Secrets of Tatar cuisine: a large pie "Zur-belish". Zur beles with potatoes and meat

Balish baked according to this recipe is so delicious that having learned how to make it, you will forever have no question of what to cook on the festive table. The recipe for this balish was shared with me by my abika or abiyka, they are pronounced differently (aby in Tatar means grandmother). This is a real balish, and not the ersatz that can sometimes be found in cooking. Of course, many years ago, my first balish turned out to be a lump, as balish requires perfect movements and compliance with all the subtleties. But over time, the balish turned out to be tastier, and I will share with you all the secrets of making the right balish. Earlier, I wrote about balish on another site, when the site was not in sight, but I think it would be unfair if the recipe for such a yummy would not be here. Balish is not just a meat pie, the dough of the balish is yeast-free, the lower crust of the balish should be easily separated with a teaspoon, and the upper crust should melt in your mouth.

Ingredients for medium balish

Tender beef 300 g. The younger the meat, the better.
Medium potatoes 5 pcs.
Chicken egg higher cat. 1 PC.
Onion 1 pc.
Kefir with a fat content of 3.2% - 2 tbsp. l.
Ground black pepper.
Margarine for baking - 2 tbsp.
Baking soda 1 dessert spoon.
Vinegar 9% - 1 tsp
Wheat flour of the highest grade ("Uvelka") 2.5 cups (without top).
Salt 1 tsp
Butter.

How to cook balish

Cut the meat into cubes 1x1 cm in size, put it to boil, pouring a liter of water. After boiling the broth, the foam must be removed.

Wash and peel the potatoes, also cut into cubes. Finely chop the onion.

Knead the dough for balish: add slaked soda, egg, salt to kefir, beat everything thoroughly, mix with margarine softened at room temperature, mix everything with a spoon, like porridge, slowly adding flour. When the dough for balish thickens, roll it into an elastic ball, cover the dough with a napkin and leave for ten minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.Mix potatoes, meat, onions in a container, salt and pepper.

Roll out the dough evenly to a thickness of 3-4 mm, cut out an even circle from the dough.

Arrange the dough in a pan or baking dish (the edges of the dough should hang evenly).

Put the potatoes with meat on the dough, fold it over and carefully pinch the edges of the dough (the folds of the balish should not be thick, and the dough for the balish cannot be torn, all movements are fast, but even).

From the rest of the dough, make a lid, and cover the uncovered area of \u200b\u200bthe balish with it, pinching the edges tightly.

Put the balish in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, cover the balish with parchment paper, and bake again in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees for 40 minutes.

Then take the balish out of the oven, carefully remove the lid from it, pour in the broth, after checking the taste of the potatoes and meat. If there is not enough salt in the balish, then salt the broth.

Close the balish again with a lid and paper, bake in the oven for another hour at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Remove the balish from the oven, coat with butter, add 1 tbsp to the balish. l. butter, gently mix everything, close everything again and put in the oven for 20 minutes, lowering the temperature to 100 degrees so that the balish does not burn. At the end, instead of paper, you can close the balish with some kind of lid so that it is saturated with the vapors of the broth.

Serve balish hot, pre-cut into portioned pieces.

As you can see from the recipe, the preparation of balish takes a long time, more than 2 hours, but it is worth it. Balish is so tasty, exudes such a fragrant smell, it is a pity that this cannot be conveyed over the Internet. But, having prepared balish with your own hands, you will immediately understand what is at stake.

The calorie content of the whole balish is approximately 3,000 kcal.

After the article "Tatar Balish" read on:

For the balish test:
margarine 200gr. (if the form is small, then you can 100 gr.)
water 150-200 gr
mayonnaise 2-3 tbsp. l.
salt
you can add what is stale in the refrigerator (sour cream, katyk)
flour

Filling Balisha:
meat (beef, lamb, goose, duck, you can also use several types of meat)
onion
potato
salt
pepper
Bay leaf
seasonings
butter

Cooking Balisha:
Mix softened margarine, mayonnaise, salt. Add water, flour and knead the dough is not very steep.

Prepare the filling. Meat cut into pieces.

Add finely chopped onion.

And diced potatoes.

Salt, pepper, add seasonings and mix everything. Drain excess liquid.

Divide the dough into two unequal pieces. Roll out a large piece of dough. The dough should be larger than the diameter of the mold. Place it in a mold or pan, the edges of the dough should extend beyond the pan. Spread the filling on the dough, put pieces of butter on top.

Bring the edges of the dough up and make folds. Roll out the second piece of dough, the size of the uncovered hole in the belesh and place on top. Pinch the base and lid dough together, cut off the excess dough.
Bake belesh for 2-2.5 hours at 180 degrees. If the top starts to burn, cover with foil. Ready belesh served directly in the pan. Cut off the lid, cut it into pieces and put in the filling.
Melt the butter, add the broth and pour the belesh abundantly with this broth.

