Pulled Pork Peroshki

My maternal grandparents were German-speaking Mennonites who were chased out of the Ukraine by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution. Food has always been central to Mennonite culture and although they left the Ukraine with not much more than the clothes on their back, one thing my grandmother brought with her was a number of traditional dishes including the Mennonite equivalent of the empanada which is called peroshki. My grandmother's peroshki was a sweet bun filled with a savory ground beef and onion filling. In my North Carolina meets Mennonite version I substituted pulled pork laced with a North Carolina style vinegar sauce for the beef and added a sweet BBQ dipping sauce. Served hot off the egg they are delicious although traditionally they would be served cold as part of the Mennonite tea called Vespa or as part of a cold meal on the Sabbath, typically a day when no cooking would be done.

Enjoy!

Dough

I made the dough using the dough cycle of my breadmaker but you could just as easily make it using a food processor or by hand. Either follow the hand made instructions or forget the warm water, add an extra 1/4 cup of warm milk and ignore the 1 tsp of sugar and yeast proofing business - just dump all the ingredients in your bread maker and let 'er rip.

1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
approx. 4 cups all purpose flour (add extra to get a sticky but not wet dough)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of warm milk
6 tbsp melted butter
4 eggs

1. Combine the water, teaspoon of sugar, yeast and let it bubble.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Mix in the milk, butter, sugar, salt, yeast mixture and 2 cups of the flour.

3. Add the rest of the flour slowly mixing with a wooden spoon until it becomes smooth and does not stick to the side of the bowl.

4. Dump out on a flour covered surface and knead a few times by hand then form dough into ball, place in bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place until it doubles in size.

5. Punch down dough (or remove from bread maker at end of dough cycle). If you have a patty maker gizmo, roll out as thin as possible and follow instructions for the patty maker using pulled pork as your filling.

6. If you don't have a patty maker, pinch off walnut sized pieces of dough and roll out, place some pulled pork on the centre and fold over and pinch the edges to seal.

7. Place on a floured pan, cover with a clean tea towel and allow the peroshki to rise again for approximately 30 minutes.

8. Brush the tops of peroshki with an egg wash (egg beaten with a little water) and bake on your pizza stone with at a dome temp (or oven temp) of 400 F for 10-15 minutes.

9. Serve warm or cold with your favourite BBQ sauce ( I used Apple City Barbecue Sauce).

I made my pulled pork using the North Carolina Style Pulled Pork from the Naked Whiz website. I used the Traditional North Carolina Sauce (A) to moisten the pork before stuffing the peroshki.