Coulibiac (kulebyaka)

Savoury Pastry | Russian

Coulibiac is a traditional Russian pot pie (pirog) which features a complex filling. It consists of several types of minced meat layered sequentially and divided among themselves by thin fresh pancakes to prevent mixing. Thus, if cut vertically, you can find all kinds of fillings in each portion of coulibiac. Russian literature contains references to coulibiac with twelve-tiered fillings. Another way of laying the filling in the coulibiac is angularly when the filling is placed into each corner of the rectangular pie. Cabbage, mushrooms, fish, and buckwheat can also be used as a stuffing in the coulibiac in addition to meat. The share of the filling in the coulibiac is more than half of the total weight.

Ingredients

flour - 1 kg
milk - 1,5 cups
yeast powder - 20g or fresh yeast - 50 g
butter - 125 g
yolk - 4 pcs.
sugar - 2 tbsp.
salt - 1/2 tsp. For egg water brushing and frying: yolk - 2 pcs.
butter. For puncakes: flour - 1,5 cups
sugar - 1 tbsp.
egg - 2 pcs.
milk - 1,5 cups
salt - 1/2 tsp.
baking powder - 1,5 cups. For the filling: minced beef - 500 g
chicken liver - 500 g
rice - 1/2 cup
dry porcini mushroom - 50 g
onion - 3 bulbs
sour cream - 2 tbsp.
butter - 2 tbsp.
pickled cucumbers - 2 pcs.
egg - 3 pcs.
green onion – a bundle
parsley – a bundle
salt
black pepper.

Preparation method (receipt)

The dough: Add yeast, sugar and half flour sifted with salt to warm milk. Stir, cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour. Add butter, yolks and the remaining flour. Carefully knead, cover and leave for another hour. Make the dough soft and let it sit around for another 30 minutes. For pancakes: Whip the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, eggs and milk and leave for 1 hour. Warm up the frying pan, grease it with oil. Bake the pancakes. For meat filling: Finely chop the onions and 3 sprigs of parsley. Fry the onion in oil for 2 min. Add the minced meat and cook under a high heat for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Add 1 tbsp. sour cream, parsley, salt and black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. For the filling from liver: clean the chicken liver and rinse. Cover it with a small amount of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes, cool and chop finely. Peel cucumbers and cut into thin strips. Mix with liver and the remaining sour cream. For mushroom filling: soak mushrooms in warm water for 1 hour, boil for 20 minutes and cut. Peel the remaining onion and slice into semi-circles. Fry the mushrooms with onion in butter for10 minutes, add salt. For the rice filling: cover rice with 1 cup of boiling water, cover the lid and cook under low heat for 20 minutes, then cool. Boil eggs hard and mash with a fork. Ring the green onion. Stir everything. Crack 1 raw yolk in each of the prepared fillings and stir. Divide the dough into 2 parts, roll out the first part into a rectangular 0.5-1 cm thick layer (the size of the layer should match the size of the baking tray). Place it on a baking tray covered with a cooking sheet. Put the minced meat stuffing on the dough, leaving 4-5 cm fields on each side. Align and cover with pancakes. Lay out the fillings in turn, covering the layers with pancakes. Roll out the second layer. Cut longitudinal intermittent lines with a sharp knife at a distance of 1.5-2 cm. The length of each section should be approximately 6 cm. Cover the coulibiac with a sheet and pinch the edges. Insert 2 parchment tubes for steam outflow. Leave coulibiac to prove for 20 minutes. Brush it with beaten egg yolk and bake for 45 minutes at 190°C. Cover the ready coulibiac with a dry towel and slightly sprinkle with water from a sprayer. Let it sit around for 5-7 minutes.