Karaits Pirogues

Karaits is a small nation that live in Crimea. My dad told me the whole story about them, but the only thing that I want to share in this post is a wonderful recepie of one of their national food, Karaits  Pirogues (Karaimskie Pirojki). My dad just enjoys those Pirogues. They remind him of his childhood. I searched the internet and found tons of different Karaits Pirogues recepies. I just selected one of them; and Pirogues came out so delicious. The recepie was adopted from here karaimskie-pirozhki-kibiny

Ingredients:

2 lb  ground beef and ground pork (you can use any ground meat)

500 grams  of butter

200 grams of sour cream

3 medium onions

3 large eggs (plus 1 egg yolk)

about 2 lb of all-purpose flour

water

salt and pepper to taste

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Mix 450 grams of butter with about 2 lb of all-purpose flour. Add salt to taste. Add 3 eggs and 200 g of sour cream. The dough should not stick to the hands, but at the same time should not be over dry or hard. Put in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. While our dough is in the refrigerator, prepare the filling. Combine ground beef, ground pork and chopped onions, salt and pepper to taste. Add 50 grams of butter and water. The filling should be a little bit wet, that way there will be a little bit of broth inside of the Pirogue. 

4. Divide dough into equal balls (about 24 balls), and roll into flat circles about size of a palm. Place a little bit of the filling over half of your dough, being careful not to get filling on the edges of the dough or it won't stick together. Bring the two sides together and pinch tightly to seal the edges. Transfer to a baking dish covered with a parchment paper. Beat one egg yolk with 1 Tbsp of water, brush over the Karaits Pirogues.

5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. 

6. Serve with soup or hot broth.

ENJOY!!!

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I usually do the half of the recepie:
1 lb ground meat
2 onions
2 sticks of butter (113 g each stick)
2 eggs
3 Tbsp Sour cream
About 3 cups of all-purpose flour
Salt to taste