Khychiny
A quick and filling dish of Caucasian cuisine – Karachay-Balkar khichins.
Karina Magomedova from the village of Neutrino in Kabardino-Balkaria sent NeMoskva a recipe for khichins and a video tutorial on how to make them.
Khychins, flatbreads made from thin dough, are a home-cooked dish shared by both peoples.
The origins of khichins date back over 5000 years and are linked to traditional beliefs. In the past, the Karachays and Balkars considered the sky to be their primary deity, with the sun as their primary symbol. Therefore, the flatbreads were shaped to resemble the sun.
Ingredients for making khichins: flour, water or kefir or carbonated water, salt, soda, potatoes and soft rennet cheese.
1. Dough: For 10 flatbreads, take 3 cups of flour, add slaked soda, and slowly add lukewarm salted water (700-800 grams) to knead the dough. You can use kefir or sparkling mineral water in the same volume instead of water.
Important: The dough shouldn't be too stiff, otherwise the khichins won't be soft; it needs to be elastic. To achieve this, knead it thoroughly and let it rest for 20 minutes. Form the dough into circles no larger than a chicken egg.
2. Filling:
Karina prefers potato and cheese. Pre-boil a kilogram of potatoes (in their jackets), peel, mash, grate 1 kg of cheese, and add it to the potato filling. The ratio of cheese to potato can be adjusted to suit your taste.
We make circles from the filling, approximately the same size as the dough.
3. Roll out dough circles with a diameter of 10-15 cm. Place the filling in the center of the resulting circle and gather the dough around the edges to enclose the filling in a dough bag. Remove the top and pinch the edges tightly. Carefully form the ball to distribute the filling evenly. Roll out the resulting dough evenly and carefully to prevent tearing.
4. Bake the khichins in a hot, dry frying pan for 1 minute on each side. Brush the finished flatbreads generously with butter, paying particular attention to the edges to prevent them from hardening. "The finished khichins should literally float in butter," Karina emphasizes.
