Pirog with rice, ham, cheese, egg and mushrooms

For my recent Sunday dinner with my mother I made this pirog with a filling of rice, cheese, egg and mushrooms. I recall, that the original recipe was a part of the magazine "Samvirke" issued by COOP back in 80's. And here I actually made this dish very regular, when I was cooking at home at my parents. However, the recipe disappeared, and it is first recently, that I have located the identical recipe here Allans opskriftssamling.dk.

So it was really a trip down memory lane making this pirog again and serving it for my mother last Sunday.

I have made a few adjustments. Instead of margarine I have off cause been using butter :-) and on top I have been adding in some mushroom from glass. And instead of kneading the dough by hand, I used a stand-alone mixer for the "hard work" of kneading :-)

Any leftovers of this pirog can be re-heated in the microwave oven or serve cold in your lunch pack.

Pirog with rice, ham, cheese, egg and mushrooms: - 4 servings

• Dough:
• 50 g butter
• 125 ml water
• 15 g fresh yeast
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 250 g wheat flour
• Rice filling:
• 15-20 g butter
• 1 onion - medium chopped
• 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon ground paprika
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 2 dl rice
• 4 dl vegetable stock
• Extra addition into the rice filling after boiling:
• 90-100 g cooked and smoked ham - medium chopped
• 2 eggs
• 50 g grated cheese - I used Cheddar
• 1 glass of mushrooms
• 1 egg/egg wash for glazing of the dough

1. Add all the ingredients to the dough into the mixing bowl of the stand-alone mixer. Keep the yeast and salt away from each other.
2. Knead the dough ingredients together at speed 2 for 6-8 minutes.
3. Afterwards increase the speed to 4, knead for 2 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough. If it is not OK, when knead it at speed 4 for another 2 minutes. Again check the consistency. If needed, knead again for 1 minute and when check consistency of the dough.
4. Let the dough raise in the mixing bowl covered by a tea towel for approx 45 minutes.
5. Meanwhile prepare the filling for the pirog.
6. Fry the onion and garlic in the melted butter in the medium size cooking pot for 1-2 minutes.
7. Add in paprika, turmeric and rice, and let it fry for 2 minutes.
8. Add in the vegetable stock, bring the rice filling to the boil.
9. Let the rice simmer gently boil for approx. 20 minutes.
10. Remove the cooking pot from the heat.
11. Heat up the oven (conventional) to 200'C.
12. Roll out the dough on a piece of baking parchment in the size of 40x50 cm.
13. Place the rolled out dough with baking parchment on a baking tray.
14. Add in ham, cheese, eggs and mushrooms into the boiled rice.
15. Add the pirog filling on one part of the dough.
16. Cover the pirog filling by the other part of the dough.
17. Press the end of dough firmly together. I use a fork to do this.
18. Glazing the surface of the dough with egg wash.
19. Bake the pirog in the middle of the oven at 200'C for approx 30 minutes.
20. Serve warm.