Kutaby

The Azerbaijani cuisine has many admirers. Especially popular local pastries, which include kutaby. These are flat cakes made from unleavened dough stuffed with meat, cheese, vegetables. In shape, they resemble pasties, only roasting in a dry frying pan, and then richly greased with butter. Qutaba served as a separate dish, as an addition to tea or as a snack for alcoholic beverages. Both adults and children like their taste. If you do not add some unleavened cakes with butter, then the individual versions of the dish (with a non-calorie filling) will appeal to even those who follow a diet.

Cooking Features

Intending to make Azerbaijani kutabs at home, the hostess should know a few moments.

Traditionally, kutabs are made from unleavened dough, but if you want to get a softer and more tender version of the dish, you can make dough on kefir or with the addition of eggs.
Dough flour is sieved, the dough, after kneading, is allowed to “rest” for at least half an hour. Then it will be gentle and elastic.
Roll out the dough for kutab as thin as possible, its thickness should not exceed 1 mm. Only then will the cakes have time to bake in a short time.
The elasticity of the dough gives vegetable oil. But it will not save if you are too lazy and knead the dough well enough.
It is not recommended to add a lot of flour when rolling dough and shaping cakes - it is smoked when frying in a pan.
Stir fry Kutabs in a hot cast-iron pan. It can be replaced with a conventional frying pan with a thick bottom and a non-stick coating. Lubricate the pan with oil is not necessary.
Ready-made kutabs are stacked on top of each other, lubricated with oil. Because of this, they become tender and soft. If you want to make a diet version of the dish, you need to use oils as little as possible, and cover the dish with qutab with a towel.

The most popular filling for qutab is cheese with greens, but they are also made with other fillings. Often use minced meat - lamb or beef. Sometimes cheese is replaced with cottage cheese. Often they make qutabs with vegetable filling - potato, pumpkin. Each option has its own characteristics, but the general principles of making qutab are not dependent on a specific recipe.

Kutaby with meat

Composition:

wheat flour - 0, 45-0, 5 kg;
chicken egg - 1 pc .;
water - 150 ml;
onions - 100 g;
fresh dill - 50 g;
lamb - 0, 2 kg;
cheese - 100-120 g;
vegetable oil - 60 ml;
butter - 60-80 g;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Preparation Method:

Beat the egg with water and a large pinch of salt. Add vegetable oil, whisk again.
Sift the flour, pour the egg mixture into it, knead the dough.
Wrap the dough with cling film, leave for half an hour.
Wash, dry, finely chop the meat with a knife or mince.
Free onion from the husk, grate or chop with a meat grinder, mix with minced meat.
On a grater, chop the cheese, add to the stuffing, mix.
Pour dill, salt and pepper into the minced meat. Stir.
Roll the dough into a layer no thicker than 1 mm.
With a saucer, cut round dough out of the dough.
Place a small spoonful of filling on each layer, level it with a thin layer, departing from the edges 1-1, 5 cm.
Moisten the edges of the dough with water. Fold the tortillas in half, using a fork tightly pinch the edges of the tortillas.
Preheat the cast iron skillet or the grill pan.
Put cakes on it. Cover the pan with a lid.
Fry until the dough starts to brown on one side. Turn over, fry on the other side.
Put the qutab on a dish, brush with butter.
Cover the finished kutabs with a towel, wait 15 minutes and invite everyone to the table.

It is not necessary to put a lot of stuffing into meat kutabs, otherwise it may not have time to fry.

Kutaby with cheese and herbs

Composition:

wheat flour - 0, 3 kg;
water - 0, 2 l;
salt - 5 g;
vegetable oil - 20-30 ml;
fresh greens (cilantro, parsley, spinach, dill) - 100 g;
green onions - 100 g;
cheese or similar cheese - 0, 2 kg;
butter - 30-50 g.

