Have you ever wondered about other cuisines other than your everyday local food? If your answer to this question is “No” then.. uhh.. good for you I guess..

But if your answer is “Yes” then you’ve come to the right place! I’ve always have a fascination for food, especially food from other countries!…….

So get ready to learn about food that I too only learned only recently. So without any further ado let’s get started. (P.s. Right now i’m addicted to Russian cuisines.)

How to make Kulebyaka?

So picture this right, I’m just minding my own business watching some YouTube videos and suddenly there’s a new notification on my YouTube account about a video that I might possibly like and so I look at the title as i usually do and it says “Slav Christmas Feast” by LifeofBoris. Now if you don’t know what “Slav” is it means a person who speak the slavic languages as their native tongue, for example like Russia.

Boris was cooking something he called a “Salmon Log” or “Kulebyaka” if you want to be more formal. And I fell in love with the recipe. It looked so much fun to make and not to mention looking very delicious.

So I set out to make my own with high hopes which would quickly come crashing down as I realized that, I don’t have salmon… while I could buy some from my local wet market I decided not to, as salmon is very expensive.

Until I got the brilliant idea of recreating the dish, but instead of using salmon I use ground pork and beef. So without anymore things to say let’s get to it.

Here’s what you’re gonna need to make this dish.

For the Dough you’re gonna need.

• 400g All purpose flour
• 250ml Fresh milk
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 1 Medium sized Egg
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Dry yeast
• 1 tbsp Cooking oil (I used Canola oil)

For the Filling you’re gonna need.

• 1/2 kg Ground pork
• 1/4 kg Ground beef
• 1 1/2 cup White rice
• 1 can Mushrooms (if you have fresh mushrooms, even better)
• 1 Small red onion
• 1/2 cup Soy sauce
• 2 Medium sized Eggs
  • Dill (I used dried, but if you have fresh use that)
  • Basil
  • Salt & Pepper

Now first you’re gonna want to start with the dough as this is the most time consuming part, not because it’s hard to make, but because you need to let it rise for 2-24 hours, but since I was impatient I only let the yeast rise for 2 hours. But I highly suggest letting the yeast work it’s magic for at least 24 hours or overnight for deeper flavor of the bread.

1. First get a large bowl, any bowl, as long as it can hold all the things you’re going to put in it, now mix the flour, and yeast together.
   
2. In another smaller bowl add the milk, eggs, sugar and salt. Mix until everything’s well incorporated. then add the oil and lightly stir it.
   
3. Now it’s time to combine the wet mixture to the dry mixture, slowly add the milk/egg/salt/sugar/oil mixture into the flour using a spoon. DO NOT over mix.

Now that we’ve made the dough, cover it up with cloth preferably a cheese cloth if you are leaving it only for a few hours in a warm place, and cling wrap if leaving overnight.

Now for the fillings.

1. For the easy part boil the 2 eggs, boil them for however long you want but I don’t recommend soft boiled, as you will mash these using a fork and season with salt and pepper, set aside for later. also use this time to make rice.
   
2. Dice the onions and the mushrooms, then fry them in butter, add a pinch of salt and pepper, fry until fragrant or until the edges of the onions are translucent. put in a small bowl and set aside for later.
   
3. now for the meat, in a large bowl mix the ground pork, beef, and soy sauce together by hand, add a teaspoon of dill, a teaspoon of basil, and some powdered pepper. Knead the entire thing by hand until everything is well incorporated. Now on a baking sheet with aluminum foil shape the thing into a log and cover entirely with the foil. Set the oven to 180°C or 356°F for 20-25 mins and wait for it to cook.

I almost forgot. Add minced garlic into the meat mix. And if there’s anything I’ve learned through my years of cooking is that the amount of garlic you put is not dictated by the recipe, but by your heart. so go ahead and add as much as you want. As for me I’m putting in about 4-5 big cloves of garlic.

4. Now after the meat’s all cooked, don’t worry if the meat isn’t entirely
cooked through, it’ll be done when you bake them inside the dough.
Now you’re gonna be left with a large sausage like lump of meat, lay it
out unto a large bowl and just shred it with 2 forks, make sure to
include the juices into the pulled apart meat. set it aside.

5. Now for the fun part, get the dough and put it on a generously floured
work table and dusting it with flour, proceed to roll it into a a rather
large rectangle about the thickness of a pencil.

6. Now it’s time to layer it. make a rectangular bed of rice on one side of
the dough, then on top of that add the mushrooms and onions (so that
the rice will absorb that buttery goodness), then add the meat ( add as
much as you possibly can without overloading it), then lastly the eggs.
Sprinkle it generously with Dill, and you’re good to wrap it.

Now unlike me I HIGHLY suggest doing the layering and wrapping process unto a baking sheet lined baking pan, because this was VERY hard to carry and place unto said baking pan without it slightly breaking.

7. now after you’ve covered it up with the other half, use a fork to seal the
dough up. Then using one egg lightly beaten, brush the entire thing
with the egg wash. then place the entire thing in a pre-heated oven at
about 150°C or 300°F for 20 mins, turn the tray after 10 mins to ensure
a nice even color.

• 

And viola! you got yourself beautiful Kulebyaka. Enjoy it while hot, maybe with mayonnaise or sour cream… or ketchup if you’re a monster… but either way I hope you enjoy this slightly time consuming dish to make.

See you next time!