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Ossetian pie with cheese and potatoes

Ossetian pie with cheese and potatoes is a fragrant and hearty pastry made from yeast dough. Usually, three pies are prepared at once, which is related to belief and tradition. But if you are making such a pastry for the first time, you can make just one pie. The classic fillings for Ossetian pies are: mashed potatoes with cheese, potatoes with herbs, with beet sprouts, or simply with brine cheese.

Serves: 6.

Cooking time: 120 minutes.

Caloric content: 165 kcal per 100 grams of the dish.

Cuisine: Ossetian.

Ingredients

• flour - 300 g;
• milk (warm) - 70 ml;
• water (warm) - 180-200 ml;
• sugar - ⅔ tsp;
• yeast (dry) - 1 tsp;
• salt - a pinch;
• vegetable oil - 2-3 tbsp.

For the filling:

• potatoes - 300 g;
• Adyghe cheese - 300 g;
• salt - to taste;
• dill and cilantro greens - 100-150 g.

Preparation

1. First, prepare all the ingredients for the dough. The liquid products should be warm. The flour is sifted. Use dry yeast from a trusted manufacturer, baking, quick-acting.

2. Add the dry ingredients to the flour and mix everything well.

3. Add warm milk and part of the water to the bowl with flour. Do not add all the water at once, it may be too much, it all depends on the flour.

4. Knead the dough with a spoon. The dough should be like thick sour cream, it will stick to your hands, but that is how it should be. We have a little water left.

5. Grease the surface of the table and your hands with vegetable oil, place the dough and knead for about seven to ten minutes. If necessary, grease your hands and the table again with oil. After ten minutes, the dough will become elastic and firmer, it will roll from hand to hand like it is alive.

6. Grease the bowl with oil, round the dough if possible and place it in the container. Grease the surface of the dough with oil as well.

7. Cover the bowl with the dough with plastic wrap and place it in a warm 'cupboard' without drafts. Our microwave serves this purpose. It should be heated for a minute empty, and then place the bowl with the dough inside. While the dough is rising, do not turn on the microwave. Leave the dough to rise for exactly one hour. After thirty to forty minutes, the dough needs to be punched down.

8. While the dough rises, we prepare the filling. We peel the potatoes, cut them into four to eight pieces, and boil until ready. When the potatoes boil, we add salt. We make mashed potatoes in any way, we can add cream, milk, butter.

9. The potatoes are ready. We chop the greens finely, prepare the cheese.

10. We grate the cheese coarsely, you can just crumble it by hand.

11. We combine the prepared ingredients together. The aromatic filling is ready.

12. By this time, the dough has risen well. We shape the pie.

13. The tender dough can even be shaped by hand without rolling it out. We stretch the dough into a circle, trying to pull the edges more so that the thickness of the layer in the middle is thicker than the edges. It will become clear later why this is necessary.

14. We form a ball from the filling and place it in the middle of the dough.

15. We gather the dough around and form a huge khinkali. We tightly seal all the edges. Since the edges are rolled thin, when we gather them all, the thickness of the dough will not differ from the middle of the layer. This means we will end up with an even thickness of the pie.

16. We transfer the future pie to oiled parchment paper. With careful movements, we shape the pie, gently stretching the dough with the filling in the middle of the ball. We make a round shape to fit the baking tray. In the middle of the pie, we make a hole in the dough through which air will escape; if we don't do this, the pie will burst.

17. We preheat the oven to 200-230°C, place the pie above the middle level, top-bottom mode. We bake the Ossetian pie until golden brown for about fifteen to twenty minutes. The time depends on the oven's capabilities.

18. We place the finished pie on a dish, plate, or board and immediately, while it is still hot, generously brush the pie with a piece of butter.

19. We cut the pie into six pieces and serve it hot.

20. When you bake your first Ossetian pie with cheese and understand all the nuances of the cooking technique, be sure to make three pies as it should be, stack them and cut them all together.

Ossetian pies with cheese and potatoes are a dish with history and meaning; they symbolize God, the Sun, and the Earth.