Dina's Coming Home - Anya's Chebureki

For the first episode of my new series ‘Dina’s Coming Home’, I went to visit the lovely Anya Peach to learn all about her Latvian heritage, life in Latvia and Cyprus before moving to London in her teens. The series seeks to unpack how food helps us form our identities and bring us close to our cultures despite living from them.

In this episode I learnt how to make Chebureki, a Latvian dish made of short crust pastry filled with minced pork or chicken. Serve with a class of tomato juice! I adored speaking with Anya and thoroughly enjoyed eating these Chebureki, so I hope you do to!

Recipe

Makes 6-8 

Dough 

◦ 240ml boiled water 

◦ 4 tbsp vegetable oil 

◦ 1 tsp salt 

◦ 500g plain flour

Filling 

◦ 500g minced lamb 

◦ 1 onion, finely diced 

◦ Salt and pepper to taste 

Method 

1. Mix water, oil and salt. Gradually add the flour, use a spoon to mix until combined. Then knead on a clean surface for 5-6 minutes. Leave to rest for 30 mins 

2. Prep the filling - mix the mince, the onion, salt and pepper and water. The filling needs to be a consistency of thick sour cream (dina to mention if this is how you would compare it in Russian?)

3. Divide the dough into 8 parts. Shape each part into a ball and cover. Roll the ball out one at a time to roughly 20-25cm diameter. Lay the mince generously onto one half. Fold over the dough. Push out the air, seal the edges and use a knife to cut off excess dough. 

4. Preheat a large frying pan on a medium high heat with enough oil for shallow frying. 

5. Fry two chebureki at a time. 4 mins on each side. 

6. Rest the fried chebureki on paper towel to drain the excess oil. 

7. Serve immediately