(POACHED PASTIES WITH MEAT FILLING)

For the dough: 2 glasses (3 1/4 cups) flour, 1 egg,
5 tbsps cold water, 1 tsp butter, salt
For the filling: 0.5 kg (1 1/4 lb) meat (pork and beef in equal proportion), 2 or 3 onions, 1 tsp salt, 2 or 3 tbsps water, black pepper, nutmeg to taste

Put the beef and pork through the food chopper after trimming off sinews. Add onions (also put through the mincer), salt, spices and cold water. Sir thoroughly and set aside. Form a hill of sifted flour on the board. Break an egg into a dump/pot made in the middle. Add a little

water, salt and then mix the flour with liquid carefully – at first with a knife and then with hands – and thoroughly knead the dough. It should be resilient. Add to the dough 1 teaspoon of butter, knead once again and cover for 5 to 10 minutes by a hot bowl or saucepan. Then roll out the dough into a thin cake, less than 2 mm thick. Cut the dough leaf into rounds with a thin glass or a mould, touch the edge of the round with a wet finger dipped in ice-cold water to make the edges paste up better. Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each round, fold it over and thoroughly pinch to make a crescent shape. Boil the prepared pelmeni either in a usual meat and bone stock or in salted water. Season the stock or water with onions, bay leaf and paper and add salt.