Uzbek cuisine is characterized by the widespread use of meat. According to tradition, Uzbeks prefer lamb, less often they use beef and horse meat. A feature of the preparation of dishes of Uzbek cuisine is a strong overcooking of fats. This technology, due to the widespread use of cottonseed oil and mutton fat, makes it possible to achieve the most complete manifestation of the taste and aromatic qualities of fats. Moreover, when reheating, coarse salt, peeled onions are added to fats, which also improves the taste and aroma, and increases the digestibility of products.

Many national dishes are steamed. To do this, use a special steam pan-kaskan. It has two compartments (upper and lower) and four tiers. Water is poured into the lower compartment for vaporization. The upper compartment is a cylinder - a rim with a tight-fitting lid, inside which there are four tiers with holes. The culinary product is placed on these pre-greased tiers and brought to readiness for steaming.

The basis of most of the dishes of Uzbek cuisine is flour and grain. Among flour products, noodles are widely used, which are used for cooking first and second courses. Noodles are boiled in the form of soup (keskan-osh, suyuk-osh) seasoned with sour milk and well-melted butter; put dried dill in the soup. Two similar dishes - naryn and lagman are varieties of folded noodles with seasoning. For the first of them, the noodles are cut from pieces of thinly rolled dough boiled in water or meat broth, then the noodles are seasoned with boiled meat and poured with strong broth. In the old days, naryn was considered a dish for honored guests; it was usually served in those cases when only men gathered.

Uzbek cuisine is also characterized by various types of pies (samsa). They are most often cooked with raw meat that is finely minced, mixed with plenty of chopped onions, and heavily peppered. Pies with pumpkin heavily flavored with pepper are very common.

Other national dishes include all kinds of soups and porridges: mastava rice soup, masha mashkhurd stew, thick rice porridge with meat - shawla, masha mashkichiri, and rice porridge with milk - shirguruch.

Plov is the pride of Uzbek national cuisine. The preparation of this dish, beloved by Uzbeks, is most often done by men. Pilaf is made with rice, and in some places mung bean rice combined with meat, onions, and yellow carrots. It contains a lot of fat - vegetable or animal. The favorite drink in Uzbekistan is black and green tea. Green tea, or as it is called "kok tea", used, as a rule, without sweets, perfectly quenches thirst.

Includes several varieties of soups. Most of them are traditionally made with lamb or beef. Uzbek soups are thick and rich, with a lot of vegetables, meat, herbs and spices. The recipes for their preparation are just presented in our article. We offer to cook the most popular and delicious Uzbek soups.

Uzbek soup lagman

Homemade noodles, fragrant broth and pieces of delicious beef - this is how you can describe a real lagman. Uzbek soup according to the traditional recipe is made from coarsely chopped vegetables and meat and it turns out very thick and tasty.

Step by step cooking is as follows:

1. At the bottom of a saucepan with a thick bottom, 50 ml of vegetable oil is poured.
2. On medium heat, beef (0.5 kg) cut into small pieces is fried in hot oil. As soon as the meat is browned (about 5 minutes), finely chopped onion and garlic (3 cloves) are added to the beef.
3. Gradually, other diced vegetables are added to the pan: 2 large carrots, potatoes (2 pcs.), A cup of turnips or daikon, sweet peppers and 2 tomatoes. Vegetables are fried for several minutes, after which they are poured with water (3 l).
4. All spices are stored in a cotton bag so that they can be easily removed from the pan when they have given all their flavor and aroma. Anise (2 pcs.), Coriander seeds (1 teaspoon), ground paprika and black pepper (1 teaspoon each), as well as chili pepper (½ teaspoon) and salt (1 ½ tablespoons) are added to the soup ). The soup is cooked until ready for 40 minutes.
5. Homemade or store-bought noodles are boiled in a separate pan.
6. When serving in a deep plate, noodles are first laid out, which is poured on top with broth with vegetables. Coriander greens are used as a decoration.

Shurpa lamb soup

In Uzbekistan and other countries of Central Asia, this soup is prepared in every family. Coarsely chopped vegetables and lamb meat are its main ingredients.

Uzbek lamb soup is prepared as follows:

1. Young lamb on the bone (800 g) is laid out in a saucepan, poured with water (2.5 l) and brought to a boil. After that, the water is removed, and the meat is poured with clean boiled water. Lamb on the bone is cooked for 2 hours.
2. When the meat is almost ready, chopped onion in half rings, salt to taste, black pepper and cumin (½ teaspoon each) are added to the soup.
3. After 10 minutes, a tomato is laid out in a pan, and then coarsely chopped carrots, potatoes (3 pcs.) And sweet peppers.
4. The soup is cooked for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are ready, after which it is poured into plates and served at the table.

Uzbek mastava soup recipe

Delicious Uzbek soup with rice is prepared from lamb without adding vegetable oil and with lots of vegetables. The simplest ingredients, but it turns out very tasty.

Uzbek mastava soup is prepared as follows:

1. Lamb ribs are fried in a saucepan with a thick bottom, then onions, garlic and zira.
2. Meat with onions are poured with water and boiled for 1.5 hours.
3. When the lamb is almost ready, diced carrots, turnips, 2 tomatoes and eggplant are added to the broth.
4. After another 10 minutes, rice (200 g) is added to the soup.
5. As soon as the rice is cooked, you can lay potatoes (3 pcs.)
6. The soup cooks for another 20 minutes and is removed from the heat.

Mastava should be well infused before serving the dish to the table. Already in the bowls, the finished soup is sprinkled with fresh cilantro.

Soup Uzbek with noodles sayhat

This chicken soup is both light and hearty, made with homemade noodles. If necessary, it can be replaced with a store. But it will be a completely different soup.

Uzbek soup with noodles is prepared in the following sequence:

1. First of all, the dough is kneaded and the noodles are cut. To do this, a glass of flour is poured into a bowl, a recess is made into which an egg is driven in and cold water is poured (½ tbsp.). A pinch of salt is added to taste. Dense dough is rolled into a layer and cut into small strips. Let the noodles dry out a bit before cooking.
2. Broth is cooked from chicken meat (0.5 kg). After cooking, it will need to be filtered, salted and boiled again.
3. On vegetable oil (3 tablespoons), onions, chopped carrots and parsley root (celery) are fried.
4. Sauteed onions, carrots and root are sent to a boiling broth.
5. Next, noodles are added and boiled for 10 minutes over medium heat.
6. Hot peppers and bay leaves cut into rings are added to the finished soup.

Before serving, the noodle soup is sprinkled with cilantro and parsley.

The characteristics of the cuisine of any nation are greatly influenced by natural conditions. The food raw materials that the peoples of Central Asia have at their disposal, of course, to a large extent determine the originality of their cuisines, the selection of combinations of food products, but cannot in itself lead to the coincidence of the principles and methods of cooking, to the use of the same kitchen equipment.

There are more than a thousand national dishes in Uzbek cuisine. There are about 500 ways to cook Uzbek pilaf, and each region cooks it in its own way. The calorie content and ecological cleanliness of local food products are unique. Uzbek cuisine cannot be described in words, it must be tasted. Tasty fruits and vegetables grown under the gentle eastern sun are also components of Uzbek cuisine.

The most popular products and cooking features

The modern cuisine of Uzbeks is characterized by the use of a large amount of meat, mainly lamb, and the absolute exclusion of pork and fatty poultry - ducks, geese. Other poultry (chickens, turkeys) is rarely used, while game birds (pheasants, partridges, quails) are often used to replenish the diet.

For this people, the increased consumption of local grains (wheat, dzhugara, rice) and legumes (chickpeas, mung beans), some vegetables (turnips, pumpkins, radishes, carrots), various fruits and nuts (apricots, grapes, cherries, plums) is indicative. , melons, pistachios, walnuts). At the same time, there are almost no fish dishes, the use of eggs is limited.

Common is the use of sour milk (katyka) and products from it (suzma, kurta) in a variety of dishes, especially in the first ones, the same approach to the use of fats (combinations of vegetable and animal), increased consumption of spices, especially onions, red pepper, ajgon (zira), basil, turmeric, dill, cilantro, mint (less commonly used garlic). Of the seasonings, barberry and buzhgun are popular.

As for the technology of food preparation, there are two main processes. The first process is cooking without the use of fire, it consists of salting, pickling, marinating, drying in the sun, drying in the shade, combining chopped vegetables and fruits (for example, cooking salads), etc. The second process is cooking dishes with the use of fire, that is, heat treatment, consists of six main methods and many techniques.

I. Roasting - kovurish

a) Open frying - ochik kovurish. Products are strung on skewers and skewers or placed on a metal mesh mounted on a tripod and fried over burning coals; b) Frying with less fat - jazlash; c) Frying in a large amount of fat, that is, deep-fried - kup always kovurish.

II. Varka - Kainatish.

a) boiling in water. This method is used to cook noodles, dumplings, meat and vegetables for soups without frying; b) Boiling in milk. The process is basically the same as boiling in water, with the difference that harder grains and firm vegetables are first boiled in water until half cooked, then dipped in boiling milk and cooked until tender.

III. Steam cooking - buglash.

For this purpose, a special steam pan is used - a kaskan, consisting of two compartments (upper and lower). This is how manti, hunon, vegetables and steam barbecue are cooked.

IV. Quenching - dimlash.

V. Baking - tandirda pishirish. a) Baking in a horizontal tandoor. Tandoor is a special oven in which they bake mainly cakes and baked pies - samsa, sometimes meat, fish, liver, cut into flat pieces; b) Baking in a vertical tandoor - Er tandirda pishirish; c) Baking in the oven - pishirish oven. Baking flour products and other products in the chambers of wood, electric and gas ovens is identical to other kitchens.

VI. A complex-combination method of cooking - murakkab combination usulda pishirish.

For this method of cooking, a boiler (cast iron or aluminum) with a spherical bottom is required. In this way, the preparation of pilaf and other dishes with frying begins, therefore, the overcooking of fat is the first stage of the complex-combination method of heat treatment. This is followed by the process of frying products (onions, meat and carrots). The preparation of zirvak, that is, pilaf sauce, is the third stage of a complex combination technology. The fourth stage of this method of cooking is the laying of rice. When all the moisture has evaporated and the rice swells and becomes soft, but free-flowing, the pilaf is closed for hardening. This is the last - the fifth stage of the complex-combination method.

From here we see that in Uzbek cooking, on the one hand, there are its own rules, specific features and national color, and on the other hand, there is a general manner of performance that is characteristic of both Asian and European cuisine. That is why Uzbek cuisine, despite its very rich menu arsenal, quickly masters and assimilates many delicacies and dishes of the peoples inhabiting neighboring countries. Russian, Ukrainian, Caucasian, Kazakh, Tatar, Tajik dishes and delicacies of other neighboring nations have been around here for a long time. These are, for example, dishes such as roast, kebab, bugirsak, brushwood, dumplings, hunon, manti, lagman, etc. In turn, such primordially Uzbek dishes as many varieties of pilaf, dimlyam, buglam, shurpa, mastava and others, decorated the tables of the peoples of many countries of the world.

Finally, Uzbek cuisine is characterized by special principles for serving dishes to the table, their special sequence, strong thickening of soups, semi-liquid consistency of second courses and combinations of grains, legumes and vegetables with meat and dough.

These are the main features that distinguish Uzbek cuisine. The Uzbeks have some horse meat and milk dishes that have survived to this day as a reminder of the distant nomadic past of their ancestors. Uzbeks prefer local small mung beans. In every major city of Uzbekistan or Tajikistan - Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, Khojent, Dushanbe and others - they have long been preparing their own types of pilaf (the main national dish of Uzbeks) with slightly different components than those of their neighbors, with variations in the order of laying products.

However, first it is necessary to analyze in more detail the features of such groups of dishes in Central Asian cuisine as soups, meat, vegetable, flour and sweet dishes. The preparation of these dishes is very specific, especially when compared with the same groups of European dishes.

