New Piragis
My dad's side of the family is from Latvia (totally confirmed by Ancestry DNA), and our holiday gatherings always involved piragis. These are TRUE piragis, rolls stuffed with bacon, ham, and onions, not the wimpy, bastardized "pro-gees" from other, lesser countries that are more like limp pasta dumplings and are only bearable when they're smothered in some kind of gravy.
Anyway, my grandmother was the piragi queen, but she never wrote down her recipe, so the secret died with her when I was fourteen, and we went without.
When I was in my thirties, I got tired of piragi-less holidays and set out to re-create Grandma's recipe. By then, I had become a decent enough chef with the experience to reverse engineer most dishes I wanted. I uncovered a half-dozen piragi recipes, worked out what made the most sense to me, and created a batch of dough. They came out beautifully, and I became the family piragi baker ever after.
This year, Thanksgiving is at my mother's, and I'm bringing piragis, of course. But this year, something shifted.
While we were out running errands, I mentioned to Darwin McClary that tomorrow would be piragi baking day, and he said, "You know what would be great in piragis? Raspberry preserves."
I thought about this and said, "Why not?"
So we went to the store. I snagged a jar of raspberry preserves, but next to them on the shelf was Nutella. On impulse, I grabbed that, too. And I bought some soft cheese.
Took these home and whipped up a small batch of dough, then stuffed it with these new ingredients. Brushed them with beaten egg and baked.
They came out smelling fragrant and both sweet and savory. Darwin tried all three kinds straight from the oven and swooned over all three. So did I. The raspberry was sweet and a little tart. The Nutella ones were rich and sweet. The cheese ones were mild and creamy.
We're totally keeping these.
comments
Anyway, my grandmother was the piragi queen, but she never wrote down her recipe, so the secret died with her when I was fourteen, and we went without.
When I was in my thirties, I got tired of piragi-less holidays and set out to re-create Grandma's recipe. By then, I had become a decent enough chef with the experience to reverse engineer most dishes I wanted. I uncovered a half-dozen piragi recipes, worked out what made the most sense to me, and created a batch of dough. They came out beautifully, and I became the family piragi baker ever after.
This year, Thanksgiving is at my mother's, and I'm bringing piragis, of course. But this year, something shifted.
While we were out running errands, I mentioned to Darwin McClary that tomorrow would be piragi baking day, and he said, "You know what would be great in piragis? Raspberry preserves."
I thought about this and said, "Why not?"
So we went to the store. I snagged a jar of raspberry preserves, but next to them on the shelf was Nutella. On impulse, I grabbed that, too. And I bought some soft cheese.
Took these home and whipped up a small batch of dough, then stuffed it with these new ingredients. Brushed them with beaten egg and baked.
They came out smelling fragrant and both sweet and savory. Darwin tried all three kinds straight from the oven and swooned over all three. So did I. The raspberry was sweet and a little tart. The Nutella ones were rich and sweet. The cheese ones were mild and creamy.
We're totally keeping these.
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