Simple Ingredients Into Nourishing Meals
It is a deeply satisfying feeling to turn the simplest ingredients into a full, nourishing meal.This deep-dish cabbage pie is exactly that kind of recipe.It all starts with clabber (naturally fermented raw milk) and becomes flavorful dough that can be used for so many different pies and buns. If you’ve ever wondered what to actually do with clabber, this is one of the practical (and delicious) ways to use it.This recipe is from my friend Yulia’s family; her mom, Tatiana, makes it all the time, and it’s always a hit. The kind of dish that disappears quickly, no matter how big the pan is. At first I was not sure about adding milk to cabbage, but I encourage you to follow the recipe exactly and you will be so satisfied with the result!This is the kind of food that comes from a mindset of using everything, wasting nothing, and trusting simple processes, the same approach that generations before us relied on every day.And once you learn this dough, you’ll find a lot of different ways to use it.
savory pies, sweet buns, fried buns. I will be posting more soon.
Clabber Dough Cabbage Pie
Ingredients for Dough:
Clabber or kefir: 16 oz (2 cups)
Butter: 4 oz (1/2 cup), cut in cubes
Baking powder: 2 teaspoons
Sugar: 1 teaspoon
Salt: 1/2 teaspoon
All-purpose flour: 18 to 21 oz (4 1/4 to 5 cups), as needed to form a soft, pliable dough
Filling Ingredients:
Onion: 1 large, finely chopped
Cabbage: 10 oz (about 3 cups), chopped
Frying fat of your choice: 2 tablespoons
Cream: 5 oz (2/3 cup)
Boiled eggs: 2, chopped
Salt and pepper: to taste
Instructions:
In a large bowl, rub the butter into 4 1/2 cups of flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then add the baking powder, kefir, sugar, and salt and mix to form a soft dough. Add more flour if needed. The dough should be soft and form in a ball but can still be sticky.
You will add more flour as you roll it later. Do not overdo with flour because the pie crust will come out hard.
Cover the dough and let it rest while you prepare the filling.
On medium heat, sauté the onions with frying fat until translucent, then add the cabbage and cook until softened. I like to keep the cabbage a little crunchy. Add in the cream, season with salt and pepper, and cook for another 2–3 minutes. Let cool slightly and mix in the chopped boiled eggs.
Season the baking dish with butter and flour so the crust does not stick.
Divide the dough into two portions, one a little bigger than the other.
Roll the dough about 1/3’’ high so it is big enough to cover the bottom of the baking dish and go up past the rim.
Add filling. Roll out the second part of the dough and use it as the top of the pie. Decorate as you like.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Brush the top of the pie beaten egg and bake for 20–25 minutes or until golden.
Let cool for about 30-40 minutes and serve.
It tastes good, warm or cold.
I had some leftover dough and used that the next day for tiny baked buns with cherries. They were delicious as well.
You can also fry this dough.
The Art of Clabber
If this recipe speaks to you, it’s just one small example of what becomes possible when you understand how to work with clabber.In The Art of Clabber, I go much deeper, not just recipes, but the actual skill behind it:
how to ferment milk properly, how to recognize good clabber, and how to turn it into everyday food without waste.Because once you truly learn how to clabber milk, recipes like this stop feeling like instructions and start feeling natural.You can explore the book and see what’s inside here:
👉 Learn more about The Art of ClabberAnd if you’re just starting, don’t forget, this all begins with learning how to make good clabber.