Soups occupy a rather large place in Uzbek cuisine. Their originality lies in the fact that they are much denser in texture and very often resemble gruel rather than soup in our usual representation. In addition, these soups are fatty, rich, because they contain tail fat or ghee. But, in addition to all these purely external differences, the soups of the Central Asian cuisine differ both in the composition of the products and in the technology of preparation. Specific is the use of local cereals in soups - mung beans (small Central Asian beans) and dzhugara (sorghum) - rice corn and their combinations. From vegetables, carrots, turnips, pumpkins are almost always present in soups, and in a much larger proportion than in European soups. The consumption rate of onions is also extremely high: three to five times more than the European one. As for the technology of Central Asian soups, the main feature here should be considered, firstly, the preparation of “fried” soups (first, the solid part is fried, then it is poured with water), and secondly, the use of katyk and suzma for making sour-milk soups. The first technique gives a significant reduction in time when cooking meat soups, the second gives the soups a very special sour taste, increases their calorie content and digestibility.

The most common types of Uzbek soups are shurpa (shurbo), mastava (masto-ba), atala (atola), ugra (ugro), pieva (pieba) and sour-milk soups (katykli). Some soups are typical only for Uzbek cuisine - such as kurtova, shopirma, kakurum, sikhmon. They are based on the use of dairy products and apparently originated from the nomadic ancestors of the Uzbeks. Meat dishes are closely related to soups, as most soups are prepared with meat or post-dumba (tail-tail casing).

A common feature in meat processing is not to separate the meat from the bones. Both in soups and in second courses, the meat is necessarily boiled and fried together with the bone. The only exception can be kebabs, and even then when they are prepared from tenderloin. A specific technique in the processing of poultry and game is also the obligatory removal of the skin from it either before or after heat treatment. Common to both peoples is the production of reserved meat dishes - kavurdak and khasip (hasiba), which are eaten cold or used as semi-finished products in soups and pilafs. Most meat dishes consist of one meat component, devoid of any side dish, except for onions. Combinations of meat and boiled dough are also characteristic. Among them, the most common and well-known outside of Central Asia are manti (a kind of large dumplings) and lagman, shima, manpar (types of noodles cooked in combination with meat). Both those and other dishes have different variations among Uzbeks.

A few words should be said about the peculiarities of the use of vegetables. There are almost no independent vegetable dishes in Uzbek cuisine. Vegetables are used in soups, sometimes they act as an appetizer for meat dishes or pilaf, in which case they are eaten raw (onion, rhubarb, radish), but more often they serve as a kind of semi-finished products for grain, meat or flour dishes: zirvak for pilaf or shavle, filling for samsa, vaja (kayla) for lagman or shima. In this case, vegetables are fried in a large amount of fat, then mixed with meat, grain or dough.

It has already been mentioned above that in Uzbek cuisine flour products are widely used both from steam, boiled, and especially from baked and fried dough. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it is flour products in various forms that make up almost half of the dishes of Central Asian cuisine, and a significant number of them, especially numerous types of flat cakes, are 100% flour and are used either instead of bread or as independent dishes with katyk. Most flour products, more often flat cakes (noni, patyr, lochire, chevati, katlamy) and samsa, are baked in a special oven - tandoor (tanur), to the hot walls of which flour products soaked in water are attached. This circumstance alone makes it difficult to cook Central Asian flour products under other conditions (for example, in a gas stove oven), when it is impossible to reach the required temperature and, therefore, obtain a product of such consistency and taste as in a tandoor. Three other ways of baking flour products used in Uzbek cuisine are also available outside of Central Asia: baking in a cauldron - without oil and with oil lubrication; baking between two frying pans on coals; frying in hot oil.

The Uzbek sweet table is specific, varied and satisfying. Suffice it to say that Uzbeks do not know dessert as the final, final dish. Sweets, drinks, fruits in the East are consumed twice, and sometimes three times during meals: they are served before, after, and in the process of eating.

It should be noted that in recent years this custom has begun to gradually disappear, as more and more people realize that sweets before meals spoil the appetite, but according to established tradition and habit, to this day, sweets, sweet drinks, fresh, dried and dried fruits, especially raisins and apricots, melons and watermelons, as well as roasted and salted nuts.

Turkmen-Ogurdzhalins adapted fish to traditional Central Asian technology (for example, to frying on a spit or in hot oil, in cauldrons), as well as to traditional Asian plant products - sesame, rice, apricots, raisins, pomegranate juice, which, from the point of view of Europeans , do not combine with fish at all.

The result is a whimsical mix that, thanks to the carefully considered proportions of the main products and the skillful combination of spices and fats, gives new, pleasant and unexpected taste effects.

UZBEK CUISINE

Uzbek cuisine is characterized by the use of a large amount of meat (mainly lamb) and the absolute exclusion of pork and fatty poultry - ducks, geese.

Rarely cook dishes from other poultry (chickens, turkeys), but dishes from game birds (pheasants, partridges, quails) are very fond of.

Local grains and legumes (wheat, jugara, rice, chickpeas) and some vegetables (turnips, radishes, carrots), fruits and nuts (grapes, apricots, melons, pistachios, walnuts) are eaten in large quantities.

Practically no fish dishes are prepared, the use of eggs is limited.

In a variety of dishes, especially in the first, they use sour milk (katyk) and products from it, combinations of vegetable and animal fats, a lot of spices, especially onions, red peppers, ajgon (zira), basil, turmeric, dill, cilantro, mint. Garlic is used less frequently.

Of the seasonings, barberry and buzhgun are popular.

The main methods of heat treatment are frying mainly in fats and, to a lesser extent, over an open fire: on the grill and in the tandoor (tanur).

When frying in fats, the oil is heated in a special way and not only meat products, but also flour products and vegetables are fried.

Another technique is steaming.

Food is fried in cauldrons - open metal boilers with thick walls, steam cooking is carried out in manti-kaskans.

Each major city of Uzbekistan has long been preparing its own types of pilaf (the main national dish) with slightly different components than those of its neighbors, with variations in the order of laying food.

The preparation of soups is very specific, especially when compared with the same groups of European dishes. Their originality lies in the fact that they are much denser in texture and very often resemble gruel rather than soups in our usual representation. In addition, these soups are fatty, rich, because they contain tail fat or ghee.

The use of local cereals in soups is also specific. Vegetables in soups in a much larger proportion than in European cuisine. The onion norm is extremely high: three to five times more than the European one.

As for the technology of cooking Central Asian soups, here the main features should be considered, firstly, the preparation of "fried" soups (first, solid foods are fried, and then they are poured with water), and secondly, the use of katyk and suzma for making sour-milk soups . The first technique gives a significant reduction in time when cooking meat soups, the second gives soups a very special sour taste, increases their calorie content and digestibility.

The technology for preparing soups is similar to the technology for preparing meat dishes, since most soups are prepared with meat or post-dumba (tail-tail casing).

A common feature in meat processing is the habit of not separating the meat from the bones. Both in soups and in second courses, meat is always boiled and fried along with the bone.

The only exception can be kebabs, and even then only when they are prepared from tenderloin.

When processing poultry and game, the skin must be removed from it either before or after heat treatment. Most meat dishes consist of one meat component, without any garnish, except for onions.

Combinations of meat and boiled dough are also characteristic. Among them, the most common outside of Central Asia are manti (a genus of large dumplings).

Uzbeks almost never prepare independent vegetable dishes. Vegetables are added to soups, sometimes they are served as snacks for meat dishes or pilaf, then they are eaten raw (onion, rhubarb, radish). But most often they serve as a kind of semi-finished products for grain, meat or flour dishes, then they are fried in a large amount of fat, mixed with meat, grain, dough.

Flour dishes make up almost half of the dishes of Central Asian cuisine. A significant number of them, especially numerous types of cakes, are consumed either instead of bread, or as independent dishes with katyk.

Most flour products, more often cakes, are baked in a tandoor. This circumstance alone makes it difficult to cook Central Asian flour products under other conditions (for example, in a gas stove oven), when it is impossible to reach the required temperature and, therefore, obtain a product of such consistency and taste as in a tandoor.

Other ways of baking flour products used in Uzbek cuisine are also available outside of Central Asia: baking in a cauldron - without oil and with oil lubrication; baking between two frying pans on coals, frying in hot oil.

The whole lunch in Uzbekistan is accompanied by tea. Lunch begins with tea, they are washed down with a fatty meat appetizer, and especially main courses, they complete the meal with tea, washing down with sweets. Different types of tea are drunk in different regions.

Of the other characteristic drinks prepared for the table, sorbets can be noted - fruit decoctions (or “brews” with sugar).

Sweets can be divided into six groups: kie we (fruit and vegetable syrups), bekmes (concentrated condensed fruit and berry juices such as molasses), navats (various combinations of crystalline and boiled grape sugar with the addition of dyes and spices), sweets based on nuts and raisins and, finally, a variety of halva and halva-like dishes.

Most of them are known outside of Central Asia as oriental sweets that do not have a clear national identity. The preparation of these famous sweets is so specific, it requires special ovens and tools, and such complex skills (for example, quickly stretching thick sugar syrup into threads with your hands) that it is almost impossible to reproduce them at home.

DISHES OF UZBEK CUISINE

Shurpa is a meat soup, most often with vegetables and fatty lamb.
Poultry (usually small game) can also be used as meat.
Quite a lot of onions are put in shurpa - about 4-5 times more than in European soups (for the same amount of liquid), and its main vegetable component, which gave the name to the dish, is taken in the same volume or weight as invested in it meat.
If less vegetables are put in shurpa than meat, then such shurpa is called according to the type of meat on which it is cooked.
Shurpa can be cooked in two ways: boil meat and vegetables without prior heat treatment (this method is more often used in Uzbek cuisine); pour water over already pre-treated meat and vegetables.
4-5 types of spices are put in shurpa: red and black pepper, cilantro, bay leaf, azhgon or dill.
Since they always try to make shurpa thick, rich and oily, the amount of liquid in it per person should not exceed 1.5 cups. Therefore, usually the rate of water is given taking into account boiling (0.5-1 liter less for shurpa with preliminary frying of products).
Shurpa, like other Central Asian soups, is simmered over low heat.
First, meat is boiled in shurpa for 1.5-2 hours, then vegetables are added to the broth and continue to cook for another 30-40 minutes.
When pouring water after pre-frying, the meat is cooked twice as fast: 1 hour.
Without frying, meat goes into shurpa in a large piece with a bone, and for shurpa with preliminary frying of products, as in other fried soups, meat (lamb brisket) is cut into small pieces with bones.

:
Lamb - 500 g, tail fat (or postdumba) - 100 g, potatoes - 500 g, tomatoes - 4 pcs., onions - 4 pcs., sour apples - 2 pcs., red pepper - 1 pod, dill - 3 tbsp . spoons, cilantro - 2 tbsp. spoons, bay leaf - 4 pcs.

Cut the tail fat into small pieces, melt, fry the cracklings and fry finely chopped meat, onions, tomatoes in the fat for 10 minutes.
Then add potatoes cut into cubes or sticks, fry for 5 minutes, mix with meat and pour 2.5 liters of water, let it boil.
Before boiling, salt and cook for 1 hour over low heat. 20 minutes before readiness, add finely chopped apples, 5-7 minutes before spices.

:
Onions - 1.5 kg, lamb - 500 g, fat tail fat - 150 g, tomatoes - 3 pcs., bay leaf - 4 pcs., red pepper - 1 hour. spoon, cilantro - 3 tablespoons.

Onion soup with a high concentration of onions is characteristic of the entire Central Asian cuisine. However, the recipes for its preparation are different for different peoples of Central Asia.
In Uzbek cuisine, pieva is cooked with meat, and onions are taken three times more by weight than meat. For pieva, there are mainly onions of sharp varieties.
Water is poured into pieva about twice as much by weight as onions are taken.
Overheat the fat tail fat, put finely chopped onions in it, diced meat and tomatoes (1 cm each), salt everything and fry for 20 minutes, then pour cold water and cook for half an hour over low heat, 5 minutes until ready to add spices.
Remove the finished pieva from the heat and let it brew for 10 minutes.
Serve with unleavened dry cakes, which are crumbled into soup.

