Kutab, the recipe of which came from
Azerbaijani cuisine, is a thin pie with cheese or pumpkin filling. The dough for this product is similar to the dough for pita bread. Another popular filling with which kutabs are prepared (a recipe with a photo clearly demonstrates the optimal shape of the cake) is made from greens. Spinach,
basil, green onions or dill are well suited for this purpose. Pomegranate seeds are taken as an authentic filling - this is also a very popular recipe. Kutabs with cheese are well suited as bread for rich oriental soups. Let's try to cook these products, following the original recipe.
Kutab. The main recipe
In Azerbaijan, these products are baked in a special oven. Without loss of quality, the recipe can be reproduced by frying them in a dry cast iron skillet. What thickness should be kutaby? The answer is unequivocal: as thin as possible.
No more than a millimeter thick. Dough made from a kilogram of flour (it is kneaded in two glasses of boiling water with vegetable oil and salt), divide into twenty equal parts. Then each piece with a rolling pin must be rolled out into a thirty-centimeter circle. This must be done quickly. Such a thin dough dries very quickly and loses elasticity. Unrolled lumps should be covered with a towel. The finished layer needs to be baked immediately. It is more convenient to roll out in four hands. Tortillas prepared in this way can be eaten with fresh herbs, fried meat and onions. Putting ready-made cakes on a plate, you need to shift them with pieces of butter - they will saturate the dough well and give it a pleasant aroma.
Kutab. Stuffed Recipe
If you put on such a cake, while still raw, the filling and fold it in half, you get a thin pie. This is kutab. Immediately after cooking it, like a cake, is greased with oil. Freshly prepared, still hot kutab is especially tasty. The recipe allows the addition of sautéed onions - it must remain in the pan before it changes color. In this case, it will successfully complement the taste of greens, and also give the filling a juiciness. Onions and spinach are one of the easiest fillings. The traditional option is Kutaba with pickled cottage cheese. In an authentic recipe, it looks like
Bulgarian cheese, only more fresh. There are also sweet kutabs - in Azerbaijan they are made with fruit candy or with dried fruits. This mixture is added to the cheese. Such a filling must first be soaked in hot water. Such kutabs do not salt. They need to serve unsalted butter. Indeed, the juicy sourness of the marshmallows compensates for the sharp taste of cheese. Also in such a filling, walnuts are appropriate. With them, the taste becomes like meat.
Kutaby with pumpkin
As in the previous recipe, lightly fry the onions. To it, put grated or cut into very frying straws pumpkin in a pan . Stew this mixture under the lid, salt and season. Suitable spices for this type of filling: cinnamon, zira (ground), black pepper and sumac. Add some pomegranate to the prepared stuffing. Pumpkin can also be mixed with meat or cheese.