Saturday, August 18, 2012

Beetniks (Beet Leaves and Dough)

This is one of my favorite Ukrainian dishes and today I am using my mom's recipe. You take fresh made bread, wrap it in beet leaves to make tiny dumplings and then soak them in a dill cream sauce. It is a staple of every special occasion and you can make the dumplings ahead of time and freeze them for months. We call them beetniks (or beet leaves and dough) and I can never find a recipe on the internet so I am posting one. This is a very local dish, but very rich and tasty. It also is a good use for beet leaves, maybe left over from cooking, say borscht.



Beetniks


Ingredients


  • 1 loaf bread dough (I used frozen)
  • About 50 small to medium beet leaves (don't use ones that the  bugs have eaten). 
  • 1 litre cream
  • 1 onion
  • 4-6 Tbsp of fresh dill

Instructions


Beetniks

  1. Wash the beet leaves. Remove the stems. To dry, spread one layer of leaves between tea towels. You can use leaves that are slightly wilted but don't use leaves that are eaten by bugs.
  2. Break off about a walnut sized ball of dough. Place on the rib of the beet leaf and roll up tightly. Repeat until you run out of beet leaves or dough.
  3. Let rise until the dough peeks out the edges of each roll. 
  4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes on a greases cookie sheet until golden brown. Fill a roaster with the beetniks. 

Cream Sauce

  1. Dice the onion and cook in a generous portion of butter until soft.
  2.  Add the cream and the dill and simmer until the sauce thickens. If the sauce does not thicken, fry a little flour with butter and add to the cream. If too thick, add a little more cream. Sauce should be a yellow color.
  3. Pour the sauce over the beetniks. Allow the sauce to soak in,(you can heat them up in the oven if you like). Serve.




19 comments:

  1. Do you know what this dish is called in Ukrainian?

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    1. I have never heard the two names put below, usually I hear beetniks used in a Urkainian context or sometimes "Holubtsi z Khlibnoho Testu Zapovnennya"

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    2. They are a form of pyrizhky made in July for the feast of sets.,Peter and paul

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  2. We make ours a little differently. Instead of bread dough we make up a hard dumpling dough ( in a measuring cup mix 1/3 cup oil, 1 egg, add water to reach 1 cup, mix and add 1 tsp salt and I cup flour, then spoon the raw dough into the middle of the leaf, roll and layer in the pan. With each layer drop small pats of butter and pour whipping cream over ( not enough to cover , in the end the cream should only come half way up the pan) sprinkle your dill or add onion between each layer if you like(!i never have tried this). Cover the last layer with beet leaves cover and bake in the oven on a cooking sheet, because you know it's done when the cream has bubbled over the sides of the dish). This delicious and is also good with mushrooms added!

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  3. Thankyou to both people who replied to my question. I now have a name for the dish & a second version for the recipe. I can try both.

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  4. I love Beetniks and will be trying this recipe !

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  5. These are one of my husband's favorite dishes, and I had never heard of them before, despite growing up next door to a lady who made holubtsi that my grandma still (20+ years later) raves about how perfect they were.

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  6. thank you for the recipe.it was delicious.loved by all at the potluck

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  7. I have been making these for years but this time I sprinkled dill on the butter fried onion. How would you freeze them after they are cold. They have the butter and onion on them

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  8. I make mine and add green onion & dill in the bread dough. Also in the cream sauce after and yes they can be frozen for later use. I boil cream sauce and throw frozen beetniks in the boiling
    cream sauce. Works everytime, thicken if needed.

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  9. I make my own bread dough and put a few cloves of garlic & dill right in the dough. So much better than bought dough. Unless your pressed for time.

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  10. Can you freeze these before cooking? I would like to make them ahead of time and then cook them for Christmas.

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    Replies
    1. Yes you can. Just bake them before your freeze them.

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  11. Great recipe. I freeze them then use fill sauce when i want to eat them

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Do you cook them first before freezing them?

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  12. Yes, Jackie… that was answered above and you cook first then freeze

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  13. For the frozen dough, do you let it rise overnight before putting them in the beet leaves and cooking?

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