Zur belish - Tatar pie with potatoes and meat.

Zur belish - translated from the Tatar "big pie", they can feed a large company tasty and satisfying. This is a high pie, its filling can be beef, poultry (oh, from goose - yummy!), offal in combination with potatoes, pumpkin, cereals, cabbage.
Usually zur belish is prepared on holidays for dear guests, or on weekends for relatives and friends.

Cooking time: 200 minutes
Servings: 12
You will need:

fresh dough:
Sour cream - 200 gr.,
Kefir (yogurt) - 150 gr.,
Egg - 1 pc.,
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.,
Butter - 150 gr.,
Salt - 0.5 tsp,
Tea soda - 1 tsp,
Flour - 700 gr.

For filling:
Meat with fat (beef + lamb + goose meat - the perfect combination, but you can just take one type of meat, for example, beef) - 1.5 kg.,
Potatoes - 1.5 kg.,
Bulb onion - 2 pcs. (large),
Salt - 0.5 tbsp.,
Ground black pepper - to taste

* Broth for pouring into a pie (beef or chicken, if there is no broth - below in the recipe it is written in more detail what to do) - 1 cup

How to cook:

1. For the dough: In a cup, mix sour cream, kefir, egg, vegetable oil, melted butter at room temperature, salt. Quench the tea soda with vinegar and add to the cup. Add flour, knead the dough. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave to "rest" while we prepare the filling.

2. For the filling: Cut the meat into small cubes, approximately 2 cm wide.
Cut the potatoes into cubes 1.5-2 cm wide, I cut them in a food processor.
Finely chop the onion
In a bowl, mix meat, onion, potatoes, salt and pepper to taste.

3. *About the broth: if you have beef or chicken broth ready, it's good, but if not, it doesn't matter either. Pour 300 ml into a small saucepan. water, add 50 gr. butter, 1/3 tsp salt, bring everything to a boil. boil for a couple of minutes - and our broth for pouring is ready.

4. The blanks are all done, we collect our pie.
Wrap a thick-walled pan, preferably cast iron, on the outside with a towel so that the edges of the dough do not tear.

5. Knead the dough again with your hands and divide in proportions of 1 to 3.
Most of it will go to the bottom. From the smaller part we separate a small piece, the size of a pea, this will be our "navel" (tat. "kendek"), which will close the hole for pouring the broth. Divide the remaining piece into 2 parts - this will be the "lid" of the pie and decoration, but you can do without decoration and just make one cover.

We roll out most of the dough so that its edges hang from the pan by 5-6 cm. Put the prepared filling into the pan on the rolled out dough.

Gather the edges of the dough up and pinch as shown in the photo.
Roll out a piece of dough for the "lid", cover the pie and pinch with the side edges of the dough.

Roll out a piece of dough for decoration, the same size as the "lid", make beam-shaped cuts, as shown in the photo, put on the "lid", pinch the edges, and pinch the cuts in pairs.

In the middle of the pie, make a hole the size of a coin and cover it with a “navel”, then we will pour the broth into this hole.

Grease the pie with melted butter and bake in an already heated oven to 200 gr. for 2-2.5 hours.
An hour and a half after baking, we take out our cake, open the "navel" and pour 1 glass of broth into it (maybe a little less or more, it all depends on the presence of juice in the cake), close the "navel" and send it back to the oven.

If the top of the pie is already browned enough, and there is still a lot of time before it is completely cooked, you need to take baking paper, crumple it, moisten it with cold water, squeeze it out a little so that it does not drip from it, and cover the top of the pie. This method will save the cake from burning the dough.

How do you know if a cake is ready or not? Open the lid, try the meat and potatoes for readiness, if ready - serve immediately, if not - bake further.

How to serve and how to cut? Serve immediately hot, in the same form where it was baked. We cut the lid of the pie in a circle, and put a piece of dough and potatoes with meat on each plate, and then we cut the pie together with the bottom, and serve the bottom crust of the dough (soaked in juices and broth) with the filling. It is so established that each guest should try the lid, the filling, and the bottom of the pie.

I think everyone knows what belyash is - it's a round meat pie. Traditionally, belyashi is made with a hole, collecting the dough around the filling with a "skirt". But in Tatar cuisine there are several varieties of belyash, and zur belyash (zur belish) is one of them.

In translation, the name means "big belyash". Such pies are prepared for big holidays, for weddings. This is not a dish for every day, this is a holiday cake. Preparing zur belyash for a long time, at least 1.5 hours, but then the result! Juicy filling, delicious dough, broth - that's what makes the cake festive! If you are expecting dear guests or a celebration in your family - prepare zur belyash, everyone will be very pleased.

Cooking a pie will require advance preparation. You need to cook beef broth (you can replace it with butter boiled with water and spices), knead the dough. I use my favorite yeast-free dough recipe -.

We cut the meat into small cubes, with a side of about 1.5-2 cm.

Finely chop two onions. Do not be afraid of a large amount of onion - it will add tenderness and flavor to the filling. We won’t succeed, as in the old joke that my Tatar grandmother told: “The customer - to the cunning trader of whites: - Oh, yes, there is one onion! And the one, as if not understanding: - No, no, a lot of onions, a lot of onions! Our filling will be very meaty!

Mix the meat and onion with your hands, pressing a little so that the onion juice begins to marinate the meat.

Leave the meat to marinate for now, peel the potatoes, cut them into small cubes. Mix the meat with onions and potatoes, salt and pepper to taste our wonderful filling.

Set the filling aside for now, let's start assembling the pie. Roll out about 3/4 of the dough into a circle. The diameter should be such that the dough laid in the mold hangs over the edges by about 7 cm. Put the filling in a slide, and pinch the edges of the dough.

From the remaining dough, separate a piece about the size of a walnut, and roll out the rest to the size of the open part of the pie. We carefully pinch the edges, make a hole in the middle, and roll a ball out of a piece of dough - it will be the "lid" of our pie.

Lubricate the top of the pie with milk and put in the oven at a temperature of 190 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Just check after 20 minutes - if the top of the pie has started to brown, cover it with a damp cloth. After the specified time, we will take out our pie, carefully take out the "lid" and pour in about a glass of broth.

Cover the zur belyash again with a “lid” and a damp cloth, if necessary, and put it back in the oven for 30-40 minutes. I have a small oven, so every 10 minutes I rewetted the paper towel and covered the top. In a large oven, this may not be necessary. Check the readiness of the filling by removing a piece of meat and potatoes through the hole. Depending on your oven, the cake will either need to be cooked further or served. This is how beautiful we turned out zur belyash with meat and potatoes!

The pie is served, cutting the upper part according to the number of eaters, then spread the filling on a plate, followed by the cut "bottom" of the pie, so that everyone gets all the parts of the belyash zur.

Great pie, very filling and delicious! Bon appetit!

Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

Ingredients:

- 1 glass of milk,
- 0.5 cups of sunflower oil,
- 3-4 cups flour
- 1 kg of potatoes,
- 500 g of beef,
- 3 pcs. onion,
- 150 g butter,
- vegetable oil,
- salt pepper.

Recipe with photo step by step:

1. The dough is kneaded very simply. Add vegetable oil to a glass of warm milk and stir the liquid. Add flour in small portions until you get a soft, elastic dough.

2. To prepare the filling, wash the potatoes well, peel and cut into small cubes. The finer the ingredients for the filling are cut, the tastier the balish will be.

3. We also cut the beef into small pieces, finely chop the onion. Mix onion and meat, leave for 10-15 minutes to form juice. Another secret of delicious balish is the addition of goose meat to the filling, my mother-in-law does just that.

4. We shift the meat with onions to the potatoes and mix well. Don't forget to add enough salt and black pepper.

5. Let's start rolling out the dough. We will divide it into two parts, one of which should be slightly larger. We take the larger part, and on a board lightly dusted with flour, roll out the dough into a round layer 5-7 mm thick.

6. Immediately transfer the rolled layer to the prepared pan. Important note: you do not need to grease the pan. When we distribute the layer, grease the dough itself with a small amount of vegetable oil.

7. Put all the stuffing on top. And then add a few pieces of butter.

8. Bend the edges of the dough to the middle with a beautiful accordion.

9. Roll out a small layer from the second part of the dough and cover the middle of the balish with it.

10. Now you need to carefully and beautifully connect the edges of the two parts of the dough so that the cake is completely closed.

11. In principle, the balish is fully prepared and can be sent to the oven. But I want to show how you can beautifully decorate a festive balish. To do this, leave a small part of the dough and roll out a very thin round layer from it. Then, with a knife, draw a layer into segments, as shown in the photo.

12. Gently cover our balish with a layer.

13. We connect the adjacent borders of the segments to get an intricate pattern.

14. We also beautifully decorate the edges of the upper layer, pinching with a pigtail so that they do not stick out or hang out.

15. In the middle of the balish, make a small hole and place a small, round piece of dough there. When the cake is ready, broth or melted butter is poured into it through the juiciness hole. I suggest you look at this simple one.

16. We put the balish in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, it will be cooked for about two hours. After an hour, the temperature can be reduced and constantly monitored so that the balish does not burn. If you are not sure about your oven, then just in case, put a frying pan with water down.

17. When serving, the top layer of dough is traditionally removed from the finished balish and the filling is put in portions on a plate.