They say that good pilaf is only made in Central Asia. But this does not mean at all that the art of its preparation is completely inaccessible to residents of other places.
The recipe offered here differs from those given by culinary guides in a more detailed development. And most importantly - my guarantee of success: the recipe has been tested many times.

We will need:

400g sunflower oil (in Tashkent, cottonseed oil is preferred)
500g onion
1kg lamb*
1kg round rice**
500g tomato
500g bell pepper
300g carrots***
100g raisins
ground red pepper, dried barberry berries, coriander, cumin
salt

Actually, you need a cauldron (special utensils), but I cook in a roaster, and everything turns out great.
1. Ignite the oil in a roaster, throw finely chopped onions into it. When it acquires a golden-pink hue, add lamb cut into small pieces. Fry for 20 minutes, until the meat acquires the same shade as the onion.

2. Add finely chopped tomatoes and bell pepper to the meat. After 15 minutes, put 300 g of carrots, cut into thin strips. Fry the carrots a little, then pour hot water so that it covers the contents with a centimeter layer. Add raisins and spices: ground red pepper, dry barberry berries, coriander, cumin.

3. While the brew is simmering, cook the rice.
We wash the rice three times with cold water, after which we leave it to lie in the fourth water so that it "gets drunk"!
After 20-25 minutes, put the rice on top of the meat without stirring! We add boiling water; the thickness of the water layer above the rice is 1-2 cm. Salted. Added fire. The duckling has been closed with a lid!

4. Now we recall the recommendations of V. Pokhlebkin. How is rice cooked? 24 minutes!
3 minutes on very high heat, 7 minutes on medium heat, 2 minutes on low heat. We ended up with 12 minutes! We turn off the fire. We do not open the lid for another 12 minutes, these 12 minutes the rice "reaches".

Sometimes (to be on the safe side, guests!) I wrap the duckling with pilaf in several layers of newspaper and cover it with a towel for the ripening period.

4. The finished pilaf was laid out in a slide on a large dish, slices of tomato were laid around the mountain. A wonderful aroma rises from the dish and fills the entire kitchen. You don’t have to call anyone to the table, everyone is already here!

* - I often take chicken, it turns out very tasty too.
** - the best rice - kinjo, Korean variety. It looks small, but it is good because it absorbs a lot of water and therefore becomes large. I don’t bother searching, I take my favorite Krasnodar round rice and I’m always pleased with the result. For my taste, long-grain rice for pilaf is not suitable, although the picture will be beautiful.
*** - Uzbeks prefer yellow carrots, you probably saw this one on the market. In pilaf, it is tastier than orange.

Well! I wish you success!

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 prepared 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.

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.

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 slurry obtained by boiling meat, vegetables and cereals is removed from the fire, seasoned with finely chopped spicy greens of cilantro, basil and savory, allowed to brew under a closed lid for 10-12 minutes and then poured 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.
Next, cook according to the scheme (see above).

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

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

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.

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).

Cooking a real Uzbek pilaf consists of three operations:
1) oil overheating;
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 commonly 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 lay the 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. Wash 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 add 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.

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 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)

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

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 cooking 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 heat for about 3 hours.
2-3 minutes before the cauldron-kebab is ready, sprinkle with azhgon (zira).
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.
At the same time, you need to make sure that the water does not boil away before the kebab is ready.

ZHIGAR-KEBAB (LIVER KEBAB)

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 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).

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.

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 greens, 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.

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).

Mixing order:
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

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 onion, and then roll each strip into a circle, like a tape, 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.

Mixing order:
dissolve yeast in earthenware or enamelware in 0.5 cups of water, add another 0.5 cups of salt water and then gradually add 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.

Mixing order:
in Uzbek cuisine, as a rule, a non-paired kneading method 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

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

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

Cut the risen dough into pieces of 80-100 g, roll into cakes, chop, close 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 frying pan greased with oil, close the top with another frying pan, cover with hot coals and ashes and bake for about 1 hour.

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.
Patyri of the modern version work 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 at 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 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 this section on the page "The main dairy products of the peoples of Central Asia."
Only dairy products such as chivot and pishlok are specific to Uzbek cuisine.

CHIVOT

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, level the surface, salt moderately and, without stirring, put to dry in a draft in the open (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 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

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 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.

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.
* 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.

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.

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 letting it 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 mixture), mix into a sticky dough, make walnut-sized balls out of it and roll in powdered sugar. :
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 It is necessary to 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.

