 150 g
Pork and ground beef 0.5 kg
Spices: thyme, dried paprika, curry
Egg 1 pc.
Meat or vegetable broth and oil (for making fillings)
Cooking:
In a skillet, heat any vegetable oil (30-40 g), put mincemeat in it with chopped onion. Fry and then, adding the broth and garlic with spices, simmer until cooked. When cool, add mashed potatoes and mix the filling well. Roll out the dough and cut out the round blanks. Put the stuffing in the center of the cut out of the dough and tweak the edges, making a large dumpling. Place the semi-finished products on the baking tray sideways so that the connection lines are directed to one side. Leave a distance between the pies so that they do not stick together during the proofing. After proofing, grease the surface of the semi-finished products with a beaten egg and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Meat and potato pies from shortcrust
Ingredient list:
Flour 500 g
Salt
Oil (82.5%) 200 g
Eggs (yolks) 2 pcs.
Baking powder 30 g
For the preparation of the filling:
Boiled potatoes 150 g
Roasted champignons 150 g
Cheese, brine 300 g
Pork chops, fried 400 g
Chopped greens, spices
Cooking:
Prepare unsweetened shortbread dough: sift flour into a bowl and combine it with salt (to taste) and baking powder, add beaten yolks and soft butter. Knead the dough and, wrapping it in film, temporarily remove it in the cold.
Take care of the preparation of the filling:
Boiled potatoes finely chop into cubes.
Prepared champignons fry with onions and, when cooled, chop finely, like potatoes. Suluguni, cheese or any pickled cheese mash with a fork.
Chops, too, fry and chop.
Combine all the ingredients for the filling, season with chopped greens and spices to taste.
Split chilled shortcrust dough into 2 layers, 0.5-0.7 cm thick. On one blank, make a mark using a notch for dough or a cup with a diameter of 10-12 cm. Put the stuffing in the middle of each circle and cover with the second layer of rolled dough and cut circles. Sprinkle baking tray with flour and put the product on it. Bake at 180ºC.
Meat and Potato Pies - Tips and Tricks
- Any flour products in finished form retain moisture longer by adding starch to the flour while kneading dough.
- Sift the flour, even if you are sure that there is no impurities in it, just before kneading the dough. As a result of this simple operation, the flour is saturated with oxygen, which improves the rise of the dough and gives the baked products pomp.
- If you do not like the mess in the kitchen, which involuntarily forms when using flour to sprinkle the work surface, use any cooking oil instead of flour: lubricate the surface and hands with a small amount of fat so that you do not have to collect flour after work.
- The more intensively the dough is kneaded, the less it sticks to hands, dishes and to the work surface.
