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Vareniki with Potatoes

Type: Mains
Servings: 6
Ready in: 45 min.
Calories: High
If you've read 'Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka' by Russian classical writer Nikolai Gogol, you surely remember how adroitly one of the characters ate vareniki with sour cream that flew into his mouth by themselves. Of course, traditional Ukrainian vareniki don't have such super skills, but their taste is sure to make you think of the Ukrainian cuisine's magic.
Ukrainian vareniki are often compared to Russian pelmeni or Italian ravioli. Vareniki's crucial difference from other similar dishes is their dough. Traditional Ukrainian vareniki can't be Lenten, that is, kefir and eggs are always added to the dough.
What are vareniki like? Nikolai Gogol wrote that you could eat hat-sized vareniki at some farms. That's, of course, an exaggeration. The classical varenik is around 10 cm large and, contrary to pelmeni or ravioli, has a crescent shape.
Vareniki's filling can be very different: potato, cabbage, potato and meat, potato and salo (pork meat), sweet or salted curd, pumpkin, cherries and so on. The filling is warped up in dough and cooked for five minutes or less. Vareniki are usually served with sour cream.
Although it's truly Ukrainian dish, vareniki are well-known all over the world. People in different corners of the world took liking of vereniki's unusual and rich taste and installed monuments to varenik. In particular, Ukrainian varenik was immortalized in Canada and Russia.

Ingredients

Kefir 1 glass
Soda 0.5 tsp
Flour 5 glass
Salt 0.5 tsp
Potatoes 8 pieces
Vegetable oil 45 ml
Dairy butter 10 g
Ground black pepper 0.5 tsp
Onions 4 pieces

 

Stages of cooking

1
Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into big pieces.
2
Cook the potatoes in the salted water for 20-25 mins.
3
Peel and dice the onion.
4
Heat the vegetable oil in the frying pan; brown the onion.
5
Pour off the water from boiled potatoes; mash it. Add the 1/3 of fried onion, butter, pepper, salt and stir well. Set the stuffing aside to cool.
6
Combine the kefir of a room temperature, soda, salt and stir well.
7
Stir the flour through and make dough.
8
The dough shouldn’t be stick but stiff and fully combined.
9
Split the dough into two rolls and cut them into little pieces. Shape thin tablets with rolling pin. Dip each side of the table in the flour.
10
Spoon the stuffing in the middle of the tablet and stick edges together.
11
Put the finished vareniki on the flat working surface and powder with flour.
12
Cook the vareniki in salted water for 3-4 mins.
13
Season the cooked vereniki with the remaining browned onion and serve with sour cream.

 

 

 

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