Preparation Method:

Sift flour.
Boil water, add salt and oil to it, mix.
Pour boiling water into a bowl of flour, knead the dough.
Cover the dough with cellophane, leave for 30-40 minutes.
Crumble cheese with a fork.
Wash greens, including scallions. Let dry. Finely chop with a knife.
Combine cheese with greens, mix.
Roll out the dough with sausage, cut it into 8-12 pieces depending on the size of the frying pan on which you plan to fry the qutab.
Roll each piece into a ball, then roll it into a thin layer of round shape. The thickness of the dough should be minimal, about the same as a napkin.
Place 1-1, 5 tablespoons of cheese with greens on a half cake.
Cover the filling with the second half, secure the edges.
In the same way, form the remaining kutabs.
Fry kutabs on both sides in a dry cast iron pan.
When folding the finished flat cakes on the dish, do not forget to oil them.

Kutabs can not be fried in a pan, but baked in the oven. In it they need to keep 15 minutes at 180 degrees. After being removed from the oven, the Kutabs are also oiled.

Serve Kutaby made with a sauce based on fermented milk products. Scones with cheese can also be offered for tea.

Kutaby with Pumpkin

Composition:

wheat flour - 0, 35 kg;
water - 170 ml;
vegetable oil - 40 ml in dough, for frying the filling - how much will go;
salt - a large shchipot;
onions - 150 g;
pumpkin pulp - 0, 3 kg;
spices, butter - to taste.

Preparation Method:

From sifted flour, hot water, a pinch of salt and two tablespoons of butter, substitute a dense, elastic dough. Leave it for an hour, covered with cling film.
Free the onions from the peel, cut it into small cubes.
Clean the pumpkin from the skins and seeds. Pulp cut into small cubes or chop grated.
Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan, put onion in it, fry it for 5 minutes.
Add a pumpkin, cover the pan with a lid. Reduce the intensity of the flame.
Cook until pumpkin is soft. Add spices, add salt, if desired, mix vegetable mass. Remove pan from heat.
Divide dough into 10 parts.
Roll each piece of dough into a thin flat cake, put the filling on it, hold together to form a large crescent-shaped pie.
Fry kutabs in a hot skillet - 1-2 minutes on each side.
Place on a plate, brushing with oil.

Kutabs prepared according to this recipe have a unique taste, and they are useful. If you want to reduce the calorie content of the food, you can not fill the filling, and bake in the oven or stew, adding a minimum amount of water. Kutabs with potatoes are prepared according to a similar recipe.

Kutabs made from dough on kefir with curd and greens

Composition:

flour - 0, 4-0, 45 kg;
kefir - 0, 25 l;
vegetable oil - 60 ml;
cottage cheese - 0, 3 kg;
cheese - 100 g;
green onions - 50 g;
parsley, dill - 50 g;
salt, butter - to taste.

Preparation Method:

Sift flour. In the center make a recess. Pour kefir and butter into it, add a pinch of salt. Knead the dough.
Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it with cling film and set aside for half an hour.
Coarsely grated cheese.
Wash, shake off onions, parsley and dill. When they dry, finely chop them with a knife.
Combine cottage cheese, cheese and greens. Add salt and spices to taste. Stir so that the cheese and greens are evenly distributed in the curd mass.
Divide the dough into several parts, roll each part into a layer about 1 mm thick. Put a filling on one half of a layer, level.
Blind the patties, in shape similar to pasties. Secure the edges tightly. Cut the excess dough with a pizza cutter, giving the qutabs an even shape.
Fry the patties in a dry frying pan or bake in the oven.
Smear with melted butter.

When serving, kutabs can be cut in half or in 3 pieces.

Kutabs are Azerbaijani pies resembling chebureks, but they are fried not in oil, but in a dry frying pan. Filling is most often served not with meat (although it is also used), but with cheese or cottage cheese. Kutabs with vegetable filling are also popular. You can cook this dish at home. Serve the dish best with sauce based on yogurt or other fermented milk product.