Cooking (and ministry) lesson 101 Part 5

Here is where it all began last Saturday. There are over 100 (maybe more) of these guys from Africa, Afghanistan and other places - all here illegally - all without shelter, food, or the basic necessities of life. They hang out in the parking lots of the supermarkets, waiting to see if anyone needs help putting their shopping into the cars - just so they can get a euro or two in tips. The management of the supermarkets come out and run them off - like stray dogs - and it just breaks my heart. WHAT CAN I DO? God told me simply "feed them." HOW CAN I TRANSPORT FOOD? "you can order containers online" IT TOOK WEEKS AND THEY ARE STILL HUNGRY - the simple answer came "Bierox."
The story behind these wonderful sandwiches is this. When my son Jeremy graduated to heaven in 1977, the newspaper editor came to the house, holding a small brown paper bag. She whispered to me "there are bierox in here." (Something I conveniently forgot because I thought she said BEER!)

Later that evening someone looked inside the bag and squealed - there are SANDWICHES in here. Of course, I later got the recipe and have been making them for my family ever since. They freeze BEAUTIFULLY - and we like all manner of "sauces" to accompany them - from the simplest mustard to the yummiest gravies.This is a photo from the internet, showing the "usual" filling - a mixture of ground beef, cabbage, onions and garlic salt. Here's the recipe:

BREAD
2 c. milk, 1/2 c. shortening, 1/2 c. sugar - put it in a saucepan over low heat and stir til just melted - DO NOT BOIL
Mix 1 pkg. dry yeast in 1/2 WARM water - set aside

Mix dry ingredients in very large bowl:
6 c. flour 1 t. salt

Pour milk mixture in and stir til well blended. Mix in yeast.

Turn out on floured board and knead til smooth and elastic. I have a collection of rubber gloves which I save from the countless boxes of hair color (NO THEY ARE NOT USED!!!!) - I put these on to save my hands from the goop (and to protect all my bracelets!).

I save back a little flour to cover my kneading board. Just smush and turn over and keep pounding till all the flour is incorporated and you have a smooth and elastic ball - something like this. (I doubled the recipe so my "smooth" was not quite to my liking!)When it is kneaded sufficiently, put some oil in a bowl and swirl it all around. Plop the dough in, turn it over - so the oiled side is up. THEN, put your bowl (I had two) in the oven (NO HEAT ON). Cover it. And here's a little trick I learned. Set two mugs inside the oven and fill each with boiling water. Close the door and let it rise (usually one hour) til double in size.

Now here's where the fun (and math) begins. Separate the big ball into half, then half, then half, then half - until you have balls about the size of golf balls.

Roll each ball flat - into a 5-6" circle. Place the circle in the palm of your hand.

Scoop in about 1/2 c. of filling. (This filling is an Italian spaghetti sauce with rice and peas - it was YUMMY!)

Fold the edges over and pinch together.

Put onto a baking sheet with the seam side down(I cover my baking sheets with parchment paper).

Bake in a 190 degree (sorry this is Celsius - look it up for Fahrenheit!) oven for about 20 minutes - until golden brown.

Brush with olive oil (or butter, if you must) when taken out.

Wrap in foil and freeze -

FILLING

1-2 lbs. mince (ground meat)
1 small head cabbage shredded
1 onion diced
garlic salt, pepper

Saute onion in small amount of oil til translucent. Add meat and cook til pink is gone. Add cabbage and cook til it is limp. Plenty of garlic salt and pepper.

For this time, I cooked a turkey breast in stock, cubed it and put in the fridge to cool. Then I cooked some rice, mixed it with a package of frozen mixed vegetables. When the meat was cool, I shredded it. Just before filling the bierox, I made a white sauce (thick gravy) and added that to the mix. It was DELICIOUS!

Just out of the oven - still oozy!

I packed 3 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and a bierox inside a quart zip-loc. We gave each guy a bag and a bottle of water - 20 bags in all and it was NOT enough. I'm going to take 30 bags this week.


We had one bag left - please God - we need to see just one guy and not groups of 2 or 3. All of a sudden, Glen wheeled over to the curb and said "give me the bag." He jumped out of the car - and this is what I saw. How he spotted those legs against the tree, I don't know - it was a "God thing!"