Pilaf is one of the most common dishes in the Middle East. Uzbekistan has developed a classic Central Asian technology for cooking several dozen types of pilaf.
The main types include pilaf, which received the name from those historical and geographical provinces or even states where they arose. They are technologically different.
Such are Ferghana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm pilafs. In addition, for some pilafs, the composition varies depending on the purpose (simple, festive, wedding, summer, winter).
Pilaf differs in meat as well. Lamb is not always put in pilaf. It is often replaced in Uzbekistan with kazy (horse sausage), post-dumba, quails, pheasants, and chicken. Rice is not always included in Uzbek plov. Sometimes it enters as a part, and sometimes it is completely replaced by wheat, peas, mung bean.
But for the vast majority of pilafs there is a classic set of products: lamb, rice, carrots, raisins or apricots and a mixture of three spices: red pepper, barberry and ajgon (zira).
Cooking a real Uzbek pilaf consists of three operations: heating the oil, preparing zirvak, laying rice pre-soaked in water for 20-30 minutes and bringing the pilaf to readiness.
The oil is reheated in a cast-iron dish with a thick, oval-rounded bottom: in a cauldron, cauldron or saucepan similar to them. The dishes need to be heated, pour oil into it and heat it over moderate or even low heat (the fire should touch the bottom of the dish so that the oil does not boil externally).
The degree of readiness of the oil (its overheating) can be determined by the strong crackling or rebounding of large salt thrown into it or the release of a whitish haze.
Oil is usually poured on the bottom of the cauldron with a layer of 1 to 3 cm, depending on the amount of food being laid.
Most often, combinations of vegetable oils (cotton, linseed, sunflower, sesame, walnut) with animals (horse, goat, mutton, beef, bird fat, bone fat) are used. Combine them in the order listed, i.e. cottonseed with horse fat, sunflower with mutton, etc.
Sometimes they take only vegetable oils - sunflower, sesame, which give a pleasant taste to pilaf.
Butter and ghee cannot be reheated.
Products are placed in the overheated oil in the following sequence, unless otherwise specified in the recipe: meat, cut into small or large pieces, onions, cut into cubes or thick rings, carrots, most often cut into strips (less often into cubes).
Carrots in pilaf are always put by weight half as much as rice and about the same as meat. Deviations from these norms in certain types of pilaf are extremely insignificant.
Each of the three main components of zirvak is overcooked sequentially so that all products retain their characteristic appearance and color.
At the beginning of cooking zirvak, the fire is increased, towards the middle and towards the end of cooking it is reduced. Products should not stick to the walls and bottom of the cauldron.
In cooked zirvak, i.e. after about 20-30 minutes, spices are added. A mixture of spices is poured into pilaf at the rate of 1-1.5 teaspoons (with top) of the mixture per 500 g of rice.
Then zirvak is salted and poured with a small amount of water at the rate of a quarter or half a glass for every 500 g of rice.
In some types of pilaf, water can not be added to zirvak at all, especially in cases where small portions are cooked and there is a lot of oil in zirvak.
The prepared zirvak is leveled, the fire is made even smaller and the rice is covered with an even layer, which is slightly crushed, but not mixed with zirvak.
Then the packed surface of the rice is carefully poured with water, making sure that it does not destroy the layer of rice. It is convenient to do this through a large round slotted spoon.
Rice should be covered with water with a layer of 1-1.5 cm. If the rice is very dry and hard, water is poured a little more than usual.
Then the fire is increased, but make sure that the pilaf boils evenly. The water is added on top of the rice and sometimes spices are added to it, primarily turmeric, which in this case gradually and evenly colors the rice in a golden-lemon color.
During the boil, the pilaf is not covered with a lid, but when the water has completely evaporated, it is very tightly covered with a plate.
Before this, to make sure that the pilaf is ready, the surface of the rice is hit flat several times with a slotted spoon - the sound should be deaf.
In addition, it is noticeable that the rice becomes loose. Then the pilaf is pierced in several places with a wooden stick, the surface of the rice is leveled with a slotted spoon, without mixing it with zirvak, and covered with a plate for 15-20 minutes so that the pilaf is cooked.
Only after that they carefully remove the plate, trying not to let drops of water fall into the pilaf, mix it evenly and serve it to the table.
Sometimes pilaf is not mixed, but laid out on a dish in layers in the reverse order compared to the bookmark, i.e. first rice, then zirvak - onions and carrots, and finally meat.

:
Rice - 500 g, lamb - 250 g, carrots - 250 g, fat (vegetable oil) -125 g, onion - 3 pcs., spicy mixture - 1-1.5 teaspoons.

Meat in zirvak cut into small cubes and fry with onions. Add carrots later.
After laying the rice, you can add another 0.5 teaspoon of the spicy mixture.
For the rest, follow the method of cooking pilaf described above.

:
Rice - 500 g, lamb - 250 g, carrots - 250 g, fat (vegetable oil) - 150 g, onion - 3 pcs., raisins - 1-1.5 cups, spicy mixture - 1 teaspoon, turmeric - on the tip of a knife.

Prepare zirvak from meat and onions with carrots, cut into thin strips.
Add raisins washed in warm or hot water at the end of cooking zirvak.
Do not add water to zirvak.
Rinse the rice in warm, slightly salted water. For the rest, follow the general rules for preparing pilaf.

Along with pilaf, in Uzbekistan they cook another dish very similar to pilaf in terms of the composition of products - shavli.
Often, those who are not familiar with Uzbek cuisine mistake shavli for pilaf, and they are sometimes confused in cookbooks and descriptions of cooking shavli are given in pilaf recipes.
Almost all the main components of pilaf are preserved in shavli: rice, meat, carrots, onions.
However, the ratio of these products, the additional addition of tomatoes to them, and most importantly, the method and duration of cooking are completely different. Therefore, the taste of shavli is different from the taste of pilaf.
Main qualitative differences:
the ratio of rice, meat, carrots is 2:1.5:1.3 or sometimes 2:1.5:1.5. Instead of meat, you can take vegetables or fruits, but their share with carrots in relation to rice will not change;
the ratio of onions and tomatoes is 1:1. There are more onions in shavli than in pilaf;
the proportion of fats (oils) is 50% more than in pilaf;
more water is poured into zirvak shavli than into zirvak pilaf, at the rate of 1 liter of water per kilogram of rice.
Shavli is easier to prepare than pilaf, but it also has a simpler taste.
Zirvak is prepared as for pilaf, but tomatoes are also added to it at the end of cooking. All the water is poured into the prepared zirvak at once (from the calculation above) and allowed to boil, after which rice, salt, and spices are added.
Shavli is boiled, stirring, until the water is completely evaporated. If there is not enough water, and the products are not yet ready, it is allowed to add boiling water during the cooking process.
Ready shavli, just like pilaf, is put on a boil in a sealed container for 15 minutes.

Outside of Central Asia, they are more often called kebabs, however, the preparation of a number of Uzbek kebabs differs from the standard methods of preparing kebabs common in restaurant practice, not only in the preliminary preparation of meat, but also in technology, since Uzbek kebabs are not always cooked on coals and on a spit, but often in a cauldron and even on the walls of a tandoor or steamed.

:
Lamb - 750 g, onion - 500 g, dill or cilantro - about 1 cup, red pepper - 1 pod or red ground pepper - 1 teaspoon, azhgon - 2 teaspoons.

Take the meat of a young well-fed fat lamb, cut into small pieces, salt.
Cut the onion into rings and mix with finely chopped dill or cilantro.
Then lay meat and onion-dill mixture in layers in the cauldron so that the entire bookmark is placed no lower than the middle of the cauldron or does not reach its top by two fingers.
In the penultimate layer, put a pepper pod on top, cut in half lengthwise.
Close the cauldron tightly and put on a very low heat for about 3 hours.
Sprinkle cauldron-kebab with azhgon 2-3 minutes before the readiness.
Serve with pickled onions.

:
Dough: flour - 500 g, eggs - 1 pc., salt - 1 hour. spoon, water - 0.5 cups.
Minced meat: meat - 1 kg, onion - 500 g, salt water (1 teaspoon of salt) - 0.5 cups, ground black pepper - 1-1.5 teaspoons, fat tail fat -100-150 g.

Manty is a kind of dumplings.
Their preparation consists of three operations: kneading the dough, preparing the filling, making and cooking manti.
The main difference between manti and other types of dumplings is not that they are larger - this is only an external sign.
Manti differ in minced meat and are boiled not in water, but steamed, in a special dish - manti-kaskan.
If it is not there, then you can cook in a large saucepan, on the bottom of which you need to install a deep plate, lubricating it with oil. Manti are put into it in one row, covered with another plate, the bottom of the pan is poured with water, tightly closed with a lid and put on a very low fire.
Steam cooking creates an opportunity to keep the manti in shape, make the dish beautiful in appearance and at the same time give it a different taste, different from dumplings, which are boiled in a large amount of water.
Dough: from flour, eggs, salt and a small amount of water, knead a stiff dough, roll into a ball, cover with a napkin, leave for 30-40 minutes. Then roll out into a layer 1-2 mm thick and cut squares of 10 x 10 cm from it.
Stuffing: pass the lamb pulp through a meat grinder with a very large grate. Add finely chopped onion, ground pepper, azhgon, a few teaspoons of salt water to the minced meat, stir.
At the same time, fat tail or lard cut into pieces the size of a large bean or bean.
In each square of dough put 1 tbsp. a spoonful of minced meat and 1 piece of bacon, pinch the dough on top.
Close the prepared manti with a napkin so that the dough does not dry out, and then spread it on oiled tiers (grids) of manti-kaskan so that the manti do not touch, sprinkle with cold water and cook with the lid closed for a couple of 45 minutes.
If the manti begins to dry out during cooking, they and the grates can be poured twice with hot water.
Without manti-kaskan, in a plate, manti is cooked after boiling water for 25-30 minutes.
Ready manti either season with sour cream or pour rich meat broth and sprinkle with black pepper and cilantro.
You can cook manti in a different way: fry in overheated oil until golden brown, and then place in manti-kaskan and bring to readiness for a couple or use the technique with a plate, where in this case fried manti can be laid in several layers, as they will not stick together .
Such manti cook faster: 20-25 minutes.

:
For noodles: flour - 500 g, eggs - 1 pc., salt - 0.5 tsp, water - 0.75 cups.
For vaji: meat - 500 g, butter (lard) - 200 g, large potatoes - 2 pcs., carrots - 2 pcs., radish, beetroot - 1 pc., sweet pepper - 1 pod, cabbage - 100 g, onion onion - 4 pcs., tomato, head of garlic - 1 pc., coriander greens - 1 cup.
For dressing: cilantro, garlic, pepper - to taste.

Lagman is a dish widely spread in Central Asia.
It consists of two main parts, each of which is cooked separately and then combined into one dish before serving.
The first part is noodles, the second is a vaja of meat and vegetables, which gives the lagman its main taste and aroma. The noodles should be rolled as thin as possible.
Knead a stiff dough, roll it into a ball, let it lie under a napkin for 15 minutes, roll it into a layer, roll it into a roll, cut the noodles, boil it in salted water, take it out, rinse it twice with cold water, put it in a sieve or colander so that the water is good glass and at the same time pour vegetable oil over the noodles so that they do not clog in one lump.
Cut potatoes, radishes, tomatoes into small cubes, carrots, beets, cabbage into strips, onions, sweet peppers into rings, finely chop the garlic. Fry the meat cut into small cubes in overheated lard until a brown crust forms, add onions, tomatoes, stew a little, then put the rest of the vegetables, mix, salt, season with garlic and other spices.
Pour 1.5 cups of the broth in which the noodles were cooked and simmer over very low heat for 30 minutes.
Dip the finished noodles for a moment in boiling water (or dip into it in a colander for 1-2 minutes), drain and arrange the noodles in deep plates so that there is a layer of noodles at the bottom, then a layer of vaji, then another layer of noodles, pour the rest of the vaji on top.
Sprinkle with cilantro, finely chopped garlic, red pepper to taste.

:
Oat flour - 100 g, raisins - 500 g, nuts - 500 g, fruit essence - 90-40 drops per 1 kg of the mixture.