Server rental. Site hosting. Domain names:

New C --- redtram messages:

New posts C---thor:

(float, palov, pilav). The main national dish of the peoples of Central Asia - Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Afghans, as well as Persians, Azerbaijanis. There are two main types of pilaf - Uzbek, when rice is cooked together with meat, and Azerbaijani, when rice is cooked separately from the meat part of pilaf. There are also variations between these two types, which are mainly followed by Tajiks and Afghans, combining both traditions. Pilaf, strictly speaking, this is a dish of meat and grain, and most often the grain part is rice, but this does not mean at all that it cannot consist of other types of grain (wheat, jugars, peas, corn, mung bean), and as a whole , and partially, along with rice. In the same way, the meat part, traditionally prepared from lamb, can be different - from the meat of goitered gazelles, fat tail casing, chicken, turkey, pheasants, partridges, quails, sparrows, and even from sturgeon, kutum, stellate sturgeon.
Thus, pilaf is not at all characterized by any specific composition of products, but its distinguishing feature is, firstly, a certain composition: meat, grain, dried fruits, vegetables, and secondly, a certain technology: separate cooking, at least , one of the two parts (or both), and then combine them for the final boil or for eating. At the same time, it is not at all necessary for pilaf to use fats and the frying process. Pilaf can also be from boiled meat. But the unity of the composition and the separate creation of parts is invariable for all types of pilaf. Great importance is attached to the taste of rice and its preparation in pilaf: therefore, regardless of whether the rice is cooked boiled or with meat in fat, each rice should be separate, and not be a porridge. Rice for pilaf is cooked either steamed (Azerbaijani) or over a zirvak filled with water when the rice boils in an oil-water environment.

Preparation of zirvak- the central moment in the preparation of pilaf. In zirvak - meat, finely chopped vegetables (carrots, onions, tomatoes) and dried fruits (apricots, dried apricots, raisins) undergo joint heat treatment (frying and stewing) always with a large amount of oil or lard (lamb, melted), resulting in oil up to it is saturated with meat and vegetable-fruit juices to such an extent that it becomes a well-digestible, tasty and aromatic medium, which gives the pilaf their main taste and smell. Finally, the laying of Central Asian pilafs for the final joint cooking of all products has a certain order: zirvak is placed on the bottom of the boiler (already cooked, at least half), dry, washed, prepared rice is tightly packed on it, and on top of the rice, without violating its integrity , a layer of cold water is poured, after which a strong fire is lit under the boiler. When the water boils away from above, it means that the pilaf is ready.

The ratio of products in pilaf is usually very mobile.
It is only important that a certain balance of meat, vegetable, fruit and rice parts be observed. Their best ratio is when they are almost equal, in any case, none of them should especially outweigh, except perhaps meat.
The fats that are used in pilafs are varied: lamb fat, fat, tail fat and fat tail shell, sunflower, olive or sesame oil. It is very good when animal and vegetable oil are added equally to pilaf. Pilaf eaten with white bread (flat cakes), fresh vegetables (green onions, garlic, fresh cucumbers) and sour fruits (plum, pomegranate, cherry), washed down with green or black tea without sugar.

Frankly, I did not want to raise this topic. First of all, because the “topic” will invariably draw reproaches for attacks on the “culinary classics”, suspicions of familiarity and so on. Although, we are not talking about Pokhlebkine(hereinafter - GDP), as a person, his contribution to the culinary culture, etc., etc. We are talking about one, perhaps, the most unsuccessful of his books, in which one can see a touch of haste and opulence, very characteristic of books written under the “spurring” of publishers.

It’s just about such a book by VVP “Kitchen of the Transcaucasian and Central Asian Peoples”, and specifically about the Pokhlebkin (I can’t turn my tongue to call this recipe a classic) recipe for cooking pilaf. You know without me that this dish has long gone beyond the "parochial" or exotic, and even in regions far removed from the homeland of pilaf, it has become almost popular. And I would, for example, given the authority of the GDP and the fact that many people listen to its recipes and recommendations, I really would not want people to get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bpilaf in general based on the prepared "Pokhlebkin" pilaf. Therefore, once again, knowing the result, I decided to “translate” the products in order to reproduce ... no, not a mess. But not swimming. And not something in between pilaf and porridge. And play a parody of pilaf. That is, what he recommends to cook in his recipe (and in his “technology” of GDP).

