Sunday, June 26, 2011

Easy Lamb & Rice Pierogi Pie

Marina shared with me a very simple meat pierogi recipe a couple of months ago and its about time I share it with you all.  We made this on the day we had a cooking spree for Russian themed dishes.  Peorigis are traditionally boiled, baked or fried dumplings of unleavened dough  stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Of central and eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines.  (Thanks Wikipedia)  This recipe was passed to Marina by her grandmother.  We decided to make a pie instead of dumplings since its much easier.  It's yummy and you can use any kind of ground meat. 

Ingredients:
-Two puff pastry dough (Marina likes to use the Indo-European ones from the Persian markets).  We need one for the bottom of the pie and one for the top.
-2 onion ( We liked the sweet onions.)
-1 lb of ground meat (pork, lamb, beef, chicken, turkey)
-1 cup of cooked rice (leftover rice comes in handy for this recipe)
1)  Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2)  Chop the onions, fry in oil (we used grapeseed which is healthier than any other oil) until nice and brown and caramelized.  Once done, take it out of the frying pan.
3)  In the same frying pan, brown the meat.  
4)  With a hand blender, blend the ground meat until it has a smooth consistency.
5)  Add onions and rice to the mix.
6)  Add salt and pepper to taste
7)  Roll out puff pastry on an over-safe 8 x 11 baking  pan and add meat, onion, and rice mixture.
8)  Put the other puff pastry on top of the mixture, pinch the ends together and poke holes on the top so it does not get too puffy.
9)  Bake until golden brown.
10)  Enjoy with friends!!!!!!!!!