Ossetian traditional pies

Ossetian Pies Recipe

For those who never made them Three traditional pies and cup of beer.

We will need some ankhizhan (mix), flour, oil, milk salt and water.

This is a cup of ankhizhan: mix of flour (one tee spoon), yeast (one tea spoon), suger (1 t.s.) and warm water.

Ossetian cheese (see the article "Ossetian feta cheese")

We will need this "aryng". This one was bought in IKEA department store.

All purpose white flour.

Add some salt.

Pour ankhizhan into the cup with flour.

Adding warm water start mixin it from the centre.

It will taste better if you add 50-100 g of milk.

Dough is ready. If you add 30 g of vegetable oil it will be not that sticky.

Now you should cover dough with kind of plastic film and let it swell out.

It is time to prepare filling. Lets this time make tsakharadzhyn - pies with beet tops and cheese.

We can also use some dill,parsley and onions though some Ossetians make tsakharadzhyn without them.

Cut leaves into very small pieces.

Same with other ingredients.

Dough is already swollen

It is time to form the pies.

Put dough on the aryng with some flour

The dough balls for three pies.

Now we can salt the filling. It is not recommended to do this earlier.

Add 0.5 - 0.7 kg of fresh Ossetian cheese.

If you get the filling too "juicy" some flour can be added.

Filling is ready.

Pre-heat the oven.

Roll out dough with your hands

Put some filling on centre

Put the edges together.

Connect then and cut the top off.

Now you roll it out again. From centre toward edges.

Flip it over and keep rolling out.

Put it on a frying pan

Gently make it filling up the whole volume of the pan.

Time to bake.

Put the pan on lower level and keep it there untill the bottom of the pie does not stick to the surface of the frying pan. Then move it to the upper level. Put the second frying pan on a lower one.

Bake the pie untill the top gets some ruddy but do not overbake. After you take the pie out use piece of butter to make the top and sides soft.

Done. Just put them on your table and help yourself.

I give you the detailed illustrations and recipe because there are many people around the world who wants to try Ossetian pies but do not know how to make them. So, now everybody can try and if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.

I will also appreciate your comments in our guest-book

SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The names of the pies vary by their filling: Walibah, chirri, habizhdjin (singular) – are pies made with Ossetian feta cheese. Kartofdjin- are pies made with potatoes and cheese Tsaharadjin- are pies made with chopped beat leaves/ Swiss chard and cheese Kabushkadjin- are pies made with chopped cabbage and cheese Fidjin- are pies made with ground beef on traditional holidays, but may contain a mix of meats on any other day. Davondjin- are made with ramson leaves and cheese Nashdjin- are made with pumpkin and cheese They also bake pies with other types of filling all over Ossetia. However, the ones mentioned above are most well known. The process of baking pies is not too difficult, but still requires some skills and experience. Women cook pies as «to put hands in dough» for men was considered humiliating. Thin and juicy pies with a filling that doesn't spill outwards are considered to be best. Thick pies are a sign of an inexperienced cook. In general the technology of the preparation is the same across Ossetia. But each cook brings uniqueness to the process, making the end product different from anyone else. So the recipe may also slightly differ. Here is one version of the recipe:

Preparation of the dough:

Take one teaspoon of dry yeast, one teaspoon of white flour, one teaspoon of sugar and mix everything in a glass of warm water (not previously boiled). The glass should be full around ѕ. It should rise closer to the rim in 10-15 minutes. During this time, prepare a large bowl, a flat tray large enough to flatten the pies in and the filling in circles with a radius of 12-15 cm. Having placed the flour in the bowl, we can start making the dough. Mix the flour and the contents of the glass. Add warm water, milk, salt, and in the end when the dough is almost ready - vegetable oil to all sides so that the dough does not stick to the walls and the bottom of the bowl. You may also want to cover it with a plastic film or cling wrap so that the air doesn't get to the dough. Wait a couple of hours. Some cooks prepare the dough for the future, storing it in the fridge for a couple of days. This way the process of baking pies is much faster as it eliminated the long preparation time of the dough. Furthermore, the same dough can be used to make homemade bread using the same baking tray as for the pies. Preparing various fillings. Filling for a walibakh (with cheese) Since the olden days Ossetians prepared walibakh with cheese from cow, sheep and goat milk, which is still popular till this day in the former USSR territories for it's exceptional taste. Nowadays, the cheese is primarily prepared from cow milk in rural households as well as in dairy factories in the urban areas of North Ossetia. The recipe to prepare Ossetian cheese is given in a separate article. Meanwhile, we advise you to purchase your Ossetian cheese in grocery stores in Russia. For those living outside of Russia, we recommend using variations of Feta cheese: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, Israeli. Ideally the cheese should not be too salty and should contain a good amount of milk fat. If the cheese is salty, it can be cut into pieces and left in water for a couple of hours. Fresh cheese is easily crushed by hands. However, a fine grater also does the job. Add some salt if needed, mix in a bowl and create three circles with a diameter 12-15 cm. Lay them out on a flat plate. Preparing filling for fidjin (with ground meat) Ground meet was previously prepared manually with a small axe, chopping off the fat on wooden board and cutting into small pieces. Now, it can be either bought, or passed through a meat grinder, although it was

considered among the elder generations that fidjin was tastier if the meat filling was ground manually. The meat should not be fattening or worse - extra lean. As on special holidays and weddings, fidjin is not placed on the table at the start of the meal, it is not mandatory to have them placed in threes. Therefore, the quantity of fidjin pies depends on the number of guests attending at approximately 0.5 kg of meat for one fidjin. After adding salt (with a fidjin it is better if you put too much salt rather than too little) pepper, add thinly graded onions and garlic and mix by hand. Let it stand for 30 minutes for the flavor to spread and you are ready to bake when your dough rises. There are two ways of shaping a fidjin. The first is the way other Ossetian pies are made (pulling the edges together to form circle and then flatten). The second is by having two layers of the dough and placing the filling on top of the first layer and covering it with a second layer. This way, the ends of the pie are pinched together and a hole is made in the center for the air to escape. Sometimes, to have “juicier” filling, some people add water or beef broth. Fidjin is placed on the lower level of the oven at first just as other Ossetian pies are. After the bottom of the fidjin stops sticking to the baking tray, it can be placed at a higher level in the oven. When the fidjin is ready, it should be placed on a flat plate and the leftover flour should be swept off the top and the top of the fidjin should be glazed with butter. Enjoy your Fidjin!

This news is from site "Ossetians": http://ossetians.com/eng

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