Skillet flatbread with feta and potatoes (Khychiny)

How this skillet flatbread got to our family

My mother’s neighbor, aunt Nadia, makes the world’s most delicious skillet flatbread –  Khychiny. Often she will fry a whole mountain of these fragrant potato and feta stuffed flatbreads, put them in an accurate pile on a plate and then call the neighbors for lunch. And every time while eating khychiny, Nadia and her guests think of Fyodor…

Fyodor was aunt Nadia’s strange and very annoying suitor …

many many years ago, when she was a carefree medical student, wearing a thick, long blond braid and a white summer pleated dress with red poppies.

This dress, like a magnet, attracted Fyodor, a chemistry student. Fyodor was the only son of rather wealthy parents, a tall, thin guy with big glasses, a barely noticeable mustache, and a huge professor’s bag in which he carried all his university books and notebooks.

Every morning, fate led Fyodor and aunt Nadia to the same bus stop, each going to hit the books at proper university. And every time aunt Nadia felt the gaze of Fyodor’s eyes on her through the thick lenses of his glasses. Over time a conversation began between the young people, and later Fyodor decided to invite Nadia to eat some ice cream. They agreed to meet at the fountain in the park.

While Nadia was choosing a dress for her first romantic date, she was imagining Fyodor with a bouquet of red roses, well, if not roses, then at least carnations, or daisies in the extreme case, but not with a bag of skillet flatbread!

Just like that…

at the fountain there was Fyodor, wearing dark green trousers, a shirt of the same color with a plastic bag full of hot skillet flatbread, one of which he had already had time to bite and was chewing contentedly.

“My mom made some khychiny, they are stuffed with feta and potatoes, ah… and garlic inside,” these Fyodor’s words dispelled all the romance of the first date. “Hold it, they are for you,” and he handed the steamy bag of hot pan fried flatbread to Nadia.

The skillet flatbread with feta and potatoes was delicious…

…and Nadia also appreciated Fyodor’s care, but the romance and the first infatuation with Fyodor flew out of her head forever and flew somewhere upward, like a weightless cloud that dissolved in the blue spring sky…

The conversation during the walk also did not flow, in addition, Fyodor turned out to be a terribly boring person, picky about every word. Walking along the park alley, Nadia pretended out of politeness to be amused by Fyodor’s strange jokes, she received a free lecture on chemical reactions and compounds, learned that she mispronounced the /ch/ sound, and listened six more times to the recipe for the stuffed flatbread, that Fyodor brought her in a plastic bag:

”They are not just a stuffed flatbread, Nadia…

… and they are not simple fritters with feta and potatoes. They are khychiny, KHY-CHINYYYY. That makes all the difference, you know? … Oh my goodness, Nadia! Keep your shoulders straight, the girl should not slouch! … So, mom first mixes kefir with baking soda, then … And there are also different kinds of filling for khychiny, you can prepare them with dill, or without it” after Nadia listened to the recipe for making khychiny skillet flatbread for the sixth time, described in detail by Fyodor, her golden angelic patience snapped.

This was the end of the story with Fyodor…

… although for a long time he couldn’t understand why Nadia didn’t want to meet him anymore and blamed it on his mother’s stuffed flatbread. Although quite the opposite, that skillet flatbread was almost the only pleasant moment of that funny and sad date…and thanks to the fact that Fyodor repeated the recipe for 6 times, aunt Nadia remembered it for life. Later she taught me how to make it, and she treats all her neighbors and acquaintances to it.

As for Fyodor… he became a chemistry professor, and then he was invited to work at one of America’s universities. But for some reason he hasn’t found his soul mate even overseas… who knows why.

Ingredients for the skillet flatbread:

(Dough):

• plain kefir or buttermilk
• flour (you may need a little more)
• baking soda
• a pinch of salt

(Filling):

• mashed potatoes
• Feta cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• garlic (pressed)
• chopped fresh dill (my sons and my husband don’t like dill, so I don’t add it to the filling)
• + butter for greasing ready-made khychiny

How to make stuffed flatbread with feta and potatoes

Prepare the dough: mix kefir with baking soda