Russian cuisine is rich in its traditions and unique recipes for mouth-watering dishes. One of these masterpieces of Russian culinary experts can rightfully be considered a coulibia. Historians claim that this dish was first mentioned in the 12th century. In composition, it is a pie with a complex multi-tiered filling. Traditionally kulebyaka is made from yeast dough. The filling consists of several types of minced meat, which are stacked on top of each other and are divided among themselves by thin fresh pancakes. Usually, two to four layers are used. But it is known that in one of the Moscow merchant clubs in the 19th century a twelve-tier couleby was prepared.
At home, such complex options are usually not used. Most often a dish is prepared with a filling of two levels. For example, kulebyaka with meat and porridge. The first layer of the filling is minced meat fried with onions in sunflower oil. Boiled rice with egg is taken as the second level. Complex filling is wrapped with dough and baked in the oven at a sufficiently high temperature. After cooling, both layers are clearly visible in the cross section.
Over the years, the cooking method of this famous dish has changed a bit. They began to prepare the filling in the form of a single layer in which several products were mixed. So appeared kulebyaka with meat and cabbage. In this case, the minced meat is fried with onions and finely chopped cabbage leaves. Kulebyaka with meat and pumpkin is also known. At the same time, vegetables are first fried, and then the hot mass is mixed with minced meat. The filling is juicy, soft and very aromatic. An ordinary cooker with meat is even easier to prepare. Here, the filling is wrapped in dough, consisting only of minced meat and fried onions. In principle, it can be considered as a two-level version in which the layers are thoroughly mixed with each other. To bake such a pie is much simpler, and the taste is no worse than the rest.
Particularly carefully you need to prepare the dough for kulebyaki. It should be the smallest part of the total mass of the cake and be strong enough to hold the heavy and thick filling inside. Most often kulebyaku made from yeast dough. But sometimes the use of puff and even butter cake mix is allowed. It all depends on the filling. Do not forget that the dough is only a package in which the fragrant contents of the cake are placed. It should not be much. The filling needs to be slightly covered with a thin layer of dough so that it is firmly held inside it.
To make yeast dough for two small kulebyak, you will need: 450 grams of flour (wheat), 260 milliliters of warmed milk, 2 teaspoons of salt, 12 grams of pressed fresh yeast, 45 grams of granulated sugar, 90 grams of butter and three egg yolks.
To prepare such a dough you need in advance in several stages:
- Pour the yeast with milk until completely dissolved.
- Mix salt with flour. Then gradually introduce the yolks, the dissolved yeast and using a mixer for five minutes to prepare a homogeneous sticky dough. Kneading should be done at a relatively low speed.
- Gradually increasing the speed, to achieve a homogeneous mixture structure. It will take another 10 minutes.
- Heat the butter and mix it with sugar until a paste is formed.
- Continuing the kneading, this warm mass is introduced in small parts into the dough. First, it is necessary to reduce the number of revolutions of rotation of the mixer to a minimum.
- When all the butter is inside, you need to maximize the speed of rotation and knead the homogeneous dough for 10 minutes until the mass becomes soft and elastic.
- Cover the container with the dough with cling film and leave at room temperature for 2 hours. During this time, it will increase markedly in volume.
- After this, the dough must be kneaded again, covered again with a film and put in a cold place for 2 or 3 hours.
The first stage of the process is completed. Now you can do the filling. And then go to the main stage and learn from your own experience how to cook a pie. Take the simplest filling, consisting of onions and minced meat. For one pie you will need: 0.5 kilograms of minced meat, pepper, a couple of onions, salt and butter for frying. It is prepared very simply:
- Onions cut into cubes of arbitrary sizes and fry in a pan in butter.
- Put minced meat in a pan, salt, add pepper and fry it with onion for 10 minutes. For flavor, you can add your favorite spices, but you can also without them.
Now it's time for the last stage of the process. It is necessary to finish the preparation of the couleby itself. For this:
- Sprinkle the cutting table with flour and roll the dough on it into a layer with a thickness of not more than 1 centimeter.
- Put the filling in the center.
- Wrap the edges of the dough and form a blank oval. Grease the surface with an egg, make a few punctures with a fork and send the product to the oven.
- Baked cake at a temperature of 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
- As soon as an appetizing golden crust appears on the surface, we check the readiness of the test with a toothpick.
- We take out the roasted kulebyak of their oven, grease with butter and cover with a towel. Once the cake has cooled a bit, you can serve and invite guests.
They eat such yummy as an independent dish after the soup. Usually it is poured with melted butter or sour cream, but you can use some other sauce. This fragrant cake is good in winter and summer, on holidays and weekdays. He will always be welcome. A hostess who knows how to cook a pie can think that she has reached perfection in the culinary art.