So, if someone has not looked at the section “Pilaf and shavli” in the mentioned book, I will say: the recipes for certain pilafs themselves are given in a very compressed form. Basically, this is a calculation of products for 500 grams of rice, a few lines about the features of cooking and a reference to the general technology for cooking pilaf, to which VVP devoted 4 pages. Looking through this “common technology”, I, like grandfather Lenin once, wanted to put bold and sacramental “sic!” in the margins.

For example, GDP stubbornly calls only a fried mixture of meat, onions and carrots as zirvak. Not a word is said about zirvak as a sauce in which the mentioned products should be stewed for some time and which really ripens, so that later with the aromas of these products it will be absorbed into rice! Pokhlebkin's "technology" of laying rice is generally built on the "zero-free" method: raw rice is simply placed on fried meat, carrots and onions and filled with water to the desired level for cooking.

Moreover, there is in this technology of laying rice and a thing that is generally unheard of and surprising for me, I quote: “In some types of pilaf, you can not add water to zirvak at all, especially in cases where small portions are cooked and there is quite a lot of oil in zirvak” ( Let me remind you that VVP calls “zirvak” only a mixture of fried meat, onions and carrots). I wonder if anyone has tried "cooking" raw rice in oil? If it really is cooked in the way indicated by the GDP, it is ready to sprinkle Pokhlebkin's “zirvak” on its head.

In a word, there are many absurdities. Moreover, such that a person who for the first time undertook to cook pilaf in general, but according to GDP technology, will invariably and irreparably ruin food. However, there is a moment in GDP that appeals to me, and I will tell you why. GDP calls zira ... azhgon. “For the vast majority of pilafs, a classic set of products is typical: ... a mixture of three spices - red pepper, barberry and azhgon (zira)” (p. 227 according to the 2001 edition of the Central Polygraph). And it impresses because some of my readers reproached me for calling zira azhgon, and recognized my references to the author of a book on Vedic cooking published in India as frivolous, considering the book sectarian and Krishnaite. Who does GDP look like in this light, calling zira azhgon, although I don’t think that zira and azhgon are one and the same?

However, let us return to the pilaf of GDP, but in a practical incarnation. For the experiment, I chose , but not in the "correct" version, but in the version, of course, GDP. And he began to cook it in full accordance with the recommendations of the classic, taking exactly the proportions of the products indicated by him.

After overheating, as prescribed, 100 grams of vegetable (in this case, sunflower) oil, I added 30 grams of fat tail fat to it to get the combination of oil (fat) indicated by the classic about 125 grams. The book states (sic) that a combination of this or that fat is strictly required with this or that oil. For example, with cotton - horse fat (sic), with linseed - goat (sic), with sesame (sic) - beef (sic), with sunflower - mutton. As you can see, I exactly fulfilled the recommendation of the classic.

Further there was some hitch. In the general technology for preparing pilaf, GDP indicates that meat, onions and carrots are laid in a certain sequence. However, in the recipe for Ferghana pilaf, there is no sequence in the laying of meat and onions. We read: “Cut the meat in zirvak into small cubes and fry together with onions.” And since in the general technology, the GDP writes that the sequence may be different, “unless otherwise specified in the recipe,” I followed the recipe, lowering the diced lamb and the onion cut into “thick rings” at the same time.

The GDP does not indicate how much onion and meat should be fried in Ferghana pilaf. Simply - "fry". I fried until a certain blush on the onion - then it would just start to burn. I will immediately note two points from GDP, grossly violating the classical technology of the classic Ferghana pilaf. First: Ferghana pilaf is inconceivable without pre-fried bones - this is the basis of the foundations, the future richness of zirvak (sauce) and the color of the pilaf itself. The GDP does not have them (bones).
Second: for a pound of rice, GDP recommends 3 onions (I took medium onions). This is overkill. This amount of onion usually goes per kilogram of rice. Experienced pilaf cooks call onion busting "cheese", not without reason arguing that the aforementioned bust spoils the taste of pilaf. However, we will follow the recommendations of the GDP.

