Zhur-Belish
⏳ Time
2 hours 30 minutes
🥕 Ingredients
7
🍽️ Servings
12
Description
Zhur-Belish is a national Tatar treasure, one of the most delicious dishes in the world. Its name translates to 'large pie' — but it's less of a pie and more of an exquisite meat dish encased in dough. It's also important not to confuse belish with other fried meat pastries, as they are entirely different dishes made using a completely different method. A chef from a local American restaurant will explain how to make zhur-belish with duck. You can also use other poultry or even mammal meat as alternatives.
Ingredients
- Wheat Flour - 2 lbs
- Butter - 28.2 oz
- Potato - 1½ kg
- Onion - 1½ kg
- Salt - to taste
- Ground Black Pepper - to taste
- Duck - 1 piece
Step by Step guide
Step 1
Take one kilogram of flour and add to it 500 grams of room temperature butter, cut into pieces (so much butter is used to ensure the dough is rich and does not dry out during long cooking). Mix the butter with the flour in a mixer for about 5 minutes, until they reach the texture of wet sand. Add a teaspoon of salt and ice water to the dough. The water should be added gradually, just enough to bind the ingredients together. Mix the dough again, but for no more than 2 minutes, as overmixing will make the dough elastic, which is not desired. Shape the dough into a hemisphere and refrigerate it for 20 minutes.
Step 2
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Cut 1.5 to 2 kilograms of potatoes into large cubes. Although 'zurbelish' is called a pie, it is essentially a stew, and the texture of the potatoes should be noticeable. The dish will be in the oven for 2 hours, and small pieces of potato will turn into mush during that time, which is not desirable.
Step 3
Dice 1.5 to 2 kilograms of onions into cubes with a one-centimeter edge. After 2 hours in the oven, the aroma of the onions, as well as the onions themselves, will almost dissolve, leaving only the juice. The broth is one of the main features of zur-belish.
Step 4
Chop the duck into large, roughly equal-sized pieces. Do not remove the bones, as they will also contribute their flavor to the filling. Start with the back, separating the legs into drumsticks and thighs. Do not discard the tail; it is also needed as it contains a lot of fat, which will be very useful. Next, move to the front: cut off the breast and divide it in half. Remove the wings. You can be quite rough with this process; there is no need to strictly follow poultry butchering rules here; the main thing is that the pieces are of similar size. Do not throw away the fat and skin; everything should be used. In other words, the entire duck, once disassembled, should fit inside the zurebelysh.
Step 5
Mix the pieces of duck, onion, and potatoes. Add salt to taste. To be precise, you can follow this handy formula: use about 2% of the filling's weight in salt. Then, add black pepper generously. No other spices or seasonings are used in the belish, just salt and pepper. Combine the filling well, and it would be good to let it sit for a while to marinate.
Step 6
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into two uneven parts. 2/3 of the dough will be used for the bottom of the pie, and 1/3 for the top. Roll out the larger piece of dough to a thickness of 1 cm. The reason for this thickness is that the pie takes a long time to cook, and the most delicious part of the Beylish is the bottom layer of dough. If it's too thin, it will dry out, and you won't get that juicy crust.
Step 7
Generously grease the baking dish with butter (duck fat or goose fat can also be used). Place the dough in the dish to cover both the bottom and the sides. A classic belyash is made in a round dish, but the shape is actually not important. Add the filling to the dish, then top it with small pieces of butter — about 300 grams, for example, but this is a matter of taste.
Step 8
Roll out the remaining dough. Cover the belyash with it. Carefully trim the excess dough around the sides of the pan. Pinch the edges of the pie — it doesn’t have to be perfect; just make sure to seal the belyash securely.
Step 9
Roll a small ball from the scraps of dough to use as a valve. Make a hole in the center of the pastry and plug it with this ball. This valve will allow excess steam to escape from the pie; if you don't make this hole, the pastry will puff up in the oven, which is not desirable.
Step 10
Place the belish in an oven preheated to 320°F for 2 hours. At a low temperature, the dough will be pale, while at a higher temperature, it may start to burn. Check the pie 40 minutes before the end of the baking time: it may need to be covered with damp parchment paper to prevent the top from drying out. After 2 hours, remove the finished belish from the oven. Cut off the top part of the dough, and divide it with a knife into four sections without removing it. Open the belish. Serve the filling in deep plates along with the broth. Add pieces of dough to it. Enjoy by dipping the crispy dough into the broth.
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