Lobiani

Ingredients

• 14⅛ ozDried beanssoak overnight; red or white variety
• 1¾ lbwheat flour
• ⅓ ozDry yeastor fresh yeast
• 2 cupswaterfor the dough, as needed
• 1 tspsugar
• saltfor dough and filling
• 2 tbspvegetable oilfor dough and frying the onion
• 3½ ozbutterfor the filling and for brushing
• 1onionfinely diced, fried
• 3 clovesgarlic
• black pepperfreshly ground
• 1 tspCoriander
• 1 bunchcilantrofinely chopped
• 1 tspblue fenugreekutskho suneli (optional)
• khmeli suneliGeorgian spice blend (optional)
• 1eggin the dough (optional)
• 1 cupmatsonireplacing part of the water (optional)
• ½ cupmilktogether with the water in the dough (optional)
• 4bay leafwhen boiling the beans (optional)
• 7 ozSmoked porkcooked along; makes the dish non-vegetarian (optional)

Method

1. Soak the dried beans in plenty of cold water for 8–10 hours, ideally overnight, then drain them.
2. Cook the beans in fresh water until tender, 1.5 to 2 hours — add bay leaves if you like, or smoked pork for a non-vegetarian version. Salt them only toward the end, then fish out and discard the bay leaves, drain the beans and save a little of the cooking liquid.
3. For the dough, mix the flour with the dry yeast, salt and sugar, add the warm water and 1 tbsp of the oil, and knead everything into a smooth, supple dough. If you like, add the milk along with the water, or replace part of the water with matsoni and work in an egg.
4. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm spot for about 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled in size, then knead it once more.
5. Finely dice the onion and fry it in the remaining 1 tbsp oil until golden, then add the garlic along with the ground coriander, black pepper and, if you're using them, blue fenugreek or khmeli suneli, and let them toast briefly.
6. Mash the still-hot beans coarsely or put them through a meat grinder, loosening them with a little of the cooking water. Stir in 70 g of the butter, the onion mixture and the chopped cilantro, season generously with salt and pepper, and let the filling cool.
7. Divide the dough into equal pieces and roll each one out into a round. Place roughly as much filling in the centre as you have dough, then gather the edges up over the filling and seal them tightly.
8. Press each ball flat with the seam facing down and roll it out to about 1 cm thick, then score the surface or prick it a few times.
9. Bake the breads at 390 °F for about 20 minutes, until golden brown, or cook them in a dry, heavy pan on both sides. Brush them hot with the remaining 30 g butter, melted, stack them up and cut into wedges.

Tips and variations

Red kidney beans work just as well as white ones for the filling; you can use lard or margarine instead of butter, and if it doesn't need to stay vegetarian, cook smoked pork or bacon along with the beans. For a softer dough, make it with matsoni and an egg. Instead of closing the dough like a pouch, you can lay the filling between two rolled-out rounds and seal the edges; and if you'd rather not heat the oven, cook the lobiani in a heavy cast-iron pan, about 3 minutes per side or covered with a lid. Serve them hot, buttered and stacked, and cut them into wedges at the table with a knife.