Prepared nuts (peeled and calcined), taken in equal proportions with washed raisins, crush in a mortar or pass through a meat grinder along with corn oatmeal, which is a tenth of the weight of the mixture.
Add any fruit essence, mix into a sticky dough, make walnut-sized balls out of it and roll in powdered sugar.

Carefully open fresh apricots with fleshy pulp without tearing completely, remove the pits, remove the kernels from them and put them back.
Close the apricots and lay them out to dry in the sun.

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Uzbek cuisine

FIRST MEAL

MEAT AND VEGETABLE SOUPS

SHURP

Shurpa is a meat soup, most often with vegetables and fatty lamb. Poultry (usually small game) can also be used as meat. Quite a lot of onions are put in shurpa - about 4-5 times more than in European soups (for the same amount of liquid), and its main vegetable component, by whose name it is usually called, is taken in the same volume or weight as the meat in it. If less vegetables are put in shurpa than meat, then such shurpa is named after the type of meat on which it is cooked.

Shurpa can be cooked in two ways: boil meat and vegetables without prior heat treatment (this method is more often used in Uzbek cuisine); pour water over meat and vegetables already pre-cooked by frying (this method is common for soups such as mastava and others, and less often for shurpa).

4-5 spices are put in shurpa - red and black pepper, cilantro, bay leaf, azhgon or dill. Sometimes turmeric is used.

Since they always try to make shurpa thick, rich and oily, the amount of liquid in it per person should not exceed 1.5 cups. Therefore, in all the recipes below, the water rate is given taking into account boiling - about 3 liters (and 0.5-1 liters less for shurpa with preliminary frying of products).

Shurpa, like other Central Asian soups, is simmered over low heat. Meat in shurpa is first boiled for 1.5-2 hours, after which vegetables are added to the broth and continue to cook for another 30-45 minutes. When poured with water after preliminary frying, the meat is cooked twice as fast - 1 hour. Without frying, meat goes into shurpa in a large piece with a bone, and for shurpa with preliminary frying of products, as in other fried soups, meat (lamb brisket) is cut into small pieces with bones .

CORN SHURP

250 g of lamb brisket, 75 g of tail fat, 4 corn cobs of milky-wax ripeness, 4 onions, 2 tomatoes, 2 potatoes, 2 bay leaves, 2 tbsp. spoons of green cilantro, 8 peas of black pepper.

Melt fat tail fat, heat it up and fry meat, onions, tomatoes cut into small pieces in it. Then pour 2 liters of water, let it boil. Put the corn cobs cut in half into the boiling broth and cook them for 1 hour over low heat. After 40 minutes, lower the potatoes and salt, 5 minutes before the readiness to lay the spices.

LAMB SHURP

500 g lamb, 100 g tail fat (or post-dumba - fat tail shell), 500 g potatoes, 4 tomatoes, 4 onions, 2 sour apples, 1 red pepper pod, 3 tbsp. spoons of dill, 2 tbsp. spoons of cilantro, 4 bay leaves.

Cut the tail fat into small pieces, melt, remove the cracklings and fry finely chopped meat, onions, tomatoes in the fat for 10 minutes. Then add potatoes cut into cubes or cubes, fry it for 5 minutes, mix with meat and pour 2.5 liters of water, let it boil. Before boiling, salt and cook for 1 hour over low heat. 20 minutes before readiness, add finely chopped apples, 5-7 minutes before spices.

PIEVA (ONION SOUP)

Onion soup with a high concentration of onions is characteristic of the entire Central Asian cuisine. However, the recipes for its preparation are different for different peoples of Central Asia. In Uzbek cuisine, pieva is cooked with meat, and onions are taken three times more by weight than meat. For pieva, there are mainly onions of sharp varieties. Water is poured into pieva about twice as much by weight as onions are taken.

1.5 kg of onions, 500 g of lamb, 150 g of tail fat, 3 tomatoes, 4 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, 3 tbsp. spoons of cilantro.

Overheat the fat tail fat, put in it finely chopped onions, diced meat and tomatoes (1 cm each), salt everything and fry for 20 minutes, then pour cold water and cook for half an hour over low heat. 5 minutes before readiness to add spices. Remove the finished pieva from the heat and let it brew for 10 minutes. They eat pieva with unleavened dry cakes (see kumach, kulcha), which are crumbled into soup.

CEREALS SOUPS

Uzbek cereal soups with meat (mutton) are cooked exclusively by the frying method. Meat, onions, as well as carrots, turnips or tomatoes, if they are part of the dish, are cut into small cubes (1 cm each - meat, 0.5 cm each - vegetables) or thin strips and fried in pre-heated fat tail fat for 15 -20 min in a cauldron. Then the meat and vegetable frying is poured with cold water and brought to a boil, after which some cereals (wheat, mung bean, jugara, rice) are put into it, and only after that they are salted.

In the above recipes, the water rate is 2-2.5 liters.

Soups are simmered over low heat for at least 1 hour. 5-7 minutes before the end of cooking, spices are added - dry in ground form, fresh - finely chopped. When the soup is cooked, it is allowed to stand for 10 minutes - to rest. The consistency of the soup should resemble a liquid slurry.

All cereal soups are cooked according to the specified scheme. Differences can be in the pre-treatment of the cereal used and in the cooking time (it increases when two cereals are used, such as mung bean and rice).

YERMA (WHEAT SOUP)

500 g of lamb, 100 g of ghee or fat tail fat, 1.5 cups of wheat, 4 onions, 1 red pepper pod.

Prepare meat-onion roast (see above) and cook it. Crush the wheat in a mortar, moistening with water to separate the husk. Rinse, sift and mash twice. The bookmark order is listed above. Yorma is eaten while sipping katyk.

MASHKHURDA (MASH WITH RICE)

250 g of lamb, 100 g of melted butter, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 1 carrot, 0.75 cups of rice, 0.75 cups of mung bean, 2 teaspoons of barberry, 2 tbsp. spoons of cilantro greens, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dill, 2 stalks of basil, 3 bay leaves.

Prepare meat and vegetable dressing (see above), start cooking it. Pour mash until the water boils, and cook until it bursts, after which the soup can be salted and rice is poured, until the mashkhurda is cooked until it is fully cooked. Add spices to mashkhurda twice: barberry, bay leaf, black pepper - 10-15 minutes before readiness, and spicy greens - after readiness.

KATIKLI (COURAGED MILK SOUPS)

Sour-milk soups in Uzbek cuisine are divided into two types - meat and non-meat katykli.

The composition of meat katykli necessarily includes meat, or postdumba (tail-tailed casing), traditional vegetables and local cereals. But the main liquid component in them is fermented milk products katyk or suzma, which is previously diluted in water. At the same time, the amount of katyk by weight refers to meat and cereals as 2: 1: 1, i.e., it is approximately half of the entire mass of the soup, and the amount of suzma is as 1: 1: 1, i.e. in undiluted form, it is one a third of the mass of the soup. At the same time, katyk or suzma is introduced into an already prepared dish and, thus, they do not decrease in volume during the cooking process. Therefore, the basis of sour-milk soups, boiled on water, in fact, by the end of cooking, should be a slurry, that is, most of the water, and sometimes all the water, should evaporate from them. This determines the following rules for the preparation of sour-milk soups:

1. Finely chopped meat and vegetables are boiled in a relatively small amount of water, hoping that most of it should boil away by the end of cooking.

2. Rice is cooked together with meat and vegetables, jugaru - before meat and vegetables, mung bean with rice - after meat and vegetables. Be sure to cook on low heat.

3. The finished gruel obtained as a result of boiling meat, vegetables and cereals is removed from the fire, seasoned with finely chopped spicy greens of cilantro, basil and savory, let it brew under a closed lid for 10-12 minutes and then pour it with katyk or liquid sour cream diluted to a density with suzma and mix everything thoroughly.

As for non-meat katykli, they are of more ancient origin and their cooking methods do not have a common pattern, since they arose in isolation from each other and at different times. But a common feature for them is that dairy products are added not at the end of cooking, but at the beginning and they are subjected to heating. Such are sihmon, kakurum, shopirma, kurtova.

Cold soup - chalop stands apart.

KATYKLI KHURDA (RICE-FERRED MILK)

300 g lamb, 300 g rice, 0.75 l katyk, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 2 carrots, 2 turnips, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of basil or cilantro, 1 teaspoon of azhgon (zira), 0.5 teaspoon of red pepper.

Finely chopped meat and vegetables, as well as rice, spices, mix and fry for 10-15 minutes. then pour water and cook for 40 minutes over low heat until tender. Then fill with katyk.

TURP YERGED MILK SOUP

1 kg of turnip, 1 liter of katyk, 1 glass of rice, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 25-50 g of green cilantro, 0.5 teaspoon of red pepper.

Cut the vegetables into cubes, chop the onion, boil everything, then put rice, salt, spices and cook for another 20 minutes.

SOUR CREAM SOUP

1 liter of water, 400 g of sour cream, 3 onions, 6 cobs of milk-wax corn, 300 g of pumpkin, 2 tbsp. tablespoons green cilantro.

Pour sour cream into a heated aluminum cauldron, mix, add finely chopped onion and cook over low heat until it becomes soft. Then pour water, let it boil, put corn on the cob, cut in half, and pumpkin, diced, and cook for half an hour over low heat. At the end of cooking, salt, season with cilantro.

KURTOVA

1 kg of kurt, 1.5 liters of boiling water, 50 g of ghee.

Crush Kurt, rub through a sieve, pour into enameled or ceramic dishes and, gradually adding boiling water, rub with a wooden spoon until sour cream thickens. Pour the resulting mass into a saucepan, add melted butter and boil.

KAKURUM

1 liter of katyk, 1 liter of boiling water, 3 onions, 2 teaspoons of red pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt.

Finely chop the onion, mix with katyk, salt and pepper, leave to “ripen” for half an hour. Then, in very small portions, gradually pour in boiling water, stirring.

SIMHMON

1.5 cups of mung bean, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 liter of katyk, 50 g of ghee, 0.5 tsp of red pepper.

Boil mung bean in 1.5-1.25 liters of water over low heat. When the grains burst and boil, pour in the umach (noodles), prepared as follows: knead the cornmeal in a quarter cup of salted water into a stiff dough and pass it through a meat grinder. Salt the finished soup, season with pepper and let stand for 10-15 minutes under the lid, then mix with katyk (see p. 286) and melted butter.

CHALOP

1.5 liters of katyk, 1 liter of cold boiled water, 2 cucumbers, 10-12 radishes or 3-4 Margelan radishes, 0.5-0.75 cups of green onions, 3 tbsp. tablespoons green cilantro, 2 tbsp. spoons of dill, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of basil greens, 0.5 teaspoons of red pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt.

Drain the katyk slightly, dilute with water, season with salt and pepper, finely chopped vegetables and herbs and put in a cold place (cellar, refrigerator) for 5-6 hours.

This soup is very pleasant in hot weather.

SECOND DISHES

PILAF

Pilaf - one of the most common dishes in the Middle East - has received the greatest development in Uzbekistan. A classic Central Asian technology for cooking pilafs has been created here, the number of types of which reaches several dozen.

The main types include pilafs, which received the name from those historical and geographical provinces or even states where they arose. They are technologically different. These are Ferghana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm. In addition, there are pilafs, the composition of which varies depending on the purpose (simple, festive, wedding, summer, winter). A number of pilafs differ, finally, in that they contain different leading meats. After all, lamb is not always used in pilaf, it is often replaced in Uzbekistan with kazy (horse sausage), post-dumba (tail-tailed casing), quails, pheasants, and chicken. Rice is not always included in Uzbek plov. Sometimes it makes up only a part of pilaf, and sometimes it is completely replaced by wheat, peas or mung beans.

But for the vast majority of pilafs, a classic set of products is typical: lamb, rice. carrots, raisins or apricots and a mixture of three spices - red pepper, barberry and azhgon (zira).

The preparation of a real Uzbek pilaf consists of three operations: 1) heating the oil; 2) preparation of zirvak; 3) laying rice and bringing pilaf to readiness.

