Chechen cuisine - Grain dishes

Chepalgash - pancakes (serves 1)

Dough: wheat flour - 100 g, yogurt - 100 g, baking soda - 0.2 g , salt - 0.5 g

Filling: cottage cheese - 75 g, egg - a quarter, salt - 0.5 g, butter - 20 g

To make dough, combine flour with warm yogurt, add salt and baking soda, blend thoroughly. Mix cottage cheese with egg and salt. Cut batter into pieces of 200 to 230 grams each. Roll out until they are 0.3 centimeters thick. Place filling in center of each piece of dough, roll over and press to seal and roll out until they are 1 to 1.5 cm thick. Bake in ungreased griddle turning them over at regular intervals. When ready, brush both sides with hot water to make chepalgash soft and to remove burnt flour. Brush with butter, put pancakes one on top of another.

To serve, cut each chepalgash into 4 to 8 pieces and sprinkle these with melted butter.

Potatoes may be used instead of cottage cheese for filling.

Pumpkin Khingalash (serves 1)

Dough: wheat flour - 120 g

yogurt - 100 g

baking soda - 0.2 g

salt - 0.5 g

Filling: - 128 g

sugar - 15 g

water - 30 g

onion - 24 g

salt - 0.5 g

butter - 30 g

Combine flour with warm yogurt, add baking soda, salt. Knead.

Filling: cut pumpkin into cubes, remove seeds, place peel up into casserole, pour in hot water until water covers pumpkin (1 liter of water per 5 kilograms of pumpkin.) Put to boil until ready under lid. Chop or chop and saute onion. Spoon pumpkin pulp out of casserole, grate. Add sugar, salt, sauteed onion. Mix well. Cut batter into pieces of 200g to 230g each. Form circles. Roll out until 0.3 cm thick. Place filling on half the circles, cover with other half, press to seal forming semi-circles. Bake in ungreased frying pan turning over at regular intervals. Brush, when ready, with hot water (to make khingalash soft and to remove burnt flour,) brush with butter. Cut each khingalash into 3, 6 or 9 pieces and sprinkle these with melted butter. Serve. The thinner khingalash she makes, the better cook a woman is!

Siskal-churek (serves 1)

Corn flour - 168 g, Water - 100 g, Salt - 2 g

Sift flour. Heat water to 50 to 60 degrees Celsius. Add water to flour. Knead and cut batter into 1.5 to 2.0 cm-thick circles of 20 to 25 cm in diameter. Bake in ungreased griddle turning over at regular intervals. Serve with kald-dyatta or to-beram and Kalmyk tea.

Kald-dyatta

Cottage cheese - 64 g, Melted butter - 20 g, Egg - half, Salt - 5 g

Mix thoroughly salted cottage cheese and melted or unmelted butter and finely chopped boiled egg.

To-beram, Cottage cheese - 40 g, Sour cream - 60 g, Salt - 5 g

Mix thoroughly salted cottage cheese and sour cream.

Kalmyk tea , Milk - 100 g, Green tea (pressed) - 4g, Pepper - 0.1 g,

Butter - 10 g, Salt - 0.5 g, Boiled water - 100 g