In terms of carrots, or rather, the ratio of the weight of carrots to rice, GDP is categorical: “carrots in pilaf are always put half as much rice (by weight).” This is far from true. But I didn’t argue with GDP, but after stewing and frying carrots with onions and meat, as prescribed by the classic for 20-30 minutes (changing, as prescribed, the temperature regime under the pot), I added, as also prescribed, a teaspoon of a mixture of spices - red pepper and zira (I didn’t have barberry and it doesn’t affect the taste of the dish)

Then he leveled the “zirvak” (once again, I remind you that VVP calls fried vegetables with meat “zirvak”) and put a pound of washed rice in an even layer (I used it to get closer to the Fergana classic rice-devziru).

The GDP does not say anything about any preliminary soaking of rice. In his technology of laying rice there is only such a moment: "If the rice is very dry and hard, water is poured a little more than the usual norm." Which, however, I did, carefully, through a slotted spoon, spilling water not a centimeter above the level of rice, but two. I salted the boiling mixture of water and fat, added another half a teaspoon of the spicy mixture, which VVP writes about and, without touching anything else, ensured the uniformity of the boiling of water and the uniformity of cooking rice (an inexperienced pilaf cook can make a lot of mistakes here, but now is not about that).

As soon as the rice was cooked, according to the GDP technology, I pierced the surface of the future pilaf with a chopstick in several places, then again leveled the rice, tightly covered the pilaf with a plate and put it on the boil for the prescribed 15-20 minutes.

The result was this. Yes, outwardly Pokhlebkin-pilaf had some resemblance to the Ferghana pilaf, if you do not find fault with the absence of seeds, heads of garlic and pepper pods. Let's take it as a private matter. But its taste turned out to be almost the same as predicted - almost catering (public catering, of course, does not use tail fat and dev-zira), that is, none. This pilaf, since there was no zirvak in the classical sense, just the zirvak taste, filled with the aroma of bones, carrots, fried meat, garlic, etc., was just not enough. The meat turned out absolutely dry, which it should have been, since it was not stewed in sauce. The overall dull “taste” picture was supplemented by a clear lack of carrots and an overabundance of onions. In short, as I noted above, it was not pilaf, not porridge with meat, and not something in between porridge and pilaf. It was a pure parody of pilaf, which, if you want to join the real pilaf, dear friends, I not only advise you not to cook, but even not to try.