Oil transfer. The oil should be heated in a metal (preferably cast-iron, but in no case enameled) dishes with a thick, oval-rounded bottom - in a cauldron, cauldron or in a saucepan similar to them. First of all, this dish must be heated, then pour oil into it and heat it over moderate or even low heat (the fire should not touch the bottom of the dish) so that it does not boil externally. The degree of readiness of the oil (its overheating) can be determined by the strong crackling or rebounding of coarse salt thrown into it, or by the release of a whitish haze. Oil is usually poured onto the bottom of the cauldron with a layer of 1 to 3 cm, depending on the amount of food being laid.

The most commonly used combination of vegetable oils (cotton, linseed, sunflower, sesame, walnut) with animal fats (horse, goat, lamb, beef, bird fat and bone fat) *. Sometimes only vegetable oils are taken - sunflower, sesame, which give a pleasant taste to pilaf. Butter and ghee cannot be reheated.

* Oils are combined in the order listed, i.e. cottonseed - with horse fat, sunflower - with lamb, etc.

Preparation of zirvak. The overheated oil is put in the following sequence, unless otherwise specified in the recipe: meat, cut into small or large pieces, onion, cut into cubes or thick rings, carrots, most often cut into strips (less often - into cubes). Carrots in pilaf are always put half as much rice (by weight) and about the same as meat. Deviations from these norms in certain types of pilaf are extremely insignificant.

Each of the three main components of zirvak is overcooked sequentially so that all products retain their characteristic appearance and color. At the beginning of cooking zirvak, the fire is increased, towards the middle and towards the end of cooking it is reduced. Products should not stick to the walls and bottom of the cauldron. Spices are added to the cooked zirvak, that is, after about 20-30 minutes. This is usually a mixture of three spices (red pepper, azhgon, barberry), taken in equal parts, prepared in advance*. A mixture of spices is poured into pilaf at the rate of 1-1.5 teaspoons (with top) of the mixture per 500 g of rice.

* These spices, mixed together, are usually sold in Uzbekistan under the name "Pilaf Mix".

Then zirvak is salted and poured with a small amount of water at the rate of a quarter or half a glass for every 500 g of rice. In some types of pilaf, water can not be added to zirvak at all, especially in cases where small portions are cooked and there is a lot of oil in zirvak.

Laying rice and bringing pilaf to readiness. The prepared zirvak is leveled, the fire is reduced even more and covered with an even layer of rice, which is lightly crushed with a slotted spoon or spoon, but in no case is mixed with zirvak. Then the packed surface of the rice is carefully poured with water, making sure that it does not destroy the layer of rice. To do this, use the following technique: a saucer is placed on the rice and WATER is poured onto it, which evenly flows onto the rice from the edges of the saucer. Then the saucer is carefully removed from the cauldron with the help of a lace tied to it in advance. Rice should be covered with water with a layer of 1-1.5 cm. If the rice is very dry and hard, water is poured a little more than usual. Then the fire is increased, but make sure that the pilaf boils evenly. The water is added on top of the rice and sometimes spices are added to it, primarily turmeric, which in this case gradually and evenly colors the rice in a golden-lemon color. During the boil, the pilaf is not covered with a lid, but when the water has completely evaporated, it is covered very tightly with a plate or dish. Before this, to make sure that the pilaf is ready, the surface of the rice is hit flat several times with a slotted spoon, which should be followed by a dull sound. In addition, it is noticeable that the rice becomes loose. Then the pilaf is pierced in several places with a wooden stick. then they level the surface of the rice with a slotted spoon, without mixing it with zirvak, and cover it with a plate for 15-20 minutes so that the pilaf will catch.

Only after that, carefully remove the plate, trying not to let drops of water fall into the pilaf, mix it evenly and serve it on the table.

Sometimes pilaf is not mixed, but laid out on a dish in layers in the reverse order compared to the bookmark, that is, first rice, then zirvak - onions and carrots, and finally meat.

PILAF FERGANA

500 g of rice, 250 g of lamb, 250 g of carrots, 125 g of fat (oil), 3 onions, 1-1.5 teaspoons of spicy mixture.

Meat in zirvak cut into small cubes and fry with onions. Add carrots later.

After laying the rice, you can add another 0.5 teaspoon of the spicy mixture. For the rest, follow the above method of cooking pilaf.

PILAF BUKHARA

500 g of rice, 250 g of lamb, 250 g of carrots, 150 g of fat (oil), 3 onions, 1-1.5 cups of raisins, 1 teaspoon of spice mixture, turmeric - on the tip of a knife.

Prepare zirvak from meat and onions with carrots, cut into thin strips. Add raisins washed in warm or hot water at the end of cooking zirvak. Do not add water to zirvak. Rinse the rice in warm, slightly salted water.

PILAF KHOREZM

500 g of rice, 500 g of carrots, 500 g of lamb, 200 g of fat (oil), 4 onions, 0.5 teaspoons of salt in the first bookmark, 1.5 teaspoons of spicy mixture.

Cut the meat into large pieces (4-6 pieces), fry in oil, then add and fry the onion, then pour half a glass of water and let it boil. Only after that lay the pre-cooked carrots (cut lengthwise into slices 1 cm wide and 2-3 mm thick), salt (0.5 tsp) and the spicy mixture.

Then add water to the zirvak to cover the contents of the cauldron, then tightly close the lid and simmer over very low heat for 2-3 hours. Then add rice, add water again (about 0.5-0.75 cups), add salt to taste and continue to cook for about 30 minutes more.

Do not stir the finished pilaf, but shift it onto plates in layers.

PILAF SAMARKAND

500 g of rice, 250 g of meat, 250 g of carrots, 150 g of fat (oil), 6 onions, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper.

1. Boil the whole meat and carrots over low heat in a small amount of boiling water for 2.5 hours, then cut into small pieces and mix with salt and pepper.

2. Wash rice and boil in salted water (for 1 kg of rice - 1 liter of water, 1 teaspoon of salt). When the rice is cooked, rinse it with boiling water, put it in a canvas bag (but you can also use it in a colander) and let the water drain well (about 10-15 minutes).

3. Fry the onion in hot oil.

4. Put the rice in bowls (kasa) or deep plates, mix it with the onion removed from the oil, add the meat with carrots and pour over them with the oil in which the onion was fried.

PILOV TOGRAMA

Tograma pilaf is a combination of Ferghana and Samarkand.

500 g of rice, 400 g of meat, 400 g of carrots, 200 g of fat (oil), 4 onions, 1.5 teaspoons of spicy mixture.

From one fourth of the meat and carrots, make Fergana-style zirvak with onions and cook rice on it, and boil the rest of the meat and carrots in Samarkand style (see above) in another bowl. Combine the finished parts before serving. This pilaf is served as an appetizer with pickled wild onions - piez-ansur.

PILAF TONTARMA (FROM ROASTED RICE)

500 g of rice, 250 g of meat, 250 g of carrots, 3 onions, 1-1.5 teaspoons of spicy mixture, 250 g of ghee for rice, 125 g of vegetable oil for zirvak.

Unwashed rice before laying, pre-fry in a separate bowl with ghee until a reddish hue.

For the rest, follow the general rules for preparing pilaf (see above).

Pilaf with quince

500 g of rice, 150 g of meat, 1-1.5 large quince, 200 g of carrots, 2 onions, 150 g of fat (oil), 1-1.5 teaspoons of a spicy mixture for pilaf, turmeric - on the tip of a knife.

Thoroughly wash the quince with a brush, peel it from the core, cut into quarters, which are put in the finished zirvak before laying the rice and simmer for several minutes. Put turmeric together with quince.

Otherwise, cook like Ferghana pilaf.

PILAF WITH URUK

500 g of rice, 250 g of beef, 150 g of carrots, 200 g of oil (fat), 2-1.5 cups of apricots, 1-1.5 teaspoons of the spicy mixture.

Rinse apricots thoroughly several times in cold water and put them into zirvak only after all other products are fried in it, water is added to them and zirvak boils. At the same time, apricots should be placed in an even layer on zirvak, and not mixed with it. Only after that, pour rice on the apricots.

The rest of the preparation is as indicated (see above).

PILAF WITH WHEAT

Pilaf with other grain and legume components instead of rice is prepared according to the classical (Fergana) method and they differ only in different pre-treatment of legumes.

500 g of wheat, 250 g of meat, 250 g of carrots, 200 g of fat (oil), 3 onions, 1-1.5 teaspoons of a spicy mixture for pilaf.

Grind the wheat in a wooden mortar, wetting it with water so that the husk separates, as for a yerma, rinse, peel and soak for 3 hours in warm water, then pour it into zirvak instead of rice.

IVITMA-PALOV (PILAV WITH PEA)

500 g of rice, 250 g of meat, 100 g of peas, 150 g of fat (oil), 200 g of carrots, 2 onions, 1.5 teaspoons of a spicy mixture for pilaf, 1 tsp. a spoonful of dry savory powder.

1. Soak peas in cold water for at least 12 hours, and preferably for a day.

2. Rinse rice 4-5 times in cold salted water and soak in hot water for 30-40 minutes.

3. Carrots for zirvak cut into small cubes and after laying and zirvak stew for at least 15 minutes.

4. Pour zirvak prepared from meat, onions and carrots with water (from 0.5 to 1 cup), immediately add soaked peas and spices and cook for at least 25 minutes after boiling.

5. Only after that, you can lightly salt and pour rice, which is poured with a layer of water a little less than 1 cm, since the rice is already pre-wet. Cook over high heat.

6. After the water has evaporated, close the pilaf with a plate for 25 minutes to soak.

SHAVLI

Along with pilaf in Uzbekistan, they prepare another dish very similar to pilaf in terms of the composition of products, called shavlya. Often, those who are not familiar with Uzbek cuisine mistake shavlya for pilaf, and in cookbooks they are sometimes confused, and pilaf recipes describe the preparation of shavli.

The fact is that almost all the main components of pilaf are preserved in shavla - primarily rice (or another grain or bean base that replaces it), as well as meat, carrots, and onions. However, the ratio of these products, the additional addition of tomatoes to them, and most importantly, the method and duration of cooking are completely different. And this affects the fat content, texture and taste of shavli and thus distinguishes it from pilaf.

First of all, the quantitative differences are striking:

1. The ratio of rice, meat, carrots - 1.5:1:1 or sometimes 2:1.5:1.5. At the same time, instead of meat, you can take other vegetables or fruits, but their total share with carrots in relation to rice will not change.

2. The ratio of onions and tomatoes - 1:1. There are more onions in shavla than in pilaf.

3. The proportion of fats (oils) is 50% more than in pilaf.

4. More water is poured into zirvak shavli than into zirvak pilaf - at the rate of 1 liter of water for each 1 kg of rice invested.

Shavli preparation procedure. Cooking shavlya is much easier than pilaf, but at the same time it is simpler in taste, more ordinary pilaf.

1. Zirvak is prepared as for pilaf, but more tomatoes are added to it (at the end).

2. All the water is poured into the prepared zirvak at once (based on the calculation indicated above) and allowed to boil, after which rice, salt, and spices are added.

3. Shavlu is boiled, stirring, until the water is completely evaporated.

If there is not enough water, and the products are not yet ready, it is allowed to add boiling water during the cooking process.

4. Ready shavlya, like pilaf, is put on a boil in a sealed container for 15 minutes.

Below are sets of products for different shavli options.

SHAVLYA WITH URUK

600 g of rice, 300 g of carrots, 300 g of apricots, 300 g of fat (oil), 3 onions, 3 tomatoes, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of cilantro, 10 pieces of black pepper, 0.5 cups of green onions.

See above for cooking instructions.

SHAVLYA WITH BEANS

400 g rice, 300 g meat, 300 g carrots, 200 g beans, 300 g fat, 3 onions, 3 tomatoes, 0.5 tsp red pepper, 1 tbsp. savory spoon.

1. Prepare zirvak.

2. Put the beans pre-soaked for 12-20 hours in zirvak after the water poured at the end of its preparation boils. When the beans are half cooked, put the washed rice into the shawl.

Add salt and spices only to the finished shavlya.

