Kulebiaka Russia Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter over low heat and saute onion until translucent. Mix in rice, mushrooms, dill, and lemon juice and let cool.
• Lay out puff pastry, place rice mixture over half of pastry and place salmon on top. Season with salt and pepper, and cover with eggs. Fold over pastry and seal with beaten egg.
• Crimp the edges of the kulebyaka. Brush with egg and poke a couple of holes in the pastry to let out steam. Bake for about 30 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Let cool and serve.

Steps:

• First, get everything prepared. Boil a pan of salted water, add the eggs and cook for 8 mins exactly. Drain and cool under cold water, then peel and set aside.
• Heat half the butter in a non-stick frying pan and sizzle the slices of salmon for 1 min on each side (Pic 1), just to firm up the fillets but not cook them all the way through. Lift the salmon onto a plate.
• Now cook the rice. Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan. Add the onion, cumin and coriander seeds, cardamom and star anise, then gently fry for 8 mins until golden. Stir in the rice and add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick (Pic 2), then pour over the stock and season generously. Cover and bring to the boil, then lower the heat to its lowest setting and continue to cook for 10 mins. Turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 mins, then stir through the lemon zest and juice. Set aside to cool. This can be done several hrs in advance. Once cool, stir though the chopped dill.
• To assemble the pie, roll out one of the pieces of pastry to a rectangle as wide but a third longer than this magazine (23 x 40cm), then lay on a baking tray. Pack half the rice along the middle of the pastry, discarding the star anise and cinnamon as you do so, leaving a good 5cm border around the edge. Lay the salmon over the rice, then slice the eggs and lay those over the whole salmon layer (Pic 3). Top the eggs with the remaining rice and use your hands to gently pack everything down to a firm, even shape. Brush any stray grains of rice off the border, then brush the border with beaten egg,
• Roll the second piece of pastry out to a rectangle slightly larger than the first. Drape over the coulibiac and gently press the edges to seal the 2 pastry sheets together. Trim the edges to neaten and crimp with your fingers or press down with a fork. The uncooked pie can now be chilled, on the baking sheet, for a day or frozen for up to 2 months.
• To cook, heat oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7. Brush the pie all over with beaten egg and, if you want, lightly score the pastry with the back of a knife in a criss-cross fashion, making sure you don't cut all the way through (Pic 4). Bake for 20 mins, then reduce the heat to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and continue to cook for 20 mins until golden brown. Leave to rest for 10 mins, then serve in thick slices with a bowl of Dill cream or Herb salsa (see recipes, below).

Steps:

• 1. Kulebiaba meaning retangular pie. This is considered the King of Pies. DOUGH: Chill a large bowl.
• 2. Combine the butter, shortening, salt and flour.
• 3. With a pastry cutter, cut the hutter and shortening in till it resembles coarse meal.
• 4. Add 10 Tbls. of ice water or milk all at once. Mix. If it's still crumbly add a litte more ice water or milk till it forms a ball.
• 5. Divide dough in half, dust each piece with a LITTLE flour. Wrap separately in plastic or waxpaper. Refrigerate 3 hours until firm.
• 6. FOR THE SALMON FILLING:
• 7. Combine 3 quarts water, the wine, the onion, celery, carrots, peppercorns, 3 tablespoons salt, in stainless steel pot. Bring to boil over high heat, then lower the salmon in and reduce heat to low. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes until fish is firm to touch. With a slotted spatual, transfer to large bowl. Gently remove any skin or bones that may have been left of the fillets. Separate the fish into small flakes with a fork. Set the bowl aside.
• 8. In a large skillet, melt 2 Tbl. butter on high heat. Add the mushrooms, turn down heat and cook until soft. Place them in a bowl and toss with lemon juice, a bit of ground pepper and 1/4 tsp. salt.
• 9. In the same skillet melt 1 tsp. butter on high heat. Add the onion, holding aside 1 Tbl. of onion. Cook onion on lower heat until they are done, but not brown. Stir in 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Scrap into bowl with mushroom.
• 10. Melt 2 Tbl. butter in skillet on high heat and add remaining tablespoon of onion and turn down the heat. Cook until soft.
• 11. Add the rice to the skillet that has the tablespoon of onions. Cook the rice for 2 to 3 minutes. Stirring to coat each grain of rice with the butter.
• 12. Pour in the Chicken stock and bring to boil. Turn down the heat and cover. Cook rice until rice is tender and fluffy.
• 13. Turn off the heat and stir in the dill.
• 14. Add the cooked rice with the dill, onion, mushrooms and chopped eggs into the bowl with salmon. Toss lightly, but throughly evenly distribute everything. Taste to see if you want more seasoning. Set aside to cool.
• 15. FOR THE CABBAGE FILLING:
• 16. Cook the cabbage in a pot of boiling water with salt. About 5 mintues. Drain the cabbage in a collander. Set aside.
• 17. Melt butter on high heat and add the chopped onions. Reduce heat and cook until soft and lightly browned. Add some of the cabbage juice.
• 18. Add the cabbage and cover. Simmer over low heat until until the cabbage is tender. 30 to 40 mintues. Turn up the heat and boil until most of the liquid has evaporated.
• 19. Drain the cabbage. Combine the eggs, dill, salt, sugar, and pepper. Taste if it needs more salt or pepper or dill add it. Set aside to cool.
• 20. Butter a large cookie sheet into a long retangle
• 21. Place the filling of your choice lenghtwise on the dough about the a little less then the size of the sheet, leaving 1" of pasty on all sides. Brush the edges with egg yolk and cream mixture.
• 22. Roll second dough to the a little larger. Roll on to the rolling pin and roll over the filling as a top. Make a small round hole opening which will be the center of your flower. Press the edges together and crimp. Cut away any extra dough. Coat the whole dough surface with the eggs and cream wash.
• 23. Roll out the extra dough and cut like slender leaves. Roll small balls of dough. Roll long stems. Make a flower in the center of the dough with the leaves. Add stems and leaves. Add the little round balls of dough to make them look like berries. Brush with egg and cream wash. Roll with your hands, but not stretching the dough into long twists. Brush edges with egg and cream wash. Add the twists to the edges. Brush all the edges with egg and cream. Refrig. 20 mintues.
• 24. Melt 1 tablespoon butter and pour into hole.
• 25. Bake in preheated oven 400*. Bake in center oven for 1 hour or until golden brown.
• 26. Serve with Dill sauce make out of dry white wine, butter, lemon, and pepper, reduce and the add chopped dill. Cool. Add cream a tad of flour or cornstarch to thicken. Heat and serve.