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Wizards of potatoes with minced meat in Belarusian

Belarusian Kolduny (Stuffed Potato Cakes with Meat)

Golden, crisp, and downright delicious — a hit with the whole family! Kolduny are a traditional Belarusian dish of grated-potato cakes stuffed with meat. They're a lot like meat-filled potato pancakes (draniki), except the potato mixture is made a bit firmer so you can shape it around the filling. They're hearty and filling — a full hot meal on their own.

Julia

Recipe author

Wizards of potatoes with minced meat in Belarusian

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Potatoes

600

Ground meat

200

Onion (medium onion)

0.5

Egg

0.5

Wheat flour

0.75

Ground black pepper

Salt

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 17 % 5 g

Fats 38 % 11 g

Carbohydrates 45 % 13 g

168 kcal

GI: 92 / 0 / 8

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make Belarusian kolduny with meat? Get your ingredients together. I used ground pork, but a pork-and-beef mix works too.
Step 2:

Peel the onion, rinse it, and grate it on the fine side of a grater.
Step 3:

Add half of the grated onion to the ground meat. Season the meat with salt and ground black pepper and mix well.
Step 4:

Rinse the potatoes under running water, peel them, and grate them on the fine side of a grater.
Step 5:

Squeeze the excess liquid out of the grated potatoes — but not too hard. The mixture shouldn't be too wet, but don't make it too dry either, or the kolduny will be hard to shape.
Step 6:

Add half an egg, the flour, and the rest of the onion to the potato mixture. Season with salt and mix well.
Step 7:

To form each kolduny, lay down a small round of the potato mixture, like a little patty.
Step 8:

Place a portion of the meat filling in the center.
Step 9:

Cover the filling with more potato mixture on top.
Step 10:

Shape the kolduny however you like — oval like a patty, or round.
Step 11:

Form the rest of the kolduny the same way.
Step 12:

Heat a little vegetable oil in a skillet and add the kolduny. Over moderate heat, fry them until golden on the first side.
Step 13:

Flip the kolduny over and fry the other side until golden as well.
Step 14:

Grease the bottom of a baking dish with vegetable oil and arrange the fried kolduny in it. You can cover the dish with foil to keep them from drying out and keep them juicy.
Step 15:

Finish cooking the kolduny in an oven preheated to 350°F (180°C) for 20 minutes. You can also cook them entirely in the skillet. In that case, fry them slowly over moderate heat so the meat filling has time to cook all the way through.
Step 16:

Serve the kolduny hot as a main dish. Round them out with fresh vegetables and herbs, or serve them with a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!

The word "kolduny" once also referred to small or medium dumplings made of dough, filled with meat, fish, cottage cheese, or fruit.
Today, kolduny usually means this dish — much like meat-filled potato pancakes (draniki).
Root vegetables are best scrubbed clean with a brush or a stiff sponge under running water.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying. Every oil is only good up to a certain temperature — its smoke point — beyond which it starts to burn and forms harmful compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with few exceptions, have a low smoke point: they're full of unfiltered organic particles that burn quickly. Refined oils handle heat better and have a higher smoke point. If you're baking, pan-frying, or grilling, use an oil with a high smoke point — the most common are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.
To give the oven time to reach the right temperature, turn it on ahead of time — about 10–20 minutes before you start cooking.