Piroshky Piroshki Pirozhki or Pierogi?

There's this little hole-in-the-wall Russian bakery in Pike Place Market, Seattle, called Piroshky Piroshky and one of my very favorite foods of all time is there: the beef and onion piroshky -- a flaky hot pocket filled with savory ground beef like I've never tasted anywhere else. I'm not talking Taco Tuesday ground beef. It's special, like extraordinarily crazy good flavored beef. I kind of need a moment when I'm eating it.

When I began my search for piroshky recipes, the search engine kept asking if I meant to search for piroshki with an i. So after a search for "easy piroshki recipes" (because the word "easy" must precede every single recipe search I do), I found the winning recipe below.

The outcome was awesome! So good, it actually made me second guess the memory I have of the Pike Place piroshky. Having admitted that, I still think if I put up a piroshky to my piroshki, piroshky would still be my favorite. Lost yet? Basically this recipe provides a reeeeally good substitute, although its taste does not surpass the original.

On my search of piroshki history for this post, the first Wiki thing to come up was for pirozhki, Russian individual fried or baked buns with a variety of fillings, which is also known as pyrizhky in Ukraine, or pirosky in Greece. In Japan you can get a piroshiki and in Poland you can get a pierogi, while in America's frozen food aisle, you can get a hot pocket. So- we're covering a lot of ground here as you can see.

Thank you Just a Pinch Recipes for this cinch recipe:

They taste way better than they look...see photo below.

The Easy Piroshki-y-zhki-zhky-ogi Pocket

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1/4 - 1/2 large onion, diced
2 Tbsp sour cream
To taste seasoning salt
To taste no salt seasoning if you have it (I used Kirkland brand)
To taste garlic powder
To taste minced garlic
2 pkgs refrigerator crescent rolls
white flour
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp water

Directions

1. Begin cooking ground beef in skillet. After slightly browned, add the onion and saute until beef is nicely browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Prepare a place to roll out the crescent roll dough by sprinkling a little flour on a large flat surface. Open the tube and carefully unroll the sheet of dough. Flatten it on the floured surface and push the perforated areas together to make one large slab of dough. Roll dough with rolling pin to even out the surface. Dough should become somewhat wider as you do so. Cut dough into 8 or 10 evenly sized squares (I used a pizza cutter). Or if you want larger pockets, cut into 4 or 6 squares.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
4. Pour off some excess grease from meat mixture but leave a little, then add seasoning salt, no salt seasoning, garlic powder, minced garlic and sour cream. Mix well, taste and adjust seasonings. Place equal portions of filling on each square of dough. Then fold over one corner of each square to make triangle-shaped pockets, pressing the edges to seal (if you have trouble getting seal to form, dampen finger in water and rub around edge to be sealed, then press together again). Spray a cookie sheet and place your piroshki on it.
5. Once all piroshki have been sealed, cut a small slit or poke holes with fork in top of each pocket. Mix egg yolk with 2 tbs water and brush wash onto tops of pastries. Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown.

The reason I don't bake. Ever.