UZBEK porridge

Uzbek porridges are mainly cooked on meat. According to their preparation and composition (grain or bean base, meat, spices, sometimes vegetables), they are even simpler shavli. The most specific are porridges such as halim, mohora and bulamik.

HALIM (WHEAT WITH MEAT)

1 liter of water, 500 g of wheat, 300 g of lamb, 200 g of oil, 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon, 0.5 teaspoon of black pepper.

For halim, take the wheat of the new crop, prepare it as for yorma, then soak for 6 hours in boiling water in a sealed container.

Meat, cut into cubes of 2 cm, fry in oil, cover with prepared wheat and pour water, then cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours.

You can add boiling water if necessary. Salt Halim and season with spices only after readiness, then put uprevat for 15 minutes.

MOHORA (PEA WITH MEAT)

500 g of peas, 250 g of meat, 1-1.5 carrots, 1 large potato.

From meat cut into pieces of 50 g, boil the broth together with carrots, and after 20-30 minutes of boiling, pour into it the peas previously soaked for 12 hours so that the broth barely covers it.

When the peas are half cooked, add the potatoes (whole) and cook the mohora for about half an hour.

Salt after done.

BULAMIK (CORN FLOUR WITH MEAT)

500 g corn flour, 0.5 l milk, 250 g minced meat, 100 g melted butter, 2 medium onions.

1. Dilute flour in milk, cook until thickened.

2. Fry the chopped onion and minced meat in oil, season with salt.

3. Stir the prepared above products, then let the dish stand for 10 minutes.

MEAT AND GAME DISHES

As elsewhere in the East, kebabs, or, as they are more commonly called outside of Central Asia, kebabs occupy a significant place among meat dishes. However, the preparation of a number of Uzbek kebabs differs from the standard methods of preparing kebabs common in restaurant practice, not only in the preliminary preparation of meat, but also in technology, since Uzbek kebabs are not always cooked on coals using a skewer, but are often cooked in a cauldron and even on the walls of a tyndyr or for a couple. Several such recipes for specific Uzbek kebabs, including those made from game, are given below.

KAZAN-KEBAB (KEBAB IN KAZANKA)

750 g of lamb meat, 500 g of onion, 0.75-1 cup of dill or cilantro, 1 red pepper pod or 1 teaspoon of ground red pepper, 2 teaspoons of azhgon.

This kebab should be prepared from young, but well-fed, fatty lamb.

Meat cut into small pieces, salt. Cut the onion into rings and mix with finely chopped dill or cilantro. Then lay meat and onion-dill mixture in layers in a cauldron, and so that the entire bookmark is placed no lower than the middle of the cauldron or does not reach its top by two fingers. In the penultimate layer, put a pepper pod on top, cut in half lengthwise. Close the cauldron tightly and put on a very low fire for about 3 hours. Sprinkle the cauldron-kebab with azhgon (zira) 2-3 minutes before the cauldron-kebab is ready. Serve with pickled onions.

BUGLAM-KEBAB (STEAM KEBAB)

750 g lamb, 600 g onion, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of grape vinegar, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons of cumin, 1 teaspoon of black pepper.

Cut the young lamb (ham, brisket) into slices, chop the ribs into small pieces, mix everything in a porcelain or enamel bowl with finely chopped onions, vinegar and spices and leave for 6-12 hours (and even for a day) in a cold place. Then put this dish in a cauldron filled with hot water so that its level does not reach the edges of the porcelain dish by 2 fingers, close the cauldron tightly and put on moderate heat for 2-3 hours. kebab will be ready.

ZHIGAR-KEBAB (LIVER KEBAB)

500 g of liver, 2 onions, 0.5 cups of flour, salt, black pepper, buzhgun - to taste.

Clean the liver from the film, cut into small pieces of 10-15 g, salt, breaded in flour, strung on skewers and fry over coals. It is even better if the pieces of liver on a skewer are alternated with fat tail fat. Pour the finished pieces of zhigar-kebab on a plate with chopped onions and spices.

KEBAB FROM QUAILS OR PARTRIDGE

Gutted quails or partridges for 15 minutes, put in salted water, then remove the skin, dip them in melted butter or ghee, sprinkle with ground azhgon, black pepper, roll in flour and fry over coals on skewers (skewers) or on a wire mesh, moreover birds should be sprinkled with flour from time to time, especially when juice begins to stand out from them.

A feature of quail kebab is that it must be cooked on juniper charcoal, while other kebabs and especially Caucasian kebabs are cooked exclusively on charcoal from hardwood trees.

HASIP

500 g of lamb, 1 intestine, 1 spleen, 1 kidney, 200 g of lung, 100 g of tail fat, 200 g of rice, 5 onions, 0.5 cups of warm water, 2 teaspoons of azhgon, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Khasip is made mainly from lamb, but beef meat can also be used. It is only important that the fat be fat-tailed, lamb.

Preparation consists of three steps.

Bowel preparation. Rinse the fatty intestine in warm water, then three times in cold salty water (changing water).

Minced meat preparation. Chop meat, liver, bacon into minced meat with a knife or chopped, but do not pass through a meat grinder. Mix with finely chopped onion, washed rice, spices, and for greater elasticity of minced meat, add a little warm water to it (within 0.5 cup, but add not immediately, but gradually, with spoons to stop in time).

Hasip preparation. Fill the intestine with minced meat (preferably through a funnel), tie it, and then tie both ends together so that it forms a ring, and cook over low heat for 2 hours. When the water boils, pierce the hasip in several places.

Hasip is eaten both hot and cold.

MEAT AND VEGETABLE DISHES

Meat and vegetable dishes of relatively recent origin in Uzbek cuisine. Most of them are borrowed. However, some have taken root as national ones, and they are characterized by Uzbek technology - the initial frying of meat in fat, followed by the laying of vegetables. Below are two meat and vegetable dishes: the more ancient one is gushtnut and the relatively new one is narkhangi. In ghushtnut, the ratio of meat and peas is the same, in narkhangi - meat is four times less than vegetables.

GUSHTNUT

500 g of lamb, 500 g of soaked peas (chickpeas are best), 150 g of melted butter, 5 tomatoes, 0.5 teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Soak the peas overnight. Cut the meat into small cubes the size of a pea and fry in oil for 10-15 minutes, then add the prepared peas, fry for another 10 minutes, pour in a quarter or half a glass of water, bring the peas to readiness, put the tomatoes cut into quarters, mix and simmer under closed lid over very low heat for 15-20 minutes. Then salt, pepper, serve.

NARKHANGI

500 g of meat, 500 g of carrots, 500 g of onions, 500 g of potatoes, 500 g of tomatoes, 100 g of dill, 100 g of cilantro, 4 heads of garlic, 1 pod of sweet pepper, 1-1.5 teaspoons of black ground pepper, 200 g fat tail.

Cut the meat into small cubes, salt, fry in overheated fat tail fat until half cooked. Remove from heat, level and put chopped vegetables and spices in layers on top in the following sequence: onions, carrots, tomatoes, dill, cilantro, garlic, sweet peppers, potatoes. Spice up. Pour all 0.5-0.75 cups of water, tightly close the lid and put on a very low heat for 2 hours (do not remove the lid).

MEAT AND DOUGH DISHES

MANTY

Manty is a kind of dumplings. Their preparation consists of three operations: kneading the dough, preparing the filling, making and cooking manti.

The main difference between manti and other types of dumplings is not that they are relatively larger in size - this is only an external sign. Manti differ in minced meat, they are boiled not in water, but for a couple, and in a special dish - manti-kaskan. If there is no manti-kaskan, then manti can be cooked in a large saucepan, on the bottom of which place a deep plate, grease it with oil, put manti in one row, cover with another plate, fill the bottom of the pan with water, close the lid tightly and put on a very weak the fire.

Steam cooking creates an opportunity to keep the shape of the manti, make the dish beautiful in appearance and at the same time give it a different taste than dumplings, which are boiled in a large amount of water.

For the test: 500 g flour, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon salt, 0.5 cup water.

For minced meat: 1 kg of meat, 500 g of onion, 0.5 cups of salt water (1 teaspoon of salt), 1-1.5 teaspoons of black pepper, 100-150 g of tail fat.

Test preparation. From flour, eggs, salt and a small amount of water, knead a stiff dough, roll into a ball, cover with a napkin and leave it for 30-40 minutes, then roll it into a layer 1-2 mm thick and cut into squares 10 x 10 cm in size.

Filling preparation. The lamb pulp is either chopped into small pieces, or passed through a meat grinder with a very large grate. Add finely chopped onion, ground pepper, azhgon and a few teaspoons of salt water to the minced meat, mix thoroughly.

At the same time, separately cut fat tail or lard into pieces the size of a large bean or bean.

Manti preparation. In each square of dough put 1 tbsp. a spoonful of minced meat and 1 piece of lard, after which pinch the dough on top. Close the prepared manti with a napkin so that the dough does not dry out, and then spread it on oiled tiers (lattices) of manti-kaskan so that the manti do not touch, sprinkle with cold water and cook with the lid closed for a couple of 45 minutes. If the manti begins to dry out during cooking, they and the grates can be poured twice with hot water. Without manti-kaskan, in a plate, as indicated above, manti is cooked after boiling water for 25-30 minutes.

Ready manty is either seasoned with katyk or sour cream, or poured with rich meat broth and sprinkled with black pepper and cilantro.

Manti can be prepared in a different way: fry in hot oil until golden brown, and then put in manti-kaskan and bring to steam or use a plate technique, where in this case fried manti can be laid in several layers, as they will not stick together . Such manti are cooked faster - 20-25 minutes.

LAGMAN

Lagman is a dish widely spread in Central Asia. It has Uzbek, Tajik and Dungan varieties, which do not differ fundamentally, but differ in part in the composition of the products and the characteristics of the preparation of noodles. Laghman consists of two main parts, each of which is cooked separately and then combined into one dish before serving.

The first part is noodles, the second is waja, which gives the main taste and aroma to the lagman. As for the noodles, its purpose is to give the lagman as a whole as tender a texture as possible. To do this, the noodles need to be rolled as thin as possible.

For noodles: 500 g flour, 1 egg, 0.5 tsp salt, 0.75 cup water.

For Waji: 500 g meat, 200 g oil (lard), 2 large potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 radish, 1 beetroot, 1 sweet pepper, 100 g cabbage, 4 onions, 4 tomatoes, 1 head of garlic, 1 glass of cilantro , 1 teaspoon of red and black pepper.

For dressing: cilantro, garlic, pepper - to taste.

Cooking noodles. Knead a stiff dough, roll it into a ball, let it lie under a napkin for 15 minutes, roll it into a thin layer, roll it into a roll, cut the noodles, boil it in salted water, take it out, rinse it twice with cold water, put it in a sieve or colander to make water glass well, and at the same time pour vegetable oil over the noodles so that they do not clog in one lump.

Waji preparation. Cut potatoes, radish, tomatoes into small cubes; carrots, beets, cabbage - straws; onion, sweet pepper - rings; finely chop the garlic. Fry the meat, cut into small cubes, in overheated lard until a brown crust forms, add onions, tomatoes, stew a little, then put the rest of the vegetables, mix, salt, season with garlic and other spices. Pour 1.5 cups of the broth in which the noodles were cooked and simmer over very low heat for 30 minutes.

Connecting noodles to waji. Dip the prepared noodles in boiling water for a moment (or dip it in a colander for 1-2 minutes), drain it and arrange the noodles in deep plates so that there is a layer of noodles at the bottom, then a layer of waji, then again a layer of noodles and pour the rest of the waji on top . Then sprinkle with cilantro, finely chopped garlic and red pepper to taste.

VEGETABLE DISHES

There are almost no absolutely pure vegetable dishes in Uzbek cuisine. As an exception, apart from meat and cereals, only pumpkin, corn on the cob and a mixture of vegetables called cook-biyron are cooked and eaten.

The pumpkin is cut into large cubes, deep-fried until a crust forms, and then stewed with a small amount of boiling water and sour cream for 10-15 minutes over low heat.

