Russian "Lazy" Egg & Cabbage Pie

I've had my eye on this one for a while, but I've been putting it off because it seemed a bit odd and also a bit plain, in spite of being a pie, of sorts. Wrong, though! It was really good and the ever-popular easy, and I'll be making it again. I might gild the lily and put some cheese or bacon in it, but really it was more than fine the way it was. If there's anything difficult about it, it's deciding what to serve with it. It seems to want something, but after all it does contain all the components of a reasonable meal itself. Maybe all it needs is a second helping. More seriously, some squash or sweet potato might be good to round it out. Salad seems like too much veg, and while some bacon or sausage would go well it's already pretty rich.

This sort of soft batter enclosing a filling gets used a lot, from Turkey on up through the Balkans, Ukraine, and Russia. Some of the recipes I looked at referred to it as a lazy pie, as the batter is much faster and easier to make than a proper pie crust. Cabbage and eggs are a really common filling but there are lots of other things baked into this type of pie. Ground meat and mushrooms seem popular, but right now we have a glut of cabbages in the cold storage so cabbage it was.

I used a mix of sour cream and rather thick yogurt, and in spite of adding a little more than the cup I'm calling for, I think my batter was a hair too thick. It's pretty forgiving, though. I used oil although a lot of recipes called for mayonnaise, which after all is basically oil. I didn't see the need particularly, and mayonnaise is rather expensive. Vegetable oil worked fine. 

4 to 6 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time - not including boiling the eggs

Prepare the Filling:
3 large room temperature eggs
4 cups finely shredded green cabbage
1 medium carrot
1 large onion
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon rubbed dillweed
1/2 teaspoon rubbed savory

Put the eggs into a pot and cover them with water. Bring them to a boil and boil them for 1 minute. Cover the pot and remove it from the heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. Drain the eggs and rinse them in cold water until cool. This can be done in advance.

Wash, trim, and finely shred the cabbage. Peel and grate the carrot. Peel and sliver the onion finely.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots and onions and toss them in the oil; after they have cooked for a minute or two mix in the cabbage. Cook the vegetables gently until softened and reduced in volume but not browned. Stir regularly. Mix in the seasonings as they cook.

Once they are ready, remove them from the heat and let them cool while you make the batter. Peel the hard-boiled eggs, chop them, and mix them with the vegetables.

Make the Pie:
3 large eggs
about 1 cup sour cream, yogurt, OR buttermilk
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil OR mayonnaise
1 1/3 cup soft whole wheat or spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sesame OR poppy seeds

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly oil a 8" x 10" baking (lasagne) pan.

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the sour cream, yogurt, or buttermilk and the oil. Measure the flour and mix in the salt and baking powder. Whisk it into the eggs and dairy. If necessary, add a little more of the chosen dairy product to make a thick but pourable pancake type batter. One cup buttermilk should be enough but thicker sour cream or yogurt may require a bit more. You could also use a mixture of products.

Pour 40% to 50% of the batter into the prepared pan ans spread it out evenly. Spoon in the vegetable filling evenly over the batter. Scrape in the remaining batter and smooth it evenly over the top.

Bake the pie at 375°F. for 40 to 45 minutes. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting and serving.





Last year at this time I made Mincemeat Cake. 

Posted in: Ontario Food