What is balish? Cooking recipe and ways of feeding

One of the most delicious dishes of oriental cuisine is balish. The recipe for its preparation is not as complex as it might seem at first glance. This Tartar dish can be closed or open, large or small, sweet, meaty or vegetable. It is fried and baked in the oven, if possible, they prepare in tandoor. In fact, it is a pie, and they call it "balish", sometimes "balish" or "cheesecake in Tatar". Prepare a dish is easy, true, from the first time can not work out as deftly as an experienced hostess, but over time, skills appear and the business advances more quickly. In this case, the pie can become a real decoration of the festive table.

Tatar balish, a recipe for cooking in the oven

The dough for making this cake can be ordinary or yeast. In the latter case, the process will take more time, and as a result, something like Russian Belyashas (their name just happened from the word "belish", literally meaning "pie with meat"). A complete similarity will be obtained if they are fried in large quantities of oil instead of baking (sometimes they do).

So, first you need to prepare the dough for balish. The recipe in the no-fat version is extremely simple. It will need 500 g of sour cream, 3 glasses of flour with a slide, a little salt and sugar. It is prepared completely without eggs (one will only need to lubricate the top), but it turns out to be very delicate and delicious. Sour cream is simply mixed with flour, a little bit of it is added and sweetened. The mass should be soft and elastic, do not stick to the hands. It is divided in half, one piece is rolled out thinner and laid out in a deep form, oiled (for example, a frying pan). The second is a lid, it is stretched to the size of the shape, in the middle make a small hole and cover it with the filling.

Now about what is usually filled balish. The recipe for the original filling is: a large onion, cut into half rings, a few potatoes chopped into cubes, and meat, ground similarly to potatoes. It should be about 500 g, while it is better to use different types (beef with chicken, lamb with pork, etc.). All components are mixed and salted, they fill balish (the recipe assumes the use of exceptionally raw ingredients, without preliminary heat treatment). On top, the design is covered with a "lid" of dough, smeared with egg and sent to bake. In the oven, the cake will spend quite a lot of time - about 2.5 hours - at a low temperature (160-180 degrees). And after an hour in the hole recommend pour about a glass of broth or salted water, and for 20-30 minutes before the end of balish is covered with a wet towel.

Serve the dish hot, after cooling slightly after the oven. If you do it according to all the rules, then the top cover should be cut, divided into portions and using a spoon to eat the filling, biting with dough pieces and washing down with green tea. When Tatars celebrate Kurban-Bayram, one of the main dishes on the table is Balish. The recipe for it may be slightly different, the dough is made sometimes in a different way, you can use another stuffing. The main thing is the principle of submission: a solemn atmosphere and the opportunity to gather the whole large family at the same table in order to assess the skills of the hostess.