Russian Empress Catherine the Great enjoyed this round pie (RECIPE)

Empress Catherine II mentioned kolobovy pie as a present in her 1772 comedy ‘The Front Room of a Noble Boyar’. A peculiarity of the pie was the way the puff pastry was made - each layer was rolled with beef lard.

In his cookbook ‘Russkaya Povarnya’ (1816), Vasily Levshin describes such a recipe: “When the pastry is rather rubbed (with fat), make a round pie of it… with the following stuffing: chop beef in coarse cuts, with lots of onions and pepper seasoning, fry in beef fat and then chop very finely. Fill the pie with all these crumbs, make the lid from the same pastry, pour the meat broth or put a piece of ice; cover and seal it and bake in a pan in a hot oven.”

The name of the pie - kolobovy - is a relative of the words ‘kolobok’ and ‘kulebyaka’, which means “round bread”. The word ‘kolobok’ appears in documents from the 16th century, but, by the 19th century, it had fallen out of use, giving way to the word ‘kolobok’.

Nowadays, the recipe of dough with beef fat is practically not used by Russian cooks, so we will share a light version of kolobok pie shared with us by Viktor Beley, chef at the  ‘Uhvat’ restaurant in Moscow.

Ingredients for 1-2 servings:

Pancakes (12 pieces):

• Water - 250 ml
• Milk - 200 ml
• Chicken egg - 4 units
• Vegetable oil - 70 ml
• Sugar - 35 g
• Salt - 2 g
• Flour - 150 g

You need 1 thin pancake for the recipe, so you can eat the rest or share with your family while the main pie is being baked.

Stuffing:

• Chicken leg - 300-400 g
• Butter - 600 g
• Champignons - 70 g
• Onions - 70 g
• Vegetable oil for frying

Pie:

• Puff pastry - 2 layers
• Milk - 30 ml
• Egg - 1 unit

Creamy soy sauce with vegetables:

• Garlic - 30 g
• Parsley - 30 g
• Shallots - 30 g
• Wine - 100 ml
• Soy sauce - 100 ml
• Cream - 1 l
• Green (herb) oil for decoration

Preparation:

1. For the pancakes, combine water, warm milk, eggs and vegetable oil in a bowl and stir with a whisk until smooth. Then gradually add the mixture of flour, sugar and salt. It should be a liquid batter, from which you need to bake thin pancakes.
2. Pepper the ham, salt it, pour the melted butter and let it stew for 35 minutes at 170°C.
3. Take the chicken out of the oven, remove the meat from the bone.
4. Cut mushrooms and onions into small cubes, fry in vegetable oil and add the stewed chicken.
5. Lay out for baking puff pastry, stuffing, place the pancake on top, add the filling again and cover with puff pastry.
6. For the egg glaze, lightly beat the milk and egg and grease the pie. After 10 minutes, take the pie out and grease again with the mixture. Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C.
7. For the sauce, peel and finely chop the vegetables, fry in vegetable oil, pour white wine and steam. Then add cream and soy sauce.
8. To serve, pour the sauce into a plate and place the pie in it, garnish with green oil.

READ MORE: Onion vzvar: Forgotten dish of the Russian cuisine (RECIPE)