The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 27, Steppe, Forest and the Reclaimed Kitchen
Kubete
Crimean Tatar
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Thin yeasted or unleavened dough enclosing a filling of lamb, or a lamb-and-beef mix in roughly equal parts, layered with potato and onion, sealed into a whole pie and baked through until the pastry is fully coloured and the filling tender. A dish shared with, or closely paralleled by, Crimean Karaite cuisine, a separate small Turkic-speaking minority historically linked to Crimea, kept distinct here from the Crimean Tatar tradition even where the two traditions' recipes overlap closely.
As tradition built it
Serves 6 . Baked at 200°C for 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 500 g unleavened, layered dough thin yeasted or unleavened dough
- 500 g, roughly equal parts lamb and beef lamb, or a lamb-and-beef mix
- 500 g potato
- 300 g onion
Method
- Layer the lamb, or lamb-and-beef mix, with potato and onion inside the thin yeasted or unleavened dough.
- Seal into a whole pie.
- Bake through until the pastry is fully coloured and the filling tender.
Notes
A dish shared with, or closely paralleled by, Crimean Karaite cuisine, a separate small Turkic-speaking minority historically linked to Crimea, kept distinct here from the Crimean Tatar tradition even where the two traditions' recipes overlap closely.
What a modern chef changes
Separately confited meats, a roasted layer and a butter glaze
Rung 5
Method
- Confit the lamb and beef separately at differing low sous vide temperatures suited to each cut before layering, rather than relying on the oven's single heat to cook both through evenly, per the same logic rung five sets out for treating each dumpling dough on its own terms.
- Roast the potato and onion layer separately before assembly, concentrating their sugars beyond what a raw layer baked inside the pie achieves.
- Finish the baked pie with a butter-and-herb glaze brushed on the moment it leaves the oven, rather than serving the crust plain.
- Rest it under foil for ten minutes before cutting, so the layered filling holds its structure at the table rather than collapsing on the first slice.