MEAT PIES - RUSSIAN BELASHY RECIPE
How to make Belashy at home, super easy and tasty recipe. These small meat pies come from Tajik cuisine, but were traditionally cooked in Russia. In the Soviet era they used to sell hot belyashi from big pots right on the corners of busy streets, where hungry students immediately formed a line to buy a hot meat pie.
It was not as good as homemade, but still a very popular food on-the-go. This is a traditional recipe for these delicious round meat pies which are deep-fried in oil.
Belashy is something that I grew up on when I was little, but even more something that my parents and grandparents grew up with, these meat filled fried dough pastries are to die for!
I want to share this recipe with you and I hope you make this for your friends and family.
For the dough we will need
300 gr or 2.5 cups of flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp of sugar
2 tsp of instant quick dry yeast or 1 pack 7 gr
0.5 tbsp of warm water
6-8 tbsp of melted butter or oil
salt, pepper
For the filling
400 gr of beef
1 pack of pancetta (optional)
1 finely chopped onion
50 ml of cold water
Directions
Step 1: First make the dough. Mix your eggs, sugar, salt, yeast and butter together with warm water. Then add your sifted flour and mix everything together until you get a nice dough. Leave to raise for 1 hour until it doubles in size. Note. You must use either quick or instant dry yeast, otherwise activate your yeast before.
Step 2: Finely chop your onion and fry it a little bit with some pancetta. Add into the meat mixture with some water and mix well.
Step 3: Divide your dough into 8-9 equal pieces and roll each dough piece into a circular shape. Place 1-2 tbsp of meat filling inside and pinch from the sides to close the pastry. Make sure you leave a little hole in the middle. ( Watch video) Repeat with the rest of belashy.
Step 4 : Pour enough sunflower oil to deep fry the belashy. Make sure the oil is hot and ready. Test with a piece of dough, if its starts to bubble around then its ready.
Step 5 : Make sure you fry belashy with the meat side down where you have left a hole, decrease the heat and cook slowly ( this is to make sure the meat cooks throughout) and then once they are golden on one side, turn then around and deep fry on the other side.
Step 6: Place belashy onto a paper towel to get rid of any excess oil.
Step 7 : Enjoy hot! They are the best hot or warm with a cup of tea/coffee or glass of kvass.