Russian Style Piroshki, Cheat Style!

I remember eating Piroshki when I worked at a Russian owned cafe in the De Baliviere area of St. Louis. Ironically it was called The American Cafe. I hate beets, but fell in love with Borscht. Another item served up was a delightful hand sized meal pastry called Piroshki. I thought about them the other week, read a few dough recipe's then thought about the big cresent rolls in my refrigerator. I had purchased a couple of packages on sale, simply because, who does not like crescent rolls. I decided to utilize them with a Piroshki recipe I had floating around up in my head. Instead of spending a few hours making a flaky pastry crust, I decided to make a shortcut and use the crescent roll dough to make my Peroshki's. Purchase the large or jumbo crescent rolls. One package of crescent makes eight Peroshki.

1 lb very lean ground beef 1 medium sized onion diced 3 palm sized potatoes diced 1 cup mixed vegetables 2/3 cup frozen seasoning blend aromatic veggies generous turns of fresh cracked pepper seasoning salt onion powder garlic powder 1 teaspoon better that bullion beef paste 1 pat butter about a 1/2 ounce of water Brown the ground beef chopping as you go. Remove beef to a mixing bowl. You should only have about a tablespoon or so of beef fat left (if the meat was quality). Add a little drizzle of oil or a tiny pat of butter, add and saute onions. Microwave the mixed vegetables with a paper towel at the bottom of the bowl to absorb any water from the veggies for 2 minutes only. Add to meat mix. Strain onions with a slotted spoon and add to meat mix. Add diced potatoes and cook till they begin to turn crispy add the seasoning blend and continue to saute. Season the potatoes with seasoning salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Strain potatoes and season blend adding it to the meat mixture bowl. Add one pat of butter, better than bullion to a skillet. Heat stirring with a whisk, add water and de-glaze the entire pan bringing the sauce to a bubble... it will thicken to the consistency of a glaze. Pour sauce over the meat mixture and mix it together very well distributing sauce.

Unroll the crescent rolls leaving the triangle together... you should have 4 pieces to work with. Lightly flour a board, rolling pin and the top of 1 sheet of crescent rolls. Using the pin roll the dough out side ways first to gain width, then roll long-wise, you are attempting to get the dough about 5-6 inches wide... Cut dough in half to create a square. Repeat with remaining dough. You should have eight squares. Using the same large spoon you cooked with, place a generous heap of mixture in the center of a dough square. Grab two corners of the dough and in a criss cross motion make a wrap, lift one of the two remaining corners and press in to the center of the little wrap, seal with the remaining corner forming a square envelope packet. Repeat with all dough square, be generous with the filling. Place all packets on an ungreased baking sheet using a floured plastic spatula. Brush the packets with egg wash. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes till golden brown. A few pointers. Use lean beef. Greasy beef will ruin your dough. The glaze from the pan amounts to only a few tables spoons and if it is mixed in well your filling should be most and not wet. Again a wet filling will ruin the dough squares and they will bake up soggy and not crisp. These little meal pastries are good cold as well.

Vegetable Beef Soup... Cooked Slow... All Day Long!

Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread...

SHEPHERD'S PIE....

I always start this dish using leftover homemade mashed potatoes. That is what shepherds pie is or originally was... a dish using leftovers. Some people use chopped leftover roast, leftover sliced potatoes and peas. I usually just make it from an abundance of leftover mashed potatoes.

3-4 cups leftover mashed brought to room temp to make them spreadable,
2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion
2 cups peas and carrots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon better than bullion beef paste
1/2 cup hot water
(or substitute 1/2 cup ready beef stock for water and paste)
3 - 4 tablespoons pulverized croutons (put them in a baggy and beat them with a rolling pin)
1 tablespoon of butter
2 - 3 tablespoons deep red wine
(if you would prefer a more "saucey" type of filling, use 1/2 can Campbell's Golden Mushroom, don't confuse this with cream of mushroom... it is dark and rich and a whole different soup, more gravy like)You should not dilute it much, just about 1/8 cup. You do not want a brothey filling, it won't work.

