[Sca-cooks] Russian food- vatrushki

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 20, 2006, at 7:22 PM, Huette von Ahrens wrote:

> My Prussian grandmother used to make this wonderful fried pie, that  
> is similar
> to piroshkis but with a similar filling to this vatroushki.  All  
> the German food
> experts I have asked about this are stumped.  I have long wondered  
> if it is a
> Prussian dish, a Polish dish, a Russian dish?  We always called  
> them cheese
> pies.  The crust is a very heavy dough that is rolled out into  
> circles and filled
> with the cheese filling and the edges are twisted/braided shut.

It has been alleged that my grandmother, who was born in what is now  
Hungary, but of ethnically German ancestry (seems there had been  
famine in the late 18th century; the able-bodied men of Hesse went in  
large part to fight for the British army against their uppity  
colonies; some of my ancestors ended up in the Austro-Hungarian  
Empire) used to make a rich, eggy pasta dough, fill it with cheese  
and onion in large, stuffed triangles (large squares folded over  
diagonally), boil, butter, and sometimes fry them afterwards.

However, I never heard any name for them but "pig's ears". My Dad  
loved to eat but didn't have much interest in, or knowledge of, the  
technical side of cookery. If there's a German name for this dish,  
and there probably is, I don't know what it is.

But it sounds somewhat similar.

Adamantius