Tajik puff pastries with meat, herbs or pumpkin are very tasty, filling, aromatic and high in calories. While you eat one, your hand involuntarily reaches for the second.
In Tajikistan, as is customary in Central Asia, sambusa is baked in a tandoor. But a good craftswoman will be able to cook sambusa in a home oven.
The most important thing in the successful execution of sambusa is the dough. Each housewife has her own recipe, but most agree that the dough should be flaky, then the baked goods will become crispy and airy.
Lamb samsa: delicious recipe
So, the recipe for lamb sambusa: grind a stick of butter or ghee with flour, add water, salt, or an egg.
In the meantime, prepare the minced meat, chop a couple of large onions into it, pepper, salt, and add cumin. Roll out the chilled dough extremely thin to a millimeter thick, coat with oil, roll into a tube and cut into equal parts.
Blind the edges to form a triangle or crescent and place in the oven at 160 degrees.
Kurutob
Kurutob in Tajik is a light and at the same time very satisfying dish. The main ingredients are puff pastry fatir and fermented milk product chaka, chirgot or kurut.
The latter is almost never found in Russia, so chaka can easily be replaced with grated cottage cheese with milk, kefir or other fermented milk with the consistency of liquid sour cream.
The puff pastry must be torn into pieces by hand and covered with a “blanket” of fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and onions.
Ugro-pilaf
The most important thing in preparing pilaf is to choose the products, the type of rice and suitable utensils.
In Tajikistan, small Ugro wheat noodles are often used to prepare pilaf, and if they are not at hand, housewives boldly replace them with regular store-bought noodles, calling the dish “macaron-palav.”
Next, everything is according to the classic recipe: cut the beef into pieces, fry with onions and carrots, cut into strips, pour in broth and cook until half cooked.
One of the features of Tajik pilaf is the frequent use of additional ingredients such as chickpeas, quince and garlic. The recipe widely uses spices: red pepper, cumin, barberry, anise, saffron and others.
Mast ova
Thick and rich rice soup. The most suitable rice for mast ova is considered to be rice, which is called devzira. Initially, the rice is dark red-brown in color, but as soon as it is washed in cold water, it becomes almost transparent and amber. Mastova is served in a traditional “kosa” bowl.
Mastova recipe: fry lamb with onions and carrots in vegetable oil, add chopped tomatoes, potatoes, spices, bay leaves.
All this is slowly simmered, and at the very end rice is added.
Mