Meat Rolls

Then Sebell handed Piemur a dried meat roll of the sort that was standard journey rations, and Piemur began to view the imminent day in a much improved frame of mind. Dragondrums, chapter 6

These are inspired by Russian piroshki which are bread buns with stew in them. Meat rolls are ubiquitous on Pern they seem to be standard travel food along with fish rolls which I assume are the same but with fish instead of meat, they are often served with Klah. Pern being a fairly large place there would certainly be variation in fillings and dough recipes so this is just my version.

• Stew
• 1.4 kg stewing steak
• oil or fat for frying
• 5 medium onions
• 3 stems of celery
• 1 carrot
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 t salt
• 2 t pepper
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1/2 cup prunes
• 2 t chilli flakes
• 3 t cumin
• 3 t coriander seed
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 t turmeric
• 6 cloves of garlic

To make stew: Begin by peeling and chopping the onions. Heat a large frying pan and saute the onions in oil or fat. While they are frying cut up and add the celery and carrot. Cook until the onion is nicely browned.

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Next cut up and fry the meat until lightly browned. In a pot or casserole dish combine meat, onions and all other ingredients and cook on low heat for at least 4 hours. All the spices are very approximate and can be changed to taste.

For the dough I used two recipes I found here and here. They both worked well for baking and frying. Once the dough has risen cut it into tennis ball sized pieces and roll out flat let the dough rest for a few minuets then roll out again.

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Fill with a spoonful of stew, seal the edges so it won’t leak and place on a slide to rest. Then bake or fry them; if baking cook in a 180 oven for about 20 minutes, mine leaked a lot. If frying, heat 8cm of dripping (or oil) to around 150-175 put the buns in seam-side down and turn over once browned. If one starts leaking take it out straight away and finish it in the oven. Then serve with Klah or Redfruit juice and enjoy.

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Overall these turned out fine, as a travelling food I would use baked meat rolls as they are sturdier and easier to make. Both bread recipes turned out fine although I would add a teaspoon more salt to the dough.