Rosy rolls or cutlets with a juicy filling - that's what zrazy is. This is a traditional dish of Lithuanian and Polish cuisine, which has taken root in Ukraine and Belarus and fell in love in Russia.
You can cook zrazy in different ways, the main thing is that inside the meat or potato shell there is a delicious meat, mushroom, bread or cheese core. Try making zrazy in a pan. It is simple, fast, beautiful in presentation and very tasty.
Zrazy in a pan - general cooking principles
The main, upper layer of zraz can be either meat or vegetable, most often potato. It should be soft enough so that the heat of the pan is enough for both baking the top and warming the filling. By the way, the filling for zrazy in the pan is prepared immediately: the mushrooms are stewed, the meat is fried, the crackers are soaked, etc. Inside the roll or cutlet they put a completely ready-made mass.
The top meat layer can be done in two different ways:
1. chop meat (beef, veal, pork, so that you can cut a piece into plates to roll);
2. minced meat - meat scrolled through a meat grinder.
Depending on which method is chosen, you will get either small rolls or cutlets. Cooking rolls will take a little longer. This option, with chopped meat and rolls, is more typical of Lithuanian cuisine.
Formed zrazy in a pan is fried until golden brown, if necessary, stew until cooked. As a rule, sauce is separately prepared for zrazy - creamy, tomato, mushroom, etc.
Beef zrazy in a pan with crackers
A thin meat shell with delicate minced meat makes this version of Lithuanian zrazy simple, satisfying and effective at the same time. This dish can be served as an independent.
Ingredients:
• a pound of lean beef piece;
• half a glass of crushed crackers;
• two medium chicken eggs;
• a third of a glass of cream or milk;
• medium onion;
• two table boats of vegetable oil;
• salt to taste;
• half a teaspoon of black pepper;
• a pinch of marjoram or other dried grass that you like.
Cooking method:
Pour crackers in a deep bowl and pour cold cream.
Hard-boiled eggs, cool and chop finely with a knife.
Cut the beef piece across the fibers with plates no thicker than ½ cm.
Each meat cake beat off with a hammer, salt, sprinkle with pepper and set aside about ten minutes to the side.
While the meat is pickled, finely chop the onion chopped in vegetable oil.
Combine the cracked mass, chopped eggs and fried onions, mix thoroughly, salt the filling to taste.
Put the finished stuffing on thin pieces of chopped meat, roll up a roll, tie with culinary thread or stab with wooden skewers.
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Fry zrazy on both sides over high heat without covering.
Remove thread or pull out skewers.
Pour a third glass of boiling water into the pan, simmer the zrazy until cooked under a lid over low heat.
Serve with creamy or tomato sauce.
Potato zrazy in a pan with mushrooms
This meal option is casual. Cooking potato zrazy in a pan is very simple, no special ingredients and skills are needed. For mushroom filling, fresh and dried mushrooms are suitable. The latter will have to be pre-soaked for two to three hours, then boiled in the same water. Cooking time is about half an hour. Do not pour decoction from mushrooms. It can be used as the basis for a light soup or preparation of zraza sauce.
Ingredients:
• seven to eight medium potatoes;
• two large onions;
• a pound of fresh champignons;
• one egg;
• a tablespoon of white flour in the dough, two spoons - for breading;
• some vegetable oil for the pan;
• salt to taste;
• half a teaspoon of black pepper or paprika.
Cooking method:
Put the potatoes on the fire to cook mashed potatoes.
While potatoes are boiling, prepare the filling.
Cut fresh or boiled mushrooms into small pieces.
Chop the sweet onions finely.
In a well-heated oil, fry the mushrooms and onions together until the mushroom juice evaporates.
Puree hot potatoes, beat in an egg, salt and pepper to taste, add flour and mix. You get a light plastic mass, which is convenient to work with.
Divide the potato mass into 10-12 parts, spread them on a work surface, sprinkled with flour.
Press each part with your hands or a spoon so that a cake is obtained.
Spread a tablespoon of mushroom filling in the center of this cake, pinch the edges to form a “pie”.
Bread each glue in flour, trying to maintain its rounded shape.
Heat oil and fry zrazy in a pan on both sides.
You can serve with sour cream sauce, which is prepared separately, or with a spoon of sour cream.
Chicken zrazy in a pan with olives
Minced chicken is cooked instantly. Zrazy in a pan turns out beautiful and very tasty. Salted spicy olives give them a special piquancy. If desired, you can put any other filling inside, for example, boiled rice with chopped hard-boiled eggs.
Ingredients:
• medium-sized chicken (1.5-1.7 kg);
• three to four pieces of white bread;
• half a glass of milk;
• two tablespoons of pitted olives;
• two tablespoons of chopped dill and parsley;
• two to three tablespoons of crackers for breading;
• half a teaspoon of black pepper powder;
• salt to your taste;
• vegetable oil for the pan.
Cooking method:
Wash the chicken carcass, remove the skin and cut off all the meat.
Put meat through a meat grinder with a fine grill.
Break the loaf into pieces and pour milk.
Drive the egg into the minced chicken, add the bread soaked in milk, add salt and pepper, and mix.
Divide the minced meat into pieces.
In the center of each piece, mashed into a cake, put the olive and connect the edges.
Fry chicken zrazy in a frying pan without a lid, in a large amount of vegetable oil. Three to four minutes are enough for each side.
Serve zrazy, sprinkled with fresh chopped herbs.
Potato zrazy in a pan with meat
Crispy potato coat and juicy meat filling - an amazing combination of tastes. This option zraz in a pan will appeal to adults and children. The dish can be prepared for a family celebration or put on the Sunday table.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of potatoes;
• three hundred grams of minced meat;
• two onions;
• one egg;
• three tablespoons of white flour;
• salt and pepper to your taste;
• a spoonful of butter;
• two spoons of breadcrumbs;
• three tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
Cook the potatoes and turn into mashed potatoes.
In hot mashed potatoes add butter, flour, beat an egg, salt and mix everything.
Chop smaller bulbs.
Fry meat with onions in vegetable oil, salt to taste and pepper.
Form zrazy by wrapping a spoonful of meat filling inside a potato cake.
Bread zrazy in breadcrumbs or flour.
Fry zrazy in a pan on each side.
Meat zrazy in a pan with cheese
A very simple but effective way to turn an ordinary homemade patty into a tender, juicy meat treat. The cheese inside such a zraza melts in a pan, and it turns out amazingly tasty.
Ingredients:
• a kilogram of any stuffing, best mixed;
• two hundred grams of semi-hard cheese;
• large onion;
• three cloves of garlic;
• three eggs;
• salt to taste;
• a teaspoon of paprika and black pepper;
• vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
Grate onion and garlic or mashed in any way.
Mix the chopped meat with vegetables, salt, add paprika and pepper, beat the eggs and mix.
Grate cheese piece on medium or large grater.
Spread a tablespoon of cheese in the middle of the meat cake and wrap the edges so that the cutlet turns out.
Bread zrazy in flour.
Heat oil and fry zrazy in the same way as regular cutlets.
Meat zrazy in a pan with mushrooms
Instead of cheese, you can put mushroom stuffing inside a meatball. The combination is no less successful than meat and cheese.
Ingredients:
• a pound of beef;
• three hundred grams of pork;
• two large onions;
• a pound of fresh champignons;
• one chicken egg;
• two pieces of a white dried loaf;
• a third of a glass of milk;
• salt;
• one hundred grams of flour for breading;
• vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
Roll the meat through a meat grinder with one onion.
Soak the loaf in milk, squeeze and send into minced meat.
Put the egg in the same place, salt and knead the minced meat.
Mushrooms cut into small cubes.
Finely chop the second onion.
In hot oil, fry onions and mushrooms, salt to taste.
Put a spoonful of mushroom filling on the center of the meat cake, pinch the edges, turning the cake into a roundish sight.
Roll zrazy in flour, trying to maintain a rounded shape.
Fry zrazy in a hot frying pan first until golden brown over high heat.
Then reduce the heat to a minimum and simmer the zrazy under the lid for 20 minutes.
Zrazy in a pan - tricks and tips
- As a filling for zraz, you can take: boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, chopped herbs mixed with cheese, rice, chopped eggs with green onions.
- To make it easier to form zrazy, you need to periodically moisten your hands in cold water.
- Instead of a raw egg, potato starch can be used to bind minced meat or potato. This option is suitable for the Orthodox Lent and for the diet of people allergic to chicken eggs.
