“Mise en Place”, have everything measured out, chopped and ready to cook.
Using a spice grinder process black peppercorns, coriander seeds and bay leaf. Stir it into the tomato purée (passata).
Pat dry beef shank with paper towel, sprinkle both sides with coarse salt.
Over medium high heat (8 out of 10) preheat medium size sauce pan, add few tablespoons of vegetable oil to coat the bottom.
Brown beef shank for about 3 minutes on one side, turn over and brown the other side for 2-3 minutes. Brown the shank sides as well for 1-2 minutes.
Transfer the browned shank to 3 liter braising dish.
Add little more vegetable oil to the pan if it is dry, stir in carrots, mushrooms and shallots. Maintaining the same medium high heat cook for 3 minutes, stir frequently.
Stiring constantly add the tomato purée (passata) and cook for another 1.5 to 2 minutes. By this time quite bit of fond will accumulate at the bottom of the pan.
Remove from heat, add cognac (or brandy) and deglaze the pan. Stir in dill and garlic.
Transfer prepared mixture and spread over the top of the beef shank in the braising dish. Put the lid on and braise for 4 hours at 260ºC (320ºF).
Check with fork if the meat is tender and falling of the bone. If not put it back to the oven and braise for some more time.
When it is done, let it cool for an hour, with the lid on.
Pick the meat from the bone, do not include any tough ligaments. Scrape the marrow out of the bone and put everything together in a food processor.
Pulse the processor and grind the contents to a paste like consistency or with small shredded pieces.
Cool completely and refrigerate in air tight container.
Dough
In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt.
Using pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and keep in a freezer for 1 hour.
About 20 minutes before taking the flour mixture out of freezer prepare the yeast starter as follows: In a small bowl pour water, and milk and warm it up to about 32ºC (90ºF). Mix in and fully dissolve the sugar first following with the crumbled fresh yeast. Cover with wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Transfer flour mix to a new bowl. Add 150g of yeast mixture to the mixture, thoroughly incorporate and kneed just long enough to obtain a compact dough ball (do not over kneed!). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, leave at room temperature for 1 hour.
Keep the bowl in a refrigerator for 3 hours.
Assembly
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 190°C (375°F).
On a lightly dusted kitchen counter roll the dough out to a thickens of approximately 3 mm (1/8″).
Using a dumpling mould cut, fill and shape each piroshki. Do not overfill!
Put each formed piece on a parchment pepper lined baking pan. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
Brush all the piroshki with egg yolk.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Shift a little each piroshki and bake for another 5 minutes.
Let cool slightly, serve warm!
Recipe Notes
The dough recipe is for 20-25 piroshki for which you will need about 1/2 of prepared meat filling