Corn on the cob of milky-wax ripeness is roasted on skewers over coals. Uzbeks rightly believe that baking corn in the ashes, which takes place among other peoples, greatly worsens the taste of the product. Therefore, they prefer to fry it over coals, after which they dip it in salted boiling water and pour it with butter.

Kuk-biyron is the most specific Uzbek vegetable dish, serving as a side dish, filling for pies, and as an independent meal. This is a combination of different greens stewed in butter or lamb fat.

COOK-BIYRON

1 kg of eleni, 150-200 g of tail fat or oil, 150 g of onion, 100 g of mint, 1 egg, 1-2 teaspoons of ground black pepper.

The composition of greenery includes 5 components equally: sorrel, spinach, purslane, shepherd's purse, young shoots of alfalfa. They should be finely chopped, mixed with finely chopped spices (onion, mint, pepper), salt, beat in an egg, mix thoroughly again and pour into the overheated fat tail fat. Simmer until tender on low heat, and then let stand for another 10 minutes.

Instead of fat tail fat, you can use vegetable oil and separately add melted cracklings.

FLOUR PRODUCTS

Uzbek cuisine uses unleavened and yeast dough, and more often the former. But most of the products baked in the tandoor are still made from yeast dough.

Both unleavened and yeast dough are used in two forms - simple and rich. In order not to load each recipe with a repetition of the dough preparation method, we first place a description of the indicated types of dough, where the main components are given. However, in addition to these main components, very often (and this is typical for Uzbek cuisine), finely chopped onions, onion juice, grated pumpkin, crushed cracklings or minced meat are kneaded into the dough, regardless of its type (this is indicated in the recipes additionally).

FRESH DOUGH SIMPLE

Main ingredients: flour, warm water, salt.

Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt.

Kneading order. Knead the dough in a cup, bowl (porcelain, earthenware, enamel), and not on the board.

Dissolve salt in water, then gradually add flour and water and mix evenly.

After that, knead the dough several times on the board, roll it into a ball, wrap it in a napkin and let it lie down for 15-20 minutes.

FRESH DOUGH

Main components: flour, milk, eggs, butter (melted, vegetable, but most often - melted mutton fat), salt.

Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 2 cups of milk, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of oil, 2 teaspoons of salt.

Replacement rates: 2 cups of milk or 500 g of sour cream, or 300 g of butter (in this case, put 1 teaspoon of salt into the dough).

The kneading procedure: the egg is beaten, poured into milk, combined with butter and this mixture is mixed in parts (like water) in a cup with flour.

KATYRMA

The norm of simple unleavened dough (see above), 4 onions, 1 glass of lamb fat greaves.

Knead the dough from the indicated components, cut pieces of it into 200 g pieces and roll them into round cakes 1 cm thick, which are fried on both sides, applying to the hot walls of the boiler without greasing.

KATLAM

The norm of simple unleavened dough (see above), 2 cups of butter or melted tail fat, 1.5 cups of sour cream, 3 onions, 0.5-1 cup of frying oil.

Divide the norm of a simple dough into four pieces, roll each piece as thin as possible (1 mm and even thinner!), Trying to use less flour for sprinkling. Lubricate the rolled sheet of dough thickly with melted butter or mutton fat, then wrap it on a thin rolling pin, cut along the rolling pin with a knife, remove and cut again long strips of dough so that they are as narrow as possible (not wider than 1.5 cm), grease with sour cream or ghee and sprinkle with finely chopped onions, and then roll each strip into a circle, like a tape, more tightly, and roll each circle into a cake 1 cm thick. Fry these cakes on both sides in a cauldron greased with oil.

UPKA

The norm of simple unleavened dough (see above), 300 g of minced meat, 2 onions, 6 black peppercorns, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of melted butter.

Prepare minced meat: mix meat, onion, pepper, fry in oil. Prepare the dough, cut it into pieces of 60 g, roll into very thin cakes. Roast in a cauldron with a spherical bottom as follows:

1. Lubricate the hot cauldron with oil, lower one cake into it, fry it on both sides, remove it.

2. Put the second, flat cake, fry it on one side, turn it over, put a thin layer of prepared minced meat on the fried side, cover with the first flat cake, put the minced meat on top again, cover it with a raw flat cake and turn the whole yup with it so that the raw dough is on the bottom of the cauldron, and the fried cake was again at the top.

3. Put a layer of minced meat on this fried cake again and again close it with a raw cake, turn it over again and do this 10-12 times.

Bake over very low heat, greasing the pot all the time. Lubricate the finished yupka with oil on top, put in a deep bowl or pan, cover with a napkin for 10 minutes.

PATYRCHA

Patyrcha is made from semi-delicious unleavened dough, the composition of which deviates slightly from the norm.

For the dough: 1 kg of flour, 1 cup of hot water, 0.5 cups of butter, 2 teaspoons of salt.

For lubrication: 1 cup lamb fat or 1.5 cups sour cream.

Roll out the dough into a layer 0.5 cm thick, grease its surface with lamb fat or sour cream, roll it into a roll, and twist the roll into a tourniquet (with a screw), cut into pieces of 250-300 g and roll out round cakes from them (the thickness of their middle is 1 cm, the thickness of the welt along the edges is 2 cm). Prick the middle thickly with a fork, grease lightly with sour cream and bake on a sheet in the oven (although usually patyrcha is baked in a tandoor).

SAMSA (from unleavened dough)

Samsa - stuffed pies. You can vary both the composition of the filling and the method of processing the dough. The composition of the dough, as well as the method of baking, remain unchanged for all types of samsa. Dough - ordinary unleavened (norm - see above), baking method - frying in hot vegetable oil, which requires from 300 to 500 g for the specified test rate.

Test rolling. The most common type of dough rolling is as follows: it is divided into pieces of 50 g, balls are made from them, and each ball is rolled out separately up to 1 mm thick, after which the filling is put, pinched in the shape of a crescent and deep-fried. This is how samsa with onions and samsa with herbs are prepared.

At the same time, a more complex method of processing the test is also used. It is rolled out very thinly - up to half a millimeter, or thinner than paper, and immediately with a large sheet, after which it is thickly greased with ghee or butter, wrapped on a thin rolling pin and cut along the rolling pin so that wide strips are obtained, lying on top of each other in several layers. These layers are cut into rectangles of 6x8 cm or other (even smaller) sizes, the middle of each rectangle is rolled out even thinner with a small rolling pin, minced meat is placed on it, folded in half and pinched a little deeper than the edges so that the edges of the samsa remain stratified, like notebook leaves. This is how varaki samsa stuffed with minced meat is prepared.

Filling. For the meat filling, meat passed through a meat grinder, mixed with onion, salt, red and black pepper, mint or azhgon (zira), fried in oil is used. For 500 g of meat, take 250 g of onion (or a little more), 2 teaspoons of red and black pepper, 4 teaspoons of mint or cumin.

For onion filling, use a mixture of chopped onions with green (a tenth or fifth of the weight of onions), eggs, black pepper and salt.

For the greens filling, use the greens mixture given in the cook biiron recipe (see above).

Roasting. In a cauldron with a capacity of 3 liters, you can immediately fry 6-7 pies. The duration of frying is approximately 1 minute (the dough should acquire a pale yellow color).

YEAST DOUGH SIMPLE

Main ingredients: flour, yeast, warm water, salt.

Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 25-50 g of yeast, 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt.

The kneading order: dissolve the yeast in an earthenware or enamel bowl in 0.5 cups of water, add another 0.5 cups of salt water and then gradually add the flour and the rest of the water; roll the dough into a ball, cover with a napkin and leave for 1 hour in a warm place.

YEAST DOUGH

Main ingredients: flour, yeast, warm milk, butter, sometimes eggs, salt.

Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 40-45 g of yeast. 1.75-2 cups of milk, 4 tbsp. tablespoons of melted butter (butter, vegetable, most often mutton fat), 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of salt. However, eggs are rarely used in Uzbek dough. If milk or eggs are not used, then the proportion of butter is increased and ox is partially or completely introduced instead of milk for kneading.

Order of kneading: in Uzbek cuisine, as a rule, a non-paired method of kneading is used, i.e. all components are kneaded at once, in one step, like a simple pastry. only a beaten egg (if it is required by the recipe) is mixed a little after the milk. Pastry dough is aged, like simple yeast dough, 1 tsp.

CHALPAK

Plain yeast dough (see above), 30 g yeast.

Divide the dough into pieces of 50-60 g, make balls out of them, roll into thin cakes 3-4 mm thick, leave under a napkin for 15 minutes and then bake in a cauldron or cauldron greased with vegetable oil, frying on both sides.

KUMAC

Simple yeast dough (see above), flour - wheat and corn in half, 50 g of yeast.

Cook like chalpak (see above).

GUSHTLI NONI

Simple yeast dough (see above), dressing - minced meat with red pepper and salt (200 g of meat per 1 kg of flour), 40 g of yeast.

Roll out the dough into a large cake 2 cm thick, cover it with an even layer of minced meat, roll it into a tube, twist the tube into a helical tourniquet so that the minced meat mixes well with the dough, cut the tourniquet into pieces of 100-200 g and make round cakes of them no thicker than 0 .5 cm, prick thickly in the middle.

They are usually baked in a tandoor, but it is also possible on a greased sheet in the oven.

SAMSA (FROM YEAST DOUGH)

Simple yeast dough (see above), 50 g yeast.

Fillings: cook-biyron (from above), onion, boiled peas with onions and peppers, pumpkin (for 1.5 kg of pumpkin - 0.5 kg of onion. 2 teaspoons of red pepper, salt).

Pumpkin juice (use for kneading dough instead of water).

Divide the dough into balls the size of a walnut and roll into cakes 1 mm thick. Put the filling. Bake in a tandoor or oven for 20-25 minutes.

KULCHA

Sweet yeast dough from 1 glass of milk, 1 glass of butter, 35 g of yeast.

Cut the risen dough into pieces of 80-100 g, roll into cakes, chop, cover with a napkin and leave for 25 minutes, then bake in a tandoor or oven (grease a baking sheet with oil). Kulcha burns quickly, so you need to keep an eye on it during baking and regulate the fire.

TOVA-BALISH

Semi-dense yeast dough on water from 1.5 cups of water, 0.5 cups of oil, 35 g of yeast, stuffing - minced meat (see fillings for samsa).

Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Each roll into a layer, the size of a large flat plate 3-4 mm thick. Put the filling on one layer, cover with the other, pinch along the edges. Put the tova-balish moistened with water on a greased frying pan, cover with another frying pan on top, cover with hot coals and ashes and bake for about 1 hour.

PATYR

Patyr is the most typical type of flatbread for the Uzbek table, made from rich yeast dough.

1 kg of flour, 2 cups of milk, 150 g of tail fat, 40 g of yeast, 2 teaspoons of salt.

MODERN VARIANT OF PATYR (FOR CITIZENS)

1 kg of flour, 1.5-2 cups of sunflower oil, 40-50 g of yeast, 1-0.75 cups of powdered milk, 2 teaspoons of salt.

Patyr is made large in size (larger in diameter than a soup plate) and baked only in a tandoor, and they are kept there longer than other types of yeast dough cakes, baking in moderate heat, for which coals in the tandoor are collected in the middle of a slide and sprinkled thickly with ashes. Patyrs of small sizes - smaller than a tea saucer - can be baked on a greased sheet in the oven, and also on moderate heat, but only after preheating the oven well. (Patiry of the modern version works especially well in the oven). Then put more yeast into the dough than into the tandoor patyr. - 50 g. For tandoor patyr, the dough, after kneading and standing, is cut into pieces of 300-500 g, from which cakes are rolled out 1 cm thick in the middle, 2-3 cm along the edges. For patyr baked in the oven, the cakes should be about 4 times less in weight and half as thin. To obtain the characteristic shape of a patyr, it can be pressed in the middle with a pusher or the back of a glass and be sure to prick the pressed part with a fork or a special tattoo (chekich). The prepared cakes are kept under a napkin for 15-20 minutes, after which they are baked. In the oven, baking patyr lasts approximately 20 minutes.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Dairy products in Uzbek cuisine are overwhelmingly similar to dairy products of other Turkic-speaking peoples of our country. Such products, acting mainly as semi-finished products, are katyk, kaymak, suzma and kurt. For their preparation, see the section "The main dairy products of the peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Tataria and Bashkiria." Only dairy products such as chivot and pishlok are specific to Uzbek cuisine.

