Probably, every resident of Russia and neighboring countries is familiar with the whites. In something, regrettably, they have become our fast food, the fact that we eat in a hurry, not too interested in the components and quality of the eaten product - just to fill our stomach and get rid of hunger. And at the same time, the prototype of such an unattractive pie was the Tatar whitewash, the recipe of which, however, differs from the usual bazaar or train station incarnation much more than modern furniture from sawdust - from the situation, say, of the royal palace.
Subtleties of terminology
Errors begin already with the name. God be with him, with the whitewash: those who want to cook the real Tatar (or Bashkir, in this respect two nationalities divided the palm) dish carefully call him whitish. Meanwhile, closer to the original pronunciation will still be "Belish."
The following remark: what we all mean by an established name is most often a pie, that is, a closed dough product. Not such a whiteness: the recipe for its preparation necessarily assumes the presence of a hole on top. Moreover, the “substitutes” of the right dish are most often prepared from yeast dough, although in the original it was fresh.
Varieties of Tatar dishes
Again the dimensions. The whites offered by the current food service have a standard pie size, which is fundamentally wrong. Tatars and Bashkirs had two sizes for a dish called "belish": the recipe, the most popular among these nationalities, had the prefix "zur", that is, "large", and was a full-fledged pie. The second subspecies is with the addition of “vak”. This is just a small, pie version of the belish dish. The recipe for this variety allows the use of yeast dough, but a hole on top must be present.
The most correct dough
So, back to the sources. Since we have already found out that yeast dough is not suitable for the desired Tatar dish, we will do everything “wisely”. For the basis of whites, you need half a glass of sour. You can buy it or make it yourself by fermenting milk on the windowsill. Kefir is also suitable. An egg is poured into the liquid, everything is salted, a glass of flour is introduced and mixed. Only after this is added melted margarine (100 g in solid form), 2 cups flour and half a teaspoon of soda (naturally quenched). Of all these ingredients, a dumpling dough is kneaded. And only it will make a real whitish. The recipe allows some refinements (kefir - sour, amount of salt, it is possible to add a small amount of sugar), but the basic ratio must be maintained.
No less classic filling
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 whites in the most traditional way, stop at the potato.
Since the method of preparation, the option "vak" can be done purely intuitively, we will consider zurbelish as more preferred by the inventors of the recipe. For 400 g of lamb or veal, there is a pound of potatoes, a large onion and, preferably, half a glass of broth (pepper and salt are meant).
First of all, no ground meat! It should be very finely chopped. Potatoes are cut in the same size as meat. Finely chopped onion is added, salted and pepper - and for half an hour in the refrigerator. In the pan lined with dough, the filling is put together with its juice, on top of the future Tatar pie is covered with another sheet of dough. The edges are plucked very carefully to avoid loss of juice. Not a wide, but not too narrow hole is made in the center. A “plug” is made from a piece of dough, which is inserted into the hole. As the whiteness is baked, it is removed for control: if it turns out dry, the broth is added.
And finally - a secret that few people know about. After removing from the oven, it is necessary to insist a whitish; the recipe (in most interpretations) does not indicate this. However, it was the wrapped pie, which stood for at least an hour, reveals all the aroma and taste of its filling.
It is worth trying a real Tatar whitish to understand what we have been depriving ourselves of for many years, naively taking vulgar fried pies for it.