Russian Beef Buns

Just in time for the Olympics, my Russian friends, Alla (left) and Yulia (right) teach us how to make their favorite party food from Russia: pirogi, or fried dough buns with ground beef and onions inside. Thank you two! My family and friends love them. See below for the recipe, how-to photos, and story.

photo credit: Lindsay Sterling

The Story

Food for the Olympics

Russian beef buns

By Lindsay Sterling

Just in time for Olympic gatherings, Russian grandmother, Alla Zagoruyko, has taught me how to make her favorite party food from home. It’s fried dough in the shape of a hot dog bun with ground beef and onions sealed inside. “Don’t call it a beef donut,” her daughter, Yulia Converse, suggests, “That will confuse people” because it’s not sweet. In Russian the name for this food is pirogi [Peer ah GHEE], but because my Polish-American relatives use the same word for a completely different food (a boiled dumpling), I’m calling them Russian beef buns.

They are the softest fried dough I’ve ever tasted. It’s like your jaws are on a slow motion trampoline, your taste buds miraculously flying through air and umami at the same time. I had to know: how does Alla get her fried dough to come out so divinely light? The short answer is yeast. The long answer is that she does a lot of little things to build air in -- and keep it in. And it’s hard to know which tricks are based on superstition and which, physics.

When she sifts the flour, she holds the sifter twelve inches above the bowl, which allows the flour to catch air as it floats down into a snowy peak. Then in she mixes flour, warm milk, yeast, melted butter, salt, and sugar whirl in a stand mixer for a good 25 minutes, which physically mixes air into the dough. The slim ratio of dry to wet ingredients is also key to keeping the density down. At first the ingredients in the mixing bowl looked as wet as cake batter. I honestly didn’t believe they would eventually mix into dough, but sure enough, after twenty-five minutes the ingredients miraculously pulled cleanly off the sides of the mixing bowl.

She is particular about the atmospheric conditions in the house. “The dough doesn’t like noise,” Yulia says matter-of-factly. After covering the bowl of dough with clean dishtowels her mother wrapped the bowl in a wool blanket and buried it under pillows in a couch in her bedroom. Yulia remembered when she was a kid her mom would say to her and her brother: “Well, I made the dough. You guys don’t make too much noise.” Yulia specifies the rules: there can be “nobody running, slamming doors, no yelling at each other,” for two hours while the dough rises.

Later when Alla tips the bowl sideways on the floured countertop, the dough rolls out as an amorphous and still-moving mound, not quite a solid, not quite a liquid. Alla kisses the air above the dough and says quietly in Russian, “with love and respect.” Then she cuts pieces off the mound with a paring knife and forms disks of dough with her hands and a quick roll of the rolling pin. She spoons sautéed ground beef and onions onto each disk, pinches each closed, and places batches of buns gently into a pan of hot oil where they puff up and turn golden. (She also fries some dough with no filling and sprinkles those with powdered sugar).

On my first attempt cooking beef buns at home, they didn’t turn out half as scrumptious as Alla’s. I wondered what I might have done differently. And then I remembered. I forgot to do the air kiss and say the magic words: “with love and respect.”

If you live in Greater Portland, Maine, order Russian beef buns hand-made by Alla for your Olympic get together by emailing allazagoruyko@gmail.com. 

copyright Lindsay Sterling 2014

See How to Do It

Russian Beef Buns

pirogi

When the dough turns smooth and pulls off the side of the bowl it's ready to rise.

The bowl of dough, covered with a kitchen towel, wrapped in a blanket and covered with pillows in a quiet room.

all photos: Lindsay Sterling
Use by permission only.

The Recipe

Russian Beef Buns

Pirogi

As Alla Zagoruyko from Tver, Russia, taught Lindsay Sterling in Yarmouth, ME, January 2014

Makes: 14 appetizers
Serves:  7-14 people as an appetizer or snack
Active time: 1 1/2 hr
Total time: 4 hours

For dough:

2 cups flour + 1 cup for dusting
1 tsp active dry yeast
scant (slightly less than) 1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
1 stick butter
48 oz. vegetable oil for frying

For filling*:

1/3 pound ground beef
1/4 yellow onion, minced
1/3 tsp salt
pepper to taste

*Other common fillings are hardboiled eggs, scallions and butter; mashed potatoes and scallions; and raspberry jam.

Equipment

Large saute pan
electric mixer
mixer bowl
dough hook
Hand held blender stick (optional)
mixing spoon
2nd saute pan
Glass measuring cup
ceramic or glass bowl
paring knife
2 forks
paper towels
large serving bowl/platter

Sift flour into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. (Hold sifter 12 inches above bowl so the flour catches air on its way down to the bowl). Fit bowl into stand mixer, and install dough hook. Add yeast to sifted flour. Mix on lowest setting. Warm milk in microwave (about 30 seconds), and then melt butter in microwave (about 45 seconds). Stir salt and sugar into the milk to dissolve. Pour the milk into flour. Continue to mix on lowest setting. Add melted butter to flour. Mix on low to incorporate ingredients. Stop and use spatula if necessary to scrape flour off sides and bottom of mixing bowl. Turn mixer on medium speed (#4 on KitchenAid) and let mix for 12 minutes or until dough is smooth.

While the dough is turning, saute meat and onions (preferably with no oil in a nonstick pan to eliminate extra juices from filling) on medium heat with lid on. Once meat is cooked throughout (no pink color left) lift the lid off and cook until juices evaporate. Season meat with 1/3 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper. Taste to make sure you have enough salt and pepper. If you have a hand blender (buerre mixer), grind cooked meat to a slightly more fine texture.

When dough is smooth and pulls cleanly off the sides of the mixing bowl, turn mixer off. Dust hands with flour, punch the dough down in the bowl 6-8 times and then pull dough away from the sides of the bowl into a mound in the center. Cover the mixing bowl with a clean towel. Place bowl in a warm, quiet, still place, wrapped in blankets and buried in pillows for two hours or until dough doubles in size.

Fill deep saute pan 1 1/2" deep with vegetable oil and heat on medium high. Dust cleared countertop generously with flour. Pour dough onto floured surface. Push dough around floured surface so it's not sticky. Air kiss the dough and say, "With love and respect." Pull a small pinch of dough from the mound and sever it with a paring knife. Gather edges under the center of the mass so you have a smooth ball. The ball should be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Add pieces of dough or cut pieces of and reform so you have that size ball. Flatten sphere and roll out into a disc with a rolling pin until the disc is about 2 1/2" inches diameter (no need for a ruler - these are just for eyeball reference!) and 1/2" thick. Continue making 14 discs out of the dough.

Spoon 1 tsp meat filling into the center of each disk. Pull the disc up around the meat like you're holding a taco. Pinch the dough closed over the meat five or six times with your fingers in one direction. Then pinch the seam 5 or six times perpendicular to the first pinches so the filling is completely sealed inside. Be sure the seal is secure, otherwise they will pop open when you're cooking them. Place seam side down on the floured countertop. Line a sheet pan or platter with paper towels and put it next to the heating oil.

Once oil is hot (but not smoking -- that's too hot) gently put one pirogi in to see if the oil is hot enough. If it just sits there and nothing happens, remove it and wait for oil to get hotter. If the pirogi begins to bubble and swell, then place as many pirogis in the pan as will fit loosely. As they puff up, keep rolling them over with a fork so that they rise evenly above the oil. (If you don't turn them, they become lopsided and it becomes nearly impossible to get top side to go into the oil.) When pirogis are brown all over remove them from oil to cool and drain in a bowl or platter lined with paper towels. Serve hot.

Copyright Lindsay Sterling 2014