Posted by author

Section: William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin "NATIONAL CUISINES OF OUR PEOPLES" Page 29 of the section UZBEK CUISINE FIRST COURSES MEAT AND VEGETABLE SOUPS SHURPA 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 Ingredients: 250 g of lamb brisket, 75 g of fat 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 SHURPA Ingredients: 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 fat tail fat into small pieces, melt, remove greaves and fry finely chopped meat, onions, tomatoes in lard 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, its preparations 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. Ingredients: 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 groats soups with meat (lamb) are cooked exclusively by roasting 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). YORMA (WHEAT SOUP) Ingredients: 500 g lamb, 100 g melted butter or tail fat, 1.5 cups wheat, 4 onions, 1 red pepper pod. Preparation Prepare meat-onion roast (see above) and boil 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) Ingredients: 250 g of lamb, 100 g of ghee, 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. Cooking 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 (SOUR-MAIL 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 slurry obtained by boiling meat, vegetables and cereals is removed from the fire, seasoned with finely chopped spicy greens of cilantro, basil and savory, allowed to brew under a closed lid for 10-12 minutes and then poured 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. KATIKLI KHURDA (RIGED MILK) Ingredients: 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. Mix finely chopped meat and vegetables, as well as rice, spices and fry for 10-15 minutes. then pour water and cook for 40 minutes over low heat until tender. Then fill with katyk. TURPY SOUR-MAIL SOUP Ingredients: 1 kg of turnip, 1 liter of katyk, 1 glass of rice, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 25-50 g of cilantro greens, 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. Next, cook according to the scheme (see above). SOUR CREAM SOUP Ingredients: 1 liter of water, 400 g of sour cream, 3 onions, 6 ears 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 Ingredients: 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 Ingredients: 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. SIKHMON Ingredients: 1.5 cups of mung bean, 1 cup of corn flour, 1 liter of katyk, 50 g of melted butter, 0.5 teaspoon of red pepper. Cooking Boil mung beans 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 Ingredients: 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 slightly Katyk, 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 Plov - 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 mutton, 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".) Zirvak is then 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. FERGANA PILAF Ingredients: 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. BUKHARA PILAF Ingredients: 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 spicy mixture, turmeric - on the tip of a knife. Cooking 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 (see above). KHOREZM PILAF Ingredients: 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. Meat cut 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. spoons) and spice 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 lay the 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. SAMARKAND PILAF Ingredients: 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. Cooking 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 Pilaf togram is a combination of Ferghana and Samarkand. Ingredients: 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. Preparation From one fourth of the meat and carrots, make zirvak in Fergana style 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 (MADE OF FRIED RICE) Ingredients: 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. Pre-cook unwashed rice before laying 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 Ingredients: 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 PRIMER Ingredients: 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 tsp. spoons of spice 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 grains and legumes is cooked according to the classical (Fergana) method instead of rice, and they differ only in different pre-treatment of legumes. Ingredients: 500 g of wheat, 250 g of meat, 250 g of carrots, 200 g of fat (oil), 3 onions, 1-1.5 teaspoons of spicy pilaf mixture. 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 fall asleep in zirvak instead of rice. IVITMA-PALOV (PILAV WITH PEA) Ingredients: 500 g of rice, 250 g of meat, 100 g of peas, 150 g of fat (butter), 200 g of carrots, 2 onions, 1.5 teaspoons of spicy mixture for pilaf, 1 tsp. a spoonful of dry savory powder. Preparation 1. Soak peas in cold water for at least 12 hours, and preferably for a day. 2. Wash 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 add 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 cook 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, quantitative differences are striking: 1. The ratio of rice, meat, carrots is 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 PRIME Ingredients: 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. Preparation See above for the preparation procedure. Shavlya with beans Ingredients: 400 g of rice, 300 g of meat, 300 g of carrots, 200 g of beans, 300 g of fat, 3 onions, 3 tomatoes, 0.5 teaspoons of red pepper, 1 tbsp. savory spoon. Preparation 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 porridges Uzbek porridges are mostly cooked with 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) Ingredients: 1 liter of water, 500 g of wheat, 300 g of lamb, 200 g of butter, 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon, 0.5 teaspoon of black pepper. Preparation 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) Ingredients: 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 MEAL WITH MEAT) Ingredients: 500 g corn flour, 0.5 l milk, 250 g minced meat, 100 g melted butter, 2 medium onions. Preparation 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, among the meat dishes a significant place is occupied by kebabs, or, as they are more often called outside of Central Asia, kebabs. However, the preparation of a number of Uzbek kebabs differs from the standard methods of cooking 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) Ingredients: 750 g of lamb meat, 500 g of onion, 0.75-1 glass of dill or cilantro, 1 red pepper or 1 teaspoon of ground red pepper, 2 teaspoons of azhgon. Preparation 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) Ingredients: 750 g lamb, 600 g onion, 2 tbsp. spoons of grape vinegar, 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp. tablespoons of zira, 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) Ingredients: 500 g of liver, 2 onions, 0.5 cups of flour, salt, black pepper, buzhgun - to taste. Cooking Peel 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 PARTOWAGE 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, and the 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 Ingredients: 500 g lamb, 1 intestine, 1 spleen, 1 kidney, 200 g lung, 100 g tail fat, 200 g rice, 5 onions, 0.5 cups of warm water, 2 teaspoons of azhgon, 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper. Khasip is prepared 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 Ingredients: 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 Ingredients: 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 ground black pepper, 200 g fat tail fat. Meat cut into small cubes, salt, fry in hot 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 OF 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. Ingredients: For the dough: 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. Preparation Preparation of the dough. From flour, eggs, salt and a small amount of water, knead a stiff dough, roll it 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. fillings. 