Brown the ground beef, drain and set aside. Saute onions adding garlic for the 1 minute. Meanwhile, microwave frozen peas and carrots just until they are no longer cold but not hot. Add the peas and carrots to the onions and garlic, saute 1 more minute. Add wine and stir to de-glaze pan. If you are ommitting the wine, proceed to the beef broth. Pour in the beef stock and continue cooking till it bubbles. Add the saute mix to the ground beef, stir to incorporate. Melt your butter, transfer crouton crumbs to a bowl and stir in melted butter.

Assembly
Butter a casserole dish, add ground beef mixture. Top with mashed potatoes and spread them evenly over the ground beef forming a sealed topping. Sprinkle crouton crumb mixture over the potatoes. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Note: you can really play with this dish... use your leftover meat and whatever kind of veggies you have (just chop them small). Add cheese onto the top of the potatoes. Some people really prefer this to the crumb topping or put a combo of grated cheddar cheese topped with the crumbs. You will want to switch the oven heat to broil for a few minutes, watch it carefully if you do.

LOIN ROAST, RICE and GRAVY, CARROTS AND GREEN BEANS.

THIS WAS SUNDAY DINNER WITH A GUEST. WE Had loin roast, rice and gravy, green bean w/onion ham seasoning and black pepper and carrots made with the roast. A nice time in all. I did a little marinating before popping it in the oven.

Pork Fried Rice with Cabbage and Mixed Onions

Pepper and Garlic Encrusted Pork Loin with Red Wine and Vegetables

I personally think a good roast requires a glass of wine... poured over the roast, not in the glass. I am also real big on fresh ingredients, you will never see instant mashed potatoes on my table. Oddly though I like Kentucky Fried Chickens weird instant potatoes(but not their gravy),go figure? Sooo, start with a fresh pork-loin roast, about 4 1/2 pounds is good for about 5-6 people. A 3 pound bag of red potatoes, a bag of carrots, 4 or 5 washed and cut celery stalks and two fresh onions. I got up at about 5:30 A.M. and began my marination with a nice drizzle of kitchen bouquet right down the center top of the roast. This is a product that your mother or grandmother may have used and it is an absolute staple in my kitchen. If you are wondering what it is and what is in it... it is a browning sauce or a caramelizing sauce it has a vegetable base (water, carrots, onions, celery, parsnips, turnips, salt, parsley and spices. There are two types of preservatives in it, sodium benzoate and sulfiting agents. These are common preservatives found in everything from Soda to Wine or dried fruits. ( I then placed fresh chopped garlic, onion powder, freshly cracked pepper, a little better than bullion (I used beef, because that is what I had, they do have a neutral vegetable). I tucked all of the ingredients in a large glad-ware container with a tight lid and refrigerated it until about 4:00 P.M. I paid special attention to getting a good coating of onion powder (not salt), chopped garlic and cracked black pepper onto the top and sides of the roast... you will need some in the wine marinade as well. I cooked this at 350 degrees to 145 degrees internal... it then rested for about 25 minutes. You will want to drop your vegetables in for about the last hour of roasting. You can choose various vegetables, I like carrots, celery and onions... you can roast the potatoes with the roast however I am all about the mashed potatoes.

Simple, Classic Banana Bread...

Pre-heat oven to 350' Grease and Flour two 9 X 5 pans or play with 4 square pans or muffin pans. 2 Cups All Purpose Flour 1 tsp. Salt 2 tsps. Baking Powder 1 Cup Butter Softened 2 Cups Sugar 2 Extra Large Bananas (these need to be overripe and speckled) 2 Jumbo Eggs 1 Chopped Walnuts 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract 4 to 5 taps of nutmeg... or 4-5 grates of a fresh nutmeg Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. In a separate bowl, cream together softened butter, sugar and vanilla. Move the butter mixture with a spatula to 1/2 side of the bowl, break up bananas and mash with a fork, crack two jumbo eggs over the sugar mixture and beat, incorporate all ingredients in the bowl.Pour moist ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir until blended. Bake for 60 or until a knife comes out clean.