Balish

Balish (aka Belish) is a traditional Tatar pie, usually filled with beef and potatoes. A large cake (zur balish) resembles a cauldron made of dough, in which the indicated ingredients are baked, a small one (vak balish) looks more like a pie that can be either closed or open. This dish is considered festive. A similar dish is prepared in Kazakhstan, and also on holidays. Mistresses make balish according to different recipes, passing them down from generation to generation, but the general principles of cooking this national dish are identical. If you do everything right, the result will be a beautiful, fragrant cake with a juicy and nourishing filling, which your guests and household will surely like.

Cooking Features

Despite the fact that the recipes for the dough and the fillings for the balish may have some differences, the general principles of cooking this festive cake remain common. Knowing them, even an aspiring cook will cope with the preparation of this Tatar or Kazakh dish.

Traditional balish dough is fresh, made on water, but modern housewives often prepare it from dough based on fermented milk products. Sometimes the cake is made from yeast dough, but then its readiness has to wait even longer than usual.
The stuffing in a balish is usually put raw, so baking the cake takes a long time. The dough acts as a sealant, inside the cake, meat and vegetables are languishing in their own juice, because of which the filling is tasty and fragrant.
At the end of cooking, pour broth or melted butter into the cake. To do this, in the center of the cake initially leave a hole, plugging it, like a cork, a ball of dough pieces.
Dough trimmings are also used to decorate the cake. From it, you can fashion flowers, other figures that are laid out on the surface of the cake before you put it in a preheated oven.
Traditional balish is made round. The dough for him is divided into 2 unequal parts. One is rolled out in a large circle, placed in a form so that the edges are hanging, filled with filling. After the edge fasten at the top. Roll out a circle from the second piece of dough. Lay it on top. Pinch the edges with a pigtail. A hole is made in the center. Sometimes a pie is formed from one large layer of dough, as a result of which it resembles a bag of filling. In the "bag" do not forget to leave a hole in order to after pouring the broth.
Bake a balish at a temperature of about 200 degrees for 1, 5-2, 5 hours, depending on its size. So that it does not stick, you can place a container with water under it, cover the cake with foil or parchment on top, but only after it has browned.

Serve balish to the table hot. Traditionally, the distribution of balish trust the most respected family member. He removes the top layer of the cake, breaks it into pieces, distributes it to the participants of the feast. These pieces of baked dough are eaten instead of bread. Then the owner of the house lays out the filling on the plates. If you move away from the tradition, you can simply cut the cake into portions and serve to the table. A good addition to the cake can be a variety of pickles or fresh vegetables.

Tatar balish with beef and potatoes

Composition:

wheat flour - 1 kg;
sour cream - 0.5 l;
butter - 0, 5 kg;
beef - 1 kg;
potatoes - 2-2, 5 kg;
onions - 0, 5 kg;
beef broth - 0, 2 l;
vegetable oil - 60-80 ml;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Wash beef, dry with a napkin, remove fatty areas, veins, film. Cut the flesh into small cubes (about 1 cm).
Remove the husks from the bulbs, cut them into small pieces.
Mix onions with beef, salt them pepper, leave for half an hour.
Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes of approximately the same size as the beef, mix with it.
Pour in vegetable oil, mix.
Melt the butter. Mix half with sour cream.
Sift flour, mix with a small amount of salt.
Parts of the flour in the butter-sour cream mixture, knead the dough. Roll it into a ball, cover with cling film, leave for 10-15 minutes.
Divide the dough into two unequal parts. Roll out most of the round layer, put in the form. The edges of the dough must necessarily hang over the sides of the form.
Put the filling in the form.
Roll a circle to fit the shape of a smaller piece of dough. Cover them with stuffing.
Cut off excess dough from the bottom layer.
Fold the edges of the lower and upper layers with a pigtail.
Make a hole in the center.
Roll the ball out of the dough pieces, cover the hole with it. Make the figures from the remaining pieces of dough and place them on the future cake.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put the cake form into it. Bake it for 30 minutes.
Reduce heat to 180 degrees, cover the cake with parchment or foil. Continue to bake 1, 5-2 hours, until potatoes are ready. His readiness is checked by lifting a ball of dough and removing a piece of potato from the cake.
When the potatoes are ready, mix the broth with the remaining butter, pour into the pie. Wait 5 minutes and take the balish out of the oven.