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. Ingredients: For noodles: 500 g flour, 1 egg, 0.5 teaspoon 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 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. KUK-BIYRON Ingredients: 1 kg of greens, 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. Preparation 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). SIMPLE FRESH DOUGH Ingredients: Main components: flour, warm water, salt. Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt. Preparation The order of kneading. 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 FANCY Ingredients: 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). Preparation 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 Ingredients: Norm of simple unleavened dough (see above), 4 onions, 1 glass of mutton 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 Ingredients: 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 oil for frying. 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. YUPKA Ingredients: 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. Preparation 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. Fry in a cauldron with a spherical bottom as follows: 1. Grease a hot cauldron with oil, dip 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. PATIRCHA Patyrcha is made from semi-delicious unleavened dough, the composition of which deviates slightly from the norm. Ingredients: 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 each and roll out round cakes from them (the thickness of their middle 1 cm, welt thickness at the edges - 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 - pies with stuffing. 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 dough rate. Rolling out the dough. 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 Ingredients: Main components: flour, yeast, warm water, salt. Norms: for 1 kg of flour - 25-50 g of yeast, 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of salt. Preparation The order of kneading: 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. FANTASTIC YEAST DOUGH Ingredients: Main components: 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. Preparation 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, as well as simple yeast dough, 1 hour. CHALPAK Ingredients: Simple yeast dough (see above), 30 g of yeast. Divide the dough into pieces of 50-60 g, make balls out of them, roll them into thin cakes 3-4 mm thick, leave under a napkin for 15 minutes and then bake in a cauldron greased with vegetable oil or a cauldron, frying on both sides. KUMAC Ingredients: Simple yeast dough (see above), flour - wheat and corn in half, 50 g of yeast. Preparation Cook like chalpak (see above). GUSHTLI NONI Ingredients: 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 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) Ingredients: Plain yeast dough (see above), 50 g of 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 Ingredients: 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, close with a napkin and leave for 25 minutes, then bake in a tandoor or oven (grease the baking sheet with oil). Kulcha burns quickly, so you need to keep an eye on it during baking and regulate the fire. TOVA-BALISH Ingredients: Semi-dry 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 frying pan greased with oil, cover with another frying pan on top, cover with hot coals and ashes and bake for about 1 hour. 2 teaspoons of salt. Patyr is the most typical type of flatbread for the Uzbek table, made from rich yeast dough. MODERN VERSION OF PATYRA (FOR CITIZENS) Ingredients: 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 on 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. Patyri of the modern version work 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. See how to prepare them. in this section on the page "The main dairy products of the peoples of Central Asia." Only dairy products such as chivot and pishlok are specific to Uzbek cuisine. CHIVOT Ingredients: 5 liters of katyk, 500 g of dill, 100 g of salt. Cooking Chivot is 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). PISHLOK Pishlok - Uzbek cottage cheese, prepared in a special way, giving the product a unique 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, level the surface, salt moderately and, without stirring, put to dry in a draft in the open (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 Ingredients: 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 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 Ingredients: 200 g garlic, 50 g sunflower oil, 10 g red pepper. Crush the peeled garlic, add it to the pre-heated, but then cooled to 50 ° C oil and lightly simmer over very low heat so that the garlic gives all its juice into the oil, but does not burn. Then add ground pepper, move and store in a hermetically sealed glass container. GURAOB Ingredients: For 1 liter of grape juice - 50 g of salt. Wash whole bunches of unripe ladyfingers grapes and pass 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. KIYOMA SWEETS Kiyoma is a kind of jam made from both fruits and certain vegetables (primarily carrots and pumpkins), or from a combination of fruits and vegetables (such as quince and 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 Ingredients: 1 kg of amber manna*, 250 g of carrots, 1 quince, 2 cups of water, saffron on the tip of a knife. * 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. Cooking Boil carrots and quince separately, 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. URUCKY KIOM Ingredients: 1 kg of apricots, 2 kg of sugar, 8 glasses of water, 1 teaspoon of vanillin. Preparation 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 Ingredients: 1 kg of pumpkin, 2.4 kg of sugar, 2 liters of water, 2 lemons, 1 pinch of saffron. Coarsely grate pumpkin and dip into boiling sugar syrup. Cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon or stick. Add lemon juice and saffron to the finished cue, stir. BEKMES 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 letting it 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-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 ALMOND OR APRICOT KERNEL Put the peeled 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 (shallow) sand and a little 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 chop them so that the nucleolus is visible, but the shell does not fall apart, pour them with salted boiling water (per 1 liter 200 g of salt), leaving in salted 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 PRIME KERNEL 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 Carefully split fresh apricots with fleshy pulp without breaking them completely, take out the pits, take out the kernels from them and put them back into the apricots, close them and lay them out to dry in the sun. HALVA-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). HALVAITAR Ingredients: 100 g mutton fat or melted butter, 100 g nut kernel, 1 glass of flour, 1 glass of granulated sugar, 1-3 glasses of water, 0.25 teaspoons of vanillin. Cooking HALVAITAR IS A LIQUID HALVA-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 Ingredients: 1 liter of milk, 0.5 cup wheat flour or cornmeal, 1 cup crushed navat grape sugar, 1-2 tbsp. tablespoons butter or ghee. Cooking 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. BOLKAIMOK Ingredients: 2 cups sour cream, 0.5 cup honey, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour Pour 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. >