Tatarsky belish: a recipe incomparable with belash

Probably every inhabitant of Russia and neighboring countries is familiar with Belyashs. In some ways, sadly, they became our fast food, the fact that we eat in a hurry, not too interested in the ingredients and quality of the food we eat - just to fill our stomach and get rid of hunger. And at the same time, the prototype of such an unattractive pie was Tatar belish, which recipe, however, differs from the usual bazaar or train station embodiment much more than modern furniture from sawdust - from the situation, say, the royal palace.

The subtleties of terminology

Errors begin with the name. God with him, with belyash: those who want to cook a real Tatar (or Bashkir, in this respect, two nationalities divided the palm of the championship) dish, diligently call it belish. Meanwhile, closer to the primordial pronunciation will still be "balish."

The next remark: what we all understand by an established name, most often still a patty, that is, a closed piece of dough. It is not such a whitish: the recipe for its preparation necessarily implies the presence of a hole from above. Moreover, "substitutes" of the right dish are most often prepared from yeast dough, although in the original it was fresh.

Varieties of the Tatar dish

Again, the size. Belyashi, offered by the current public catering, have a standard pirozhka value, which is fundamentally wrong. The Tatars and Bashkirs had two sizes for a dish called "belish": the recipe, the most popular among these nationalities, had a prefix "zur", that is, "big", and was a full-fledged pie. The second subspecies is with the addition of "vak". This is just a small, patty version of the belish dish. The recipe for this variety allows the use of a yeast dough, but a hole from above should be present.

The right dough

So, back to the sources. Since we have already found out that for the desired Tatar dish, yeast dough is not suitable, we will do everything "according to the mind". For the basis of whites need half a cup of sourcloth. You can buy it or make it yourself, milk on the windowsill. Kefir will do. The egg is poured into the liquid, everything is salted, a glass of flour is added and mixed. Only after this is added melted margarine (100 g in solid form), 2 glasses of flour and half a teaspoon of soda (naturally, extinguished). Of all these ingredients, a dumpling-like dough is mixed. And only from it will be a real belish. The recipe allows for some clarifications (kefir - sour, the amount of salt, perhaps adding a small amount of sugar), but the basic ratio should be sustained.

No less classic stuffing

Contrary to popular belief, the filling in such pies should not be just meat. Most often it is mixed with potatoes (and this is our choice!), But there are options with rice and millet. But if you are thinking about how to cook belish with the most traditional method, stop by the potatoes.

Since the "vak" variant can be made purely intuitively by the way of cooking, we will consider the zurbelish as more preferred by the inventors of the recipe. For 400 grams of lamb or veal comes a half a kilo of potatoes, a large onion and, preferably, half a cup of broth (pepper and salt are implied).

First of all, no ground meat! It must be very finely chopped. Potatoes are cut in one size with meat. Add finely chopped onions, salt, pepper - and for half an hour in the refrigerator. In a frying pan lined with dough, the filling is put together with its juice, on top the future Tatar pie is covered with another sheet of dough. Protect the edges very carefully, to avoid loss of juice. In the center is done not a wide, but not too narrow hole. From the dough piece, a "plug" is made, which is inserted into the hole. As far as baking belish it is taken out for control: if it turns dry - the broth is added.

And finally - a secret about which very few people know. After removal from the oven, it is necessary to insist the belish; The recipe (in most interpretations) does not indicate this. However, it is the wrapped pie, which has stood for at least an hour, reveals the whole fragrance and taste of its filling.

It is worth trying a real Tatar belish, to understand what we have been depriving ourselves of for years, naively taking for him vulgar fried cakes.