Serve the cake hot, but not immediately: the filling is given time to steam for another 30-60 minutes.

Balish in Kazakh with lamb and rice

Composition:

wheat flour - 0, 32 kg;
butter - 60 g;
milk - 0, 2 l;
lamb - 0, 5 kg;
fat tail - 50 g;
rice - 150 g;
chicken meat - 0, 2 kg;
onions - 0, 2 kg;
green onions - 100 g;
salt, pepper - to taste;
chicken broth - 100 ml.

Method of preparation:

Combine milk, softened butter, sifted flour and a pinch of salt. Knead the dough. Cover it with a towel and leave to “rest” for half an hour.
Mutton, washed and dried, cut into pieces, mince.
Salt mince, pepper, mix with chopped fat tail.
Wash, dry the green onions, cut it, mix with minced meat.
Free onions from the husk, cut into small cubes, put in broth.
After 5 minutes, remove the onions from the broth, put in a separate container.
Cut the chicken into small pieces, mix with the onions.
Roll the dough into a layer no thicker than 5 mm. Put in the form. Kazakh balish can be both round and rectangular. The dough must be large enough to make a closed pie out of it.
Put the first layer of the filling. It should consist of half lamb.
With the next layer pour out rice. Boil it before it is not necessary.
Place onions with chicken in the rice.
Top with the remaining lamb.
Cover the filling with the edges of the dough. Seal them. Make a few small holes in the dough, cover them with balls rolled out of dough.
Place in an oven heated to 180 degrees.
After an hour, pour broth into the holes in the cake. Cover it with paper. Continue cooking for another half hour.

The Kazakh balish is somewhat different from the Tatar one both externally and in taste. Both versions of this pie deserve to be on your desk.

Small balish with potatoes and minced meat

Composition:

margarine - 100 g;
kefir or yogurt - 100 ml;
chicken egg - 1 pc .;
flour - 0, 3 kg;
soda - a pinch;
minced meat - 0, 3 kg;
potatoes - 0, 2 kg;
meat broth - 50 ml;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Prepare the dough from margarine, kefir, eggs and flour, adding salt and soda to it in a pinch. Give the dough a rest for half an hour.
Peel the potatoes, coarsely grate, mix with minced meat, salt and pepper.
Divide the dough into 10 pieces. Roll a ball from each part, roll it into a cake.
Spread the filling on the prepared cakes. Lift the edges of the cakes, seal them, leaving only a small hole in the center.
Put the patties on a baking tray lined with parchment.
Place the pan with the balisses in the oven preheated to 180 degrees, bake for 30-40 minutes.
Pour teaspoonful of broth into each hole. Keep the items in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Wack Balish is cooked faster than a big cake, but it also turns out tasty. You can make such food not only on holidays, but also on weekdays.

Sweet Balish

Composition:

flour - 0, 45 kg;
kefir - 150 ml;
sour cream - 150 g;
baking powder - 5 g;
salt - a pinch;
rice - 0, 2 kg;
raisins - 0, 2 kg;
dried apricots - 150 g;
butter - 80 g.

Method of preparation:

Combine kefir with sour cream.
Sift flour, add baking powder and salt into it.
Mix flour with fermented milk products, kneading elastic dough.
Rice rinse well, boil until tender.
Zaryte dried fruit, boiling water. After 10 minutes, drain the water, squeeze the dried fruit. Cut dried apricots into raisin-sized pieces.
Mix rice with raisins and dried apricots.
Divide the dough into 2 parts. Roll one piece, put it into shape.
Lay out the filling, mixing it with a tablespoon of melted butter.
Roll out the second part of the dough, cover the stuffing with it. Attach the edges of the lower and upper layers of dough. Make a small hole in the center of the cake.
Bake the cake for an hour at 180 degrees.
Pour the remaining oil into the hole. Wait 5 minutes.

After that, sweet balish is ready to eat. Serve it for tea or as an independent dish.

Balish - festive cake of unleavened dough. The dish belongs to the Tatar cuisine, but it is also prepared in other eastern countries. The traditional filling is beef with potatoes, but it can be different, even sweet.

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