Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the American Midwest. It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Native North America, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.
Pirozhki (Russian: пирожки́, tr.pirožkí, IPA: [pʲɪrɐʂˈkʲi], are foremost, Russian baked or fried yeast-leavened boat-shaped buns with a variety of fillings. Pirozhki are a popular street food and comfort food in Eastern Europe.
A mille-feuille, also known by the names Napoleon, vanilla slice, and custard slice, is a dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by Marie-Antoine Carême.
A runza is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. Runzas can be baked into various shapes such as a half-moon, a rectangle, a round (bun), a square, or a triangle. The runzas sold by the Runza restaurant chain are rectangular while many of the bierocks sold in Kansas are round buns.
Torta is a culinary term that can, depending on the cuisine, refer to cakes, pies, flatbreads, sandwiches, or omelettes.
Börek or burek are a family of pastries or pies found in the Balkans, Middle East and Central Asia. The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes. Boreks are mainly associated with Anatolia, the Middle East, Armenia, and also with the former Ottoman Empire, including the Balkans and the South Caucasus, Eastern European and Central European countries, Northern Africa and Central Asia. A borek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. They are usually baked but some varieties can be fried. Borek is sometimes sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds, and it can be served hot or cold.
Pastilla is a North African meat or seafood pie made with warqa dough (ورقة), which is similar to filo. It is a specialty of Morocco and Algeria. It has more recently been spread by emigrants to France, Israel, and North America.
Bourekas or burekas are a popular baked pastry in Sephardic Jewish cuisine and Israeli cuisine. A variation of the burek, a popular pastry throughout southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Israeli bourekas are made in a wide variety of shapes and a vast selection of fillings, and are typically made with either puff pastry, filo dough, or brik pastry, depending on the origin of the baker.
Tatar cuisine is primarily the cuisine of the Volga Tatars, who live in Tatarstan, Russia, and surrounding areas.
Cozonac or Kozunak is a sweet yeast dough that can be used to make different traditional holiday breads and cakes. Often mixed with raisins, it can be baked as a loaf or rolled out with fillings like poppy seed or walnuts. It is common throughout Southeastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, etc. Rich in eggs, milk and butter, it is usually prepared for Easter in Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, and in Romania and Moldova it is also traditional for Good Friday. The name comes from the Bulgarian word for hair-коса/kosa, or Greek: κοσωνάκι, romanized: kosōnáki, a diminutive form of κοσώνα, kosṓna.
Fleischkuekle is a deep-fried turnover similar to Crimean Tatar cheburek. The dish is a traditional Black Sea Germans / Crimea Germans recipe, and through immigration became an addition to the cuisine of North Dakota. This dish is popular among the many Russian-German immigrant families of North Dakota.
Pirog is a baked case of dough with either sweet or savory filling. The dish is common in Eastern European cuisines. Pirogi (pl.) are characterized as "ubiquitous in Russian life" and "the most popular and important dish" and "truly national goods" of Russian cuisine.
Chebureki are deep-fried turnovers with a filling of ground or minced meat and onions. They are made with a single round piece of dough folded over the filling in a crescent shape.
The Crimean Tatar cuisine is primarily the cuisine of the Crimean Tatars, who live on the Crimean Peninsula. The traditional cuisine of the Crimean Tatars has similarities with that of Greeks, Italians, Balkan peoples, Nogays, North Caucasians, and Volga Tatars, although some national dishes and dietary habits vary between different Crimean Tatar regional subgroups; for example, fish and produce are more popular among Yaliboylu and Tat dishes while meat and dairy is more prevalent in Steppe Tatar cuisine. Many Uzbek dishes were incorporated into Crimean Tatar national cuisine during exile in Central Asia since 1944, and these dishes have become prevalent in Crimea since the return. Uzbek samsa, laghman, and plov (pilaf) are sold in most Tatar roadside cafes in Crimea as national dishes. In turn, some Crimean Tatar dishes, including Chiburekki, have been adopted by peoples outside Crimea, such as in Turkey and the North Caucasus.
Shekarbureh is a sweet pastry, dating back to at least the Sassanid era. Originally, it was like a halva made from sugar and almonds. Its alternate names in Persian include Shekarborak, Shekarbora, Shekarpareh, Shekarbozeh and Shekarpirah. In its different variations, the dessert is also common in Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey.
Peremech is an individual-sized fried dough pastry common for Volga Tatar and Bashkir cuisines. It is made from unleavened or leavened dough and usually filled with ground meat and chopped onion. Originally, finely chopped pre-cooked meat was used as a filling, but later raw ground meat became more common. Alternatively, peremech can be filled with potato or quark.
