LittleHungryGirl

Passport & Plate - 5 Meters Worm Potato Pie

Bosnia & Herzegovina | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
500 grams plain flour
50 ml vegetable oil
1 kg Potatoes
2 large onions
Water
1 tbl salt
Pinch of pepper
More oil for greasing the pastry
1 tbl of butter (optional)
1/4 cup of milk (optional)

 

How to prepare this recipe
For the pastry :
With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix flour, oil, tablespoon of salt and a little lukewarm water enough to combine all the flour. Knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together to a nice even paste. Leave at warm place to rest for one hour.

For the filling :
Cut the potatoes to a 1-2 cm square, rinse well under cold water.
Drain and add salt and pepper to taste. Grate to large pieces 2 onions and combine with the potatoes.
Procedure:
Cut the dough into 5 -6 centimeters round balls. Work with one piece at a time, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth. On a lightly floured counter, with lightly floured hands, shape each piece into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Using a rolling pin or just stretching the dough with hands, pulling around the pastry stretch it for as thin as you can (until it becomes almost transparent).
Once you have stretched the dough as more as you can, sprey a little oil on it, and add the filling. THe filling goes on one side leghtwise, just sprinkled so there is no empty areas in the filing( photo). LIft gently the very end of the pastry sheet right next to the filling and gently turn it over the potatoes. Start rolling from the side of the filing all the way to the other side, until the end of the pastry (you'll get something like a worm-ike shape).
Grease the bottom of a round flat pan (32 cm).
Roll the worm like form into spiral thightly around it in a circle, and put in the center of the pan. Repeat with all the other balls of pastry and squeese them gently one next to other in the pan, until it is full.
Bake at 250 degres Celsius for 30 minutes, when it becomes red at the surface add 100 ml of water all over it and return in the oven for another 10 minutes to become soft and silky.
Optional: In the real old-fashioned way at the end of baking the pie it would be seasoned with melted butter and warm milk on top of the whole pie.
Serve with natural yoghurt.

 

The story behind this recipe
First recipe that comes to my mind. Anytime. It is what I named it when I was a little girl, becouse it reminded me of a long worm that I used to roll around to the pan when my mom was finished with making it.
It is one of the most popular dishes in Bosnia, it is in absolutely EVERY household and has endless variations.
Through history it was eaten before going to fields and work all the day long. And not to get hungry fast. It is also very cheap dish,so it was good for large families.
Nowdays we change the filings to everyone's likeing and the layering, so make a little flowers shape or 8-like shapes to get the kids interested.
Taste-wise the absolutely most loved version is called "Burek " filled with mninced meat, spices and onion. Bosnians like meat. Everything with meat . :)
But my favorite is filled with fresh cheese. And one with spinach and eggs, and the sweet one with pieces of squash and milk cream. Ok, I like them all... Especially when someone else made it.
The pie itself is not so complicated to make. But the trick behind it is that our moms and grandmoms make it all the way across the large dining room table, or on the large sheet on the floor. Easily strethcing the pastry over the table pulling with fingers hanging over almost to the floor. And, they would finish it in 5 minutes total!
My first one I made when I was four years old, copying everything mom does, with a roller pin that was not roller pin, but my father impro (cut form the end of a wooden spoon,just for me). Brings out memories... Homesick for my mothers pie.
The pictures are actually taken last year, for my friend from France, when she was in for a visit. She loved it and wanted to learn. It was baked in a fireplace with "Sac" - big heavy Copper lid, which goes over the pan, and covered with hot stones and coal and let to cook. Btw, everything from the Sac is so good, meat, vegetables, or just whole baked potatoes. Perfect!
Now my mouth is watery, and I have to call my mom.