Pirozhki are the little filled buns of Russian life: soft yeast dough wrapped around potato, cabbage, meat or egg with green onion, then baked or fried and sold hot from kiosks, station platforms and grandmothers' kitchens. Russian writers from Gogol onward have filled their pages with them, and no Russian childhood seems complete without someone pressing one into your hand on the way out of the door.

The potato version is the people's favorite, and frying gives it the street stall finish: a thin crackly shell outside and a soft, pillowy crumb within. They are perfectly portable, which matters when the race is about to start and the sofa is in another room. Make a double batch; nobody has ever complained of a surplus.

The dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet, 7 g) instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 1/4 cups (410 g) all purpose flour

The potato filling

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds (680 g) floury potatoes
• 2 tablespoons (30 g) butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 tablespoon sunflower or vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh dill
• 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Shaping and frying

Ingredients

• 6 cups (1.4 liters) sunflower or vegetable oil

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