Latvian Pirags

[RETARD]

I have showed these on here as part of some catering i did for a client ages ago. I thought someone here would enjoy the recipe.
I've not come across them anywhere else in my travels - they are quite unique imo.
For anyone that is curious these are pronounced 'Pier' as in jetty and 'ague' as in prague

As a young kid i would visit my friends house after school.
His Oma lived upstairs and quite often would come down with these little bacon & onion filled parcels of soft pastry goodness.
Oh my god the smell !!
Being about 10 at the time my only real interest was in eating and not recipes but fast forward about 20 years and had to scour the massive world of the internet & piece things together, to finally make Latvian Pirags - that resembled my childhood memory.

I hope you try them.
They will take a little bit of time at first, but i promise you its totatlly worth it.
Best of all you can freeze these and microwave them for 30 seconds for a perfect snack. They almost taste better like that.

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup milk
1/2 stick or 4 Tablespoon of butter
2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoon Sugar
2 pkg of dry yeast (14gm or about 3 tsp), dissolved in warm water and 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
3 1/2 Cup sifted plain flour
1/2 medium Onion, chopped
1 lb of lean Bacon cut into small pieces
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp White pepper

What to do:

Making the dough...
Heat milk, butter, salt and Sugar (don't boil!)
When milk mixture is WARM to the touch, add dissolved yeast
Gradually add flour, mixing with wooden spoon and then hands ...
turning out onto a floured board and mixing until the dough doesn't stick to your hands.
Place into a lightly greased ceramic/glass bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

The Filling...
Melt a bit of butter in a frying pan and sautee` the onions until transparent. Set aside. Fry Bacon lightly to remove some of the excess fat.
Mix with Onion & onion powder and white pepper.

The Assembly...
After the dough has risen, roll out a portion of the dough, on a floured board, to 1/4 inch thick.
Using the rim of a coffee cup or a biscuit cutter, cut out circles.
Cover center of each circle with 1 t Bacon mixture. Fold dough over, pinching edges tightly.
With the end of a fork, pierce each pirag twice.
Brush lightly with a beaten egg.
Place on baking sheet and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Bake at 180 deg C for 15ish minutes, until lightly golden brown.

[Scorpion1080]

My Grandma is Latvian and this recipe is pretty similar to hers. Not the same but close.

How good are they with a beer?
We make them every Christmas without fail for over 30 years.
They also freeze well.

[RETARD]

Hey Scorpion1080
How lucky are you? You know what i'm talking about then.
If you haven't got it already .... get that recipe and imprint it on your forehead!
Perfect beer food as you suggest. light, savoury & moreish

Originally Posted by Scorpion1080

My Grandma is Latvian and this recipe is pretty similar to hers. Not the same but close.

How good are they with a beer?
We make them every Christmas without fail for over 30 years.
They also freeze well.

[--B--]

another absolute cracker from the retard archives!!

definitely on my list of weekend projects (after the pork belly this weekend!)

[dav3]

Damn you for giving out Latvian national secrets!

My mums side of the family is Latvian so I grew up with these things, they are absolutely fantastic little things.... just don't expect them to last long.

[Oosh]

Look a great deal like the piroshki from a stall in the Adelaide Central Markets.

[RETARD]

i have those once a month or so in the markets and whilst they are really delicious they are really different to pirags.

[noisykid]

Two thumbs Up to You !!!
I have not had them them for more than 30 years and forgot how good they are - one was never enough.
My Mum made them for me when I was a kid and after school they were a rite treat, managed to get me motivated to do the chores !!!
Well Done Fella.

[300ohm]

1/2 stick or 4 Tablespoon of butter

Tip: next time, use a pound of whipped butter, much, much better.

As far as flour goes, you need to use a course ground flour, like they use for good pizzas. Cake type flour isn't as good and makes the pirags smile at you, heh. You did an excellent job though.
(in other words, they don't seal as well)
Learned that by going over to Latvia in August 1991. These are technically called "tea" pirags in Latvia. The real big pirags have 3/8" cubes of fatback in them instead of bacon, yuk. (the Russians seemed to enjoy that fatback variety the most for some strange reason)
Ive been making and perfecting these things for decades, so its really an art form.

My quicky way of making them is this:
I buy a tin of premade croissant dough (Pilllsbury or other).
I put a teaspoon of the the bacon/onion/pepper mix in each croissant, and roll it up like a croissant.
I coat each with an egg wash using a 2" paint brush.
Bake at the croissant package temp and time.

I can make about 48 of these things in less than 2 hours.

Other tips:
If you don't have bacon, use a ham/onion mix.
Fresh dough from a pizza place works well.
Pillsbury biscuit dough works fine.
Cheese in the center is messy.

You just cant go wrong using a greasy dough filled with onion and bacon, heh heh.

[The Mafia]

lol the name sounds like something they are always mentioning in Star Trek DS9 when they are talking about some food they suggesting

[RETARD]

Cheers guys.
300ohm some great tips there thx
I don't make these that often but I will certainly use your hints next time I have to stock up