Balkar Khychin with cheese and herbs: recipe

Delicious fried cakes with different fillings can often be found on the Caucasian table. However, khichin is easy to prepare and Russian women. To do this, it is sufficient to use the suggested recipes.

What is khychiny?

This is an unleavened cake with a juicy filling inside. Traditionally, they cook hutchins with cheese and greens, meat or potatoes. For the filling is ideal suuguni, but no less delicious are cakes stuffed with cheese. Russian housewives have adapted to cook hutchins even with pumpkin and bean puree.

Ready cakes are stacked and cut into 4 pieces. In translation from the Balkar language, "khich" means the cross. Khychin is a national dish of the Balkarian and Karachai peoples. In the Caucasus, a hospitable hostess should definitely meet guests with such cakes. Without this dish, there is not a single feast, whether it's a wedding, a birthday or a wake.

Despite the fact that in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and in Kabardino-Balkaria, khichins are a traditional dish, they are prepared in different ways. Balkarians have very thin cakes, they are fried in a hot frying pan and smeared with butter. In Khyachi, Kabardin dough is much larger, and they are cooked in a cauldron with boiling oil, like chebureks. Despite the difference in preparation, tasty cakes are obtained from both peoples.

How to knead dough for hutchins

Classical dough for hutchins is cooked on ayran. In addition to this sour-milk drink you will need two more ingredients: salt and water. Kneading the dough is very easy. To do this, simply combine 500 grams of flour, 250 ml of ayran and 1 teaspoon of salt in one bowl. Stir the dough for about 20 minutes, until it stops sticking to your hands. Perhaps, it is necessary to exert force. As a result, the dough should get pretty steep, but at the same time retain its softness and elasticity. Now it should be left on the table to "rest" for half an hour, and only after that proceed to the molding of flat cakes.

Since ayran is not found in all stores, you can try to replace it with kefir or yogurt. In the first case, add 50 ml of mineral water to 200 ml of kefir and mix. As a result, a 250 ml sour-milk beverage suitable for density will be obtained. If the same is used for cooking homemade yogurt, then the amount of mineral water should be increased to 125-150 ml.

How to properly form and roll a cake

To ensure that the juicy filling does not flow out of the dish, it is important to properly form a cake. Khychiny, the preparation of which is not difficult, are done as follows:

1. From the test, form balls, about 100 grams each, and roll them into small round cakes (like dumplings).
2. Put the filling in the center of each circle. Preliminary of it, too, to form balls. The filling should be 50 grams more than the dough, that is about 150 grams.
3. Now gently stretch the edges of the dough until it completely covers the filling. Should get a ball of dough stuffed inside. The properly kneaded dough is elastic, so it will not be difficult to do it.
4. At the top, close the ball by grasping the edges of the dough. Thus, form the remaining pieces of the dough.
5. Now you need to press it lightly with your palm and roll it out with a rolling pin until you get a thin flat cake. If the dough tears, at this point it should be moistened with water and gently poured with flour.

In this way it is good to form flat cakes, if the dough is pliable and elastic. In the event that it is blurred too steeply, it will be difficult to stretch, as it will break. To get out of this situation, the ball with the test should immediately be rolled into a thin cake, and only then spread on it stuffing.

Khychin with cheese and greens: classic Balkarian recipe

While the kneaded dough "rest", it's time to make the filling. According to the classic recipe, hutchins with cheese and greens are prepared. For such a filling, you need 300 grams of suluguni, as well as twigs of dill, parsley, cilantro and other greens to taste.

Cheese should be grated on a large grater, cut into greenery. Due to the specific taste of Suluguni, the filling does not need to be additionally added. All the ingredients are mixed, and you can start to form the balls. If the filling is too friable, then it is simply spread out on the rolled dough with a spoon, observing the proportions by weight.

The prepared cake is laid out on a dry heated frying pan. After that, it is fried over medium heat from two sides. When turning over to the other side, the cake is swollen. So that it does not burst and the filling does not leak into the frying pan, in the center it must be pierced with a fork. Ready-made chicken with cheese and herbs, the photos of which are presented above, must be smeared with butter.

How to cook hutchins with hard cheese, greens and potatoes

In the Caucasus, they use different fillings for their traditional dish. How to cook hutchins with cheese, greens and mashed potatoes?

For the filling you need 1 kg of potatoes, 300 grams of Russian cheese and a bunch of any greens. First, you need to make a mashed potatoes and let it cool down a little. Then grate the cheese on a large grater and finely chop the greens. Mix all ingredients, salt if necessary. From the filling to form balls. Then put them on the dough and wrap them with the filling. Then roll out a thin cake. You can fry.

Balkar Khychin, the recipe of which is presented above, is not inferior to the traditional ones with cheese and greens. They are tasty and hot and cold.

Khychin with cheese, herbs and beetroots

This is a Russian version of the filling of a popular dish of Kabardino-Balkar cuisine. How to cook chicken according to this recipe?

For this dish, you need a dry granular cheese (cottage cheese) - 500 grams, green beet tops - 1 bunch, as well as dill or parsley. Cottage cheese should be salted and knead well with a fork, add other ingredients, preliminarily finely chopping them. Next, a ball is formed from the filling, and from the dough - a flat cake, as in the previous two versions.

Balkar Khychin, the recipe of which is presented above, are not only delicious, but also useful. Cottage cheese, beet tops and herbs make from a simple filling a real vitamin cocktail.

How do they eat hutchins?

Khychin is usually eaten hot. Butter, which is abundantly greased khychiny with cheese and herbs, should melt. They are eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner instead of bread or as an independent dish.

Each oiled hutchin is put on the previous one, forming a pile. And only after all of them are fried, it must be cut into four parts, repeating the cross with movements. Eat hitchiny hands, dipping the edge of the cake in a specially prepared sauce.

Some people prefer to eat this dish cold. In this form it can be used as one of the options for a working snack. Hutchins perfectly satisfy hunger and do not lead to overeating.

Sauce for Balkar chickens

In the Caucasus, Balkar Khychin is served with ayran. In the European version, it is customary to cook garlic sauce for this dish . For its preparation, the following recipe is suitable. Khychin with cheese and herbs in combination with a delicate sauce will perfectly suit both daily dinner and solemn events.

Mix a glass of sour cream with salt and herbs. Add a clove of garlic and send to a cold place for at least an hour. At the heart of the sauce can be not only sour cream, but also mayonnaise or yogurt.

Garlic sauce can be replaced with tomato sauce. Its taste is also in good harmony with the hutchins. With sauces, these cakes are even more delicious.

Peculiarities of cooking hychin

To make really delicious hutchins, you need to consider some features of this dish:

• The dough for hitchin should not be too steep, otherwise it will not be able to stretch well;
• Balkar hutchins are so delicious the thinner cake is rolled;
• The test should be about fifty grams less than the filling;
• Fry cakes should be in a dry frying pan over medium heat, so that they have time to bake well;
• So that the bloated hychin does not burst in the frying pan, after turning over to the other side it must be pierced in the center;
• The finished cake is smeared with butter and stacked one on top of the other, then the cubs become soft;
• In the Caucasus, traditionally a dish is served with ayran or various sauces are prepared: garlic, tomato.

If these simple recommendations are followed, it will not be difficult to cook hutchins at home. Bon Appetit!