CHIVOT

5 l katyk, 500 g dill, 100 g salt.

Chivot is a katyk. fermented with dill without air access. To prepare it, you need a clay pouring lid, thoroughly washed and dried in the sun.

Mix katyk with finely chopped dill and salt, pour into the jug almost to the top (not reaching its edge by 1-2 fingers), then close the neck of the jug with a wooden circle 1.5-2 cm thick and pour sealing wax, put the jar in the sun and hold so for about three months (usually from mid-August to early November). In the middle zone of the European part of the USSR, it is better to ferment chivot from July to September - October (while putting it in a warm room on cloudy days and at night).

PISHLOCK

Pishlok - Uzbek cottage cheese, prepared in a special way, giving the product a peculiar taste.

Boil katyk or even ordinary curdled milk, separate the whey from the flakes, allowing the liquid to drain well, and put the resulting clot in porcelain or enameled dishes, thickly greased with butter, smooth the surface, salt moderately and, without stirring, put it in a draft in the open to dry (to cover from dust only with gauze) for a day. After that, mix the cottage cheese, put it in a linen bag, tie it tightly and place it under the press for another day. The resulting pishlok is eaten by lightly frying it in ghee.

PICKLES AND SPICES

Pickles are almost never used in Uzbek cuisine. The exception is the national appetizer of salted-pickled wild onion - piez-ansur, which grows in the mountainous regions of Samarkand and Surkhandarya regions. This onion is consumed only in a salted-pickled form. Ordinary onions can be prepared in the same way, although they will not taste as pleasant as real piez-ansur.

Seasonings are more common in Uzbek cuisine, especially lozijan (garlic-based) and guraob (grape-based).

Losizhan is used for soups and flour dishes; guraob - for meat.

SALTED PICKLED ONION

1 kg of small onions, 1 liter of 3-4% vinegar, 1.5 kg of salt (100 g of salt per 1 liter of water 15 times).

Peel the onion from the skin with a bone or wooden knife, put it in a glass or ceramic dish, pour 10% salt solution so as to completely cover the onion. After 3 days, change the brine and do this 15 times for 45 days. Then pour the onion with grape vinegar (or ordinary vinegar, previously infused with basil, or vinegar made from dry wine and vinegar essence - for 0.5 liters of wine, 1 tablespoon of vinegar essence) and leave it for 4 days. During this time, the onion will turn white if it has darkened before, acquire the desired strength and taste, after which it will be ready for use.

Not later than after 10 days of storage in vinegar, it must be drained and the onion refilled with fresh 10% saline, and even better 15%.

The longer the onion is stored, the tastier it will be.

Storage of cooked onions is possible at room temperature, in a glass dish covered with gauze, but in no case with a tight lid.

LOSIJAN

200 g garlic, 50 g sunflower oil, 10 g red pepper.

Crush the peeled garlic, pour it into the oil that has been previously heated, but then cooled to 50 ° C, and simmer slightly over very low heat so that the garlic gives all its juice into the oil, but does not burn out.

Then add ground pepper, move and store in a hermetically sealed glass container.

GURAOB

For 1 liter of grape juice - 50 g of salt.

Whole brushes of unripe grapes "ladies' fingers" are washed and passed through a meat grinder. Strain the resulting mass through four folded gauze into an enameled or glass dish, add salt, stir, close the lid and leave for a day.

The next day, pour into absolutely dry bottles, cork them tightly and fill with sealing wax, and then hang them on a sunny wall.

When guraob turns red after 3-4 months, it will be ready for use.

SWEETS

KIYOMY

Kiyomi is a kind of jam made from both fruits and some vegetables (primarily carrots and pumpkins), or from a combination of fruits and vegetables (for example, quince with carrots).

It is characteristic that for kiems water is taken as much as sugar, and sometimes more by weight than sugar, while fruits or vegetables make up only a quarter of the composition of the kiem.

Most often, fruits or vegetables are taken exactly half as much as sugar, while for jam, the usual ratio of sugar and fruit is 1: 1.

Therefore, fruit kiems are dominated by syrup, which has the color and smell of fruits, while there are few fruits themselves, often they are completely absent, since they are often caught from ready-made kiems and used as a filling in sweet pies.

That is why kiems are sometimes called liquid jam.

But this name is incorrect, since the density of sugar syrup in kiems after cooking should be approximately the same as that of jam, and in vegetable kiems, in which chopped vegetables make up the bulk, even denser than jam.

Kiyoms are cooked in one step, without interruption, and over low heat, especially for vegetable kiems. Be sure to add spices to the kiems - most often vanillin and saffron or zest, and in some cases citric acid.

Particularly specific are the amber cue and cue from green, unripe apricots. Their mail cannot be found outside of Uzbekistan.

Other kiems - carrot, pumpkin, lemon, cherry plum, apple - do not represent anything unusual.

The readiness of kiems, like jams, is determined by the state of syrup and fruit. The syrup should be of moderate density and viscosity, but not watery.

Fruits and vegetables in a well-cooked kiyom should be evenly distributed in the syrup and should be translucent.

AMBER KIOM

1 kg of amber manna*, 250 g of carrots, 1 quince, 2 cups of water, saffron on the tip of a knife.

Boil separately the carrots and quince, cut into small strips, pour them with amber syrup and continue to cook until the carrots are evenly distributed in the syrup. 1-2 minutes before readiness to introduce saffron.

* Amber, or Persian, manna is a yellowish liquid that appears on hot days at the end of summer (late August - early September) on the stems and leaves of the Persian camel thorn and solidifies in the evening into small grains resembling grains. Yantak is collected by hitting with a stick on the thick stems of a bush, under which a tablecloth is previously spread out - manna is poured on it. Then the manna is cleaned of litter and boiled until it has melted.

URUCHI KIOM

1 kg of apricots, 2 kg of sugar, 8 glasses of water, 1 teaspoon of vanillin.

Completely unripe, green apricots, in which the stone has not yet hardened, prick on all sides with a fork and put in a gauze bag, immerse in boiling water for 5 minutes, and then immediately rinse with cold water and dip in sugar syrup; cook until cooked, removing the foam. After cooking, add vanillin to the hot cue, stir and let cool, covering the dishes with a linen blanket.

PUMPKIN KIOM

1 kg pumpkin, 2.4 kg sugar, 2 liters of water, 2 lemons, 1 pinch of saffron.

Coarsely grate the pumpkin and dip into the boiling sugar syrup. Cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon or stick. Add lemon juice and saffron to the finished cue, stir.

BEKMESY

Bekmes - condensed juice of fruits, berries and vegetables, prepared in two ways: by heating on fire and evaporating in the sun (the latter method gives more fragrant, more healthy bekmes, but is possible only in the climatic conditions of Central Asia and similar to them). Bekmes are prepared without adding sugar - this is their most characteristic feature, and this is how they are fundamentally different from kiems.

For bekmes, the most ripe, most often overripe fruits and berries are selected, from which the juice is squeezed, which is then subjected to a special treatment before cooking - thickening. To do this, first bring the juice to a boil, without allowing it to boil, after which crushed burnt white clay or oak ash is added to it (30 g of clay per 1 liter of juice) and stirred continuously until the formation of foam stops and complete clarification and transparency juice. Then the juice with clay is settled for 10-12 hours and filtered through a thin cotton cloth or a double-triple layer of gauze. It is boiled over medium (at first even high) heat in a wide bowl, constantly stirring with a wooden stick until it thickens, which usually coincides with the evaporation of the juice by half the volume. Bekmes is ready if a drop poured onto a porcelain saucer does not blur and retains its shape. In terms of density, well-cooked bekmes resembles young honey.

This is how grape, melon, watermelon, mulberry bekmes are prepared - the most common in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

NUTS AND NUTS AND FRUIT MIXTURES

Nuts in Uzbekistan are widely consumed as a snack, dessert and an intermediate dish. Favorite nuts are pistachios, sweet almonds and apricot kernels, i.e. local varieties of nuts. At the same time, peas are often processed in Uzbek cuisine “under the nuts” - they are fried in a special way and consumed either separately or in combination with raisins as a sweet. The processing of each variety of nuts has its own differences.

ROASTED PISTACHIO

Pistachios are heated in a cauldron over low heat, mixed with dried, crushed and sifted mountain loam - gulvata, taken by volume in one third of the mass of pistachios. In order for the roasting to proceed evenly, the pistachios should be stirred all the time with a wooden spoon until the kernels begin to crackle. Then pour them on a baking sheet or plywood along with the gulvata and let cool.

Roasted salted almonds or apricot kernels

Put the shelled kernels in salt water (for 1 liter of water - 1 tablespoon of salt on top) for 3-4 days, then dry in the sun and overcook in a cauldron or cauldron along with dry river (fine) sand and a small amount of salt, stirring constantly. Allow to cool on the board along with the sand.

SALTED APRICOT KERNEL

Pour apricot bones for 6-7 days with plenty of cold water, then carefully prick them so that the nucleolus can be seen, but the shell does not fall apart, pour them with salted boiling water (per 1 liter of 200 g of salt), leaving them in salt water for 3 -4 days. After this, take out the kernels, dry them and overcook them in a frying pan or in a cauldron along with sifted wood ash.

ALMOND OR PRIMER WITH RAISINS

Scald the kernels with boiling water and remove the upper brown skin from them, dry them a little in a cauldron or on a sheet in the oven. Then mix with washed raisins in a ratio of 1: 1, if desired, pass through a meat grinder.

YANCHMISH

Prepared nuts (peeled and calcined), taken in equal proportions with washed raisins, crush in a mortar or mince together with corn oatmeal, which is a tenth of the weight of the mixture (100 g of oatmeal for 500 g of raisins and 500 g of nuts) and add any fruit essence (at the rate of 30-40 drops per 1 kg of the mixture), mix into a sticky dough, make walnut-sized balls out of it and roll in powdered sugar.

Ashtak-Pashtak

Gently split fresh apricots with fleshy pulp without tearing completely, remove the pits, remove the kernels from them and put them back into the apricots, close and spread out to dry in the sun.

HALV-LIKE SWEETS

Halva-like sweets only in appearance and name resemble sticky halva. The binding component in halva-like sweets is sugar or honey combined with flour.

A variety of taste is achieved by adding nuts or dairy products (milk, sour cream).

HALVAYTAR

100 g lamb fat or melted butter, 100 g walnut kernel, 1 glass of flour, 1 glass of granulated sugar, 1-3 glasses of water, 0.25 teaspoons of vanillin.

HALVAYTAR IS A LIQUID HALV-LIKE MIXTURE

In different regions of Uzbekistan, it is made of different consistency, diluted with different amounts of water, but within the limits indicated above.

First, heat the fat or oil, cool it, pour flour into it and, stirring, put it on fire again, gently heating until the flour acquires a brownish tint (but does not burn!). After that, pour in the sugar diluted in boiling water and boil over low heat, stirring all the time, until the density of sour cream or viscous clay. Shortly before readiness, add nuts to the halvaitar, and after readiness - vanillin. Serve halvaitar in bowls, eat hot with tea.

BOOKMAN

1 liter of milk, 0.5 cups of wheat flour or corn oatmeal, 1 cup of crushed navat grape sugar, 1-2 tbsp. tablespoons butter or ghee.

Fry the flour in oil, as indicated in the Halvaitar recipe. Dissolve sugar in boiling milk, combine sweet milk with overcooked flour, carefully pouring milk, and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring.

Bookman is eaten when it is completely cold.

BOLCIMOK

2 cups sour cream, 0.5 cup honey, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour

Pour the sour cream into a saucepan and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. When the oil floats to the surface, mix with honey that has been brought to a boil (in another bowl) and beat well, adding a little flour so that the mass is thicker and more viscous.

You should try to beat the bolkaimok as quickly as possible so that the mass does not have time to cool down during churning.

Bolkaimok is eaten hot.