Estonia – Juustu Pirukad

If you look up Estonian cuisine and visit Wikipedia this is what you get “The most typical foods in Estonia have been rye bread, pork, potatoes and dairy products.[1] Estonian eating habits have historically been closely linked to the seasons. In terms of staples, Estonia belongs firmly to the beer, vodka, rye bread and pork "belt" of Europe.” If you keep scrolling your soon learn that the first course in Estonia is traditionally cold, with a potato salad with beetroot and herring featuring widely. Additionally, small pastries known as pirukad and open topped sandwiches also feature. Soups in Estonia can sometimes be eaten before a main, but are more often than not are part of the main mean and feature meat and vegetables, although a unique soup to Estonia is made from bread and called leivasupp. If you do a little more research into Estonian cuisine you’ll soon come to realise that most of their dishes include dark rye bread in one way or another.

Something however drew me to the pirukad or pirukas in the singular, it was quite a cold day day and the thought of little pastries filled with yummy things really grabbed my attention. A little more research into pirukad told me that there were almost endless varieties of the snack (fried, baked, bread dough, puff pastry, small, large). I also learned that with the exception of plaadipirukad (large and baked) which has a non-negotiable filling of meat, cabbage and carrots, most pirukad can be filled with almost anything.

So for my challenge today I chose to go with this recipe of feta juustu pirukad. The person who wrote the recipe got it from a magazine and changed it slightly as they didn’t like olives and preferred thyme to oregano. I on the other hand prefer oregano to thyme and definitely prefer olives to the capers they suggested as replacement. So the recipe is a little different.

Ingredients

• 1 pack of puff pastry.

• 150g feta cheese

• Handful of chopped olives

• Handful of chopped cherry tomatoes

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 egg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. Crumble the feta cheese into a bowl and add the tomatoes, olives and oregano. Mix well.

3. Crack the egg into a small bowl, whisk and set aside for the eggwash later.

4. Cut a strip of puff pastry that’s about 3cm wide. Set aside and cut the rest into about 7x7cm squares.

5. Take the strip and cut it into three 1cm strips and then cut each strip into around 7cm lengths.

6. Take about 2tbps of the filling and place it onto one of the squares. Take one of the 1cmx7cm strips and place it across the square creating a diagonal. Press the ends down to secure. Repeat on the other side to create a cross. Place onto the lined baking tray.

7. Repeat with the remaining squares and if you run out of strips then just cut one of the remaining squares.

8. Use the beaten egg from earlier to brush the pastry so that it gets a nice shine and turns golden brown in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and the cheese is melted.