Some of my family comes from Russia and my mother used to cook great Russian food like this pie when guests came. I have put a spicier twist on this pie and am baking it during advent to honor my Russian roots and the great young man from the Ukraine who shares our family life. Thank you Igor!

Ingredients:
for a 9 in. / 23 cm. pie pan

For the crust:

• 350 grams / 2 ½ cups flour
• 175 grams / ¾ cup of soft butter or baking margarine
• ½ tsp salt
• 8 TBPS cold water

Making the crust:

• Measure the flour into a bowl and add the salt.
• Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour or crumble it in with your hands, mixing it until you have a crumbly mixture.
• Pour this mixture onto your flour-dusted counter or baking board and form a well in the middle of the mixture.
• Pour in ½ of the water and mix it with the dough, kneading and scraping the crumbs from the side back into the dough with a spatula to incorporate. Add more water as needed and knead lightly until you have a beautiful not too greasy smooth dough ball. To achieve this add more water or flour as needed.
• Let rest 5 minutes.
• Divide the dough in half. Roll out one half so as to cover the greased pie pan and overhang.
• Place the dough in the pie pan pressing down on the bottom and sides to cover and remove any air bubbles. Poke the bottom 5 times with a small fork and let rest until using.

For the filling:

• 1 medium-sized white cabbage
• 4 eggs hard boiled and peeled
• 1 TBSP of goose or pork lard – optional exchange with neutral oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 cloves
• 5 black pepper corns
• 1 cardamom pod
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 pinch chili flakes
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• Juice of 1 squeezed orange
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 4 TBSP of wine vinegar
• Salt
• 1 stalk of lemongrass
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped small
• 3 TBSP fresh dill, chopped
• Fresh ground pepper

Making the filling:

• Wash the cabbage head and remove the “bad” outer leaves. Cut in half and remove the hard core generously from both halves.
• Now chop the cabbage by hand (or in the machine if you must) until it is in medium-fine pieces. It should not be chopped but rather sliced, that is why it is better to do it by hand.
• Place the pieces in a bowl and add the orange juice and ½ tsp of salt, mix and let stand until the water boils (see next step).
• Bring water to a boil in a large pot. When it boils, add ½ TBSP of salt, the stalk of lemon grass that you lightly pounded on the counter, and then add the cabbage, bringing the water back to a boil and then blanching the cabbage for 3 minutes.
• Strain the cabbage and discard the water, return the lemongrass to the cabbage.
• In a large deep pan heat the lard or oil and brown the onion lightly about 4 minutes, add the cabbage and stir-fry for 2 minutes on medium heat.
• In a spice or coffee grinder, grind the cumin, gloves, cardamom, sea salt, mustard seeds and the chili flakes very fine.
• Add the spices to the cabbage and stir-fry for another 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly.
• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Remove the lemongrass stalks from the cabbage mixture.
• Chop the eggs with an egg slicer once each way straight into the cabbage mixture along with fresh ground pepper, additional salt, the vinegar, the caraway seeds, the lemon zest, and the chopped dill. Mix lightly and taste. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Putting it all together:

• Add the cabbage mixture to the pie pan until full and slightly domed. If you have leftovers it’s OK since the amount depends on the size of your cabbage. You can eat it separately in a bowl with a teaspoon of sour cream.
• Roll out the second crust. Leaving it on the board use your cookie cutters or your drawing skills and a knife to cut steam holes / or figures such as a tree or deer out of the pie. Cut some stars or other leaves or decorations to place on top.
• Carefully transfer the “holed” top dough onto the pie with a large spatula and adjust it to be centered.
• Cut the excess dough off the side even with the edges of the pan and using 2 fingers crimp the edge to seal the crusts together. Place your cut-out decorations on top.
• Mix 1 egg with 1 tsp water and use a pastry brush to coat the top crust with the mixture to make it shiny during baking.
• Bake in the middle of the oven 40 minutes until the crust is firm and golden. Take care not to burn the crust – better to turn down the oven temperature in this case and prolong the time by 5 minutes.
• Serve with sour cream. This pie is good hot and cold.