May 1, 2011: One of the perks of running Fresh-Picked Seattle is getting to meet a lot of great people who then feed you a lot of great food. Irina Vodonos of Moscow Gourmet Kitchen and I met when she contacted me to be listed on Fresh-Picked's cooking instructor directory. I then enlisted her to guide me for the Fresh-Picked Virtual Russian and Eastern European Market Tour and we've been friends since. This spring, she invited me and some friends over for a piroshky cooking party. (This photo courtesy of Irina Vodonos)
I worked in a cooking school for a while, and have taken a lot of cooking classes for this site. I've learned that it's not quite as easy as one might think to teach a good cooking class. It's important to have a good flow, to get people engaged...and to feed them during the class, not just at the end if you can help it! Part of Irina's purpose in having us over was so she could review her class plan before her series of piroshky classes at PCC. I might be biased because we're friends, but I think Irina's kind of careful preparation is the hallmark of a good teacher. :)
The first thing she made was a large savory pie, filled with mushrooms and onions.
Another thing I've noticed about good cooking instructors is that they stop to point out small changes in texture, color, taste, etc. It's those little sensory markers that a novice chef might not be familiar with. Here we stopped to feel what the prepared dough felt like, a helpful detail to note.
Here one of Irina's friends rolled out the top crust.
Lifting the dough to place on top of filling.
Pinching the dough down around the filling. A tight seal is important to avoid having your filling leak out during cooking.
The big mushroom pie, ready for the oven.
While the pie baked, we prepared more dough from scratch. Here Irina shows us the starting point for the preferment yeast mixture.
Preferment about halfway done...
Preferment pretty much expanded and complete.
Here Irina measured out some milk. In Russian cooking, drinking glasses and cups are often used instead of actual measuring cups.
Stirring up the dough...
Irina demonstrated her favorite kneading technique.
Dough kneaded, but it's not done. When making piroshky dough, fat is mixed into the dough after the initial kneading.
And it's mixed in by hand...so be ready to roll your sleeves up and get a little oily. No pictures of that process as I was doing it and didn't want to get my camera too sticky. Irina monitored our mixing and let us know when it looked properly incorporated.
The end result, the dough tender and golden.
I had to eat and run after the mushroom pie, but Irina was kind enough to take some photos for me. Here her friends assemble the piroshky. (Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)
(Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)
A cool thing I missed: one of Irina's friends comes from the land of momos, so she showed the others how to make them. (Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)
(Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)
(Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)
Delicious. (Photo courtesy Irina Vodonos)