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Side Dish · Greece Recipe

Piroski (Meat Filled Turnovers)

Animated Recipe

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Recipe

Ingredients

  • 4 cups flour
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3 leveled tablespoons yeast
  • 1 leveled teaspoon salt
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • Olive oil for frying
  • 1 small onion
  • Parsley
  • Tomato sauce

Directions

  1. Warm the milk until lukewarm, then crumble the yeast into it with your fingertips. Add 1 cup flour and mix all into a smooth dough. Cover and let stand in a warm area to rise.
  2. Next, add the butter, egg yolks, salt and the rest of the flour and stir well. Knead into a rather tight and elastic dough. If necessary, add water or flour. Cover with a towel and again set in a warm place to rise a second time. Then knead once more to knock down the dough. Break into small pieces.
  3. During the rising of the dough, cook the ground beef. Mix it with 2 tablespoons of butter, a finely chopped onion, chopped parsley and a small quantity of tomato. Cook well, adding 4 or 5 tablespoons of grated cheese just before it is finished.
  4. Take a small piece of dough and roll it flat, on a floured board with a rolling pin. Lay one spoonful of cooked ground meat in the center of the dough. Fold the dough in half to form a half-moon shape and enclose the filling. Shape it a little in the palm of your hand to make a more oval shape.
  5. Smear with egg white. Place on a greased baking tin and set aside in a warm place to rise.
  6. Then deep fry the turnover in oil until each turns a golden brown. Take them from the oil with a perforated spoon, lay on paper towels to drain and serve them warm.
  7. Here are some interesting variations to this recipe: Instead of frying the turnovers, you can bake them in an oven. In this casse, after wrapping the turnovers, put them in a buttered baking pan to rise. Brush the tops with egg white. Then put them in a moderate oven and bake until brown.
  8. The meat filling can be made from lean chicken, ham, fish or hard-boiled eggs, chopped and mixed with bechamel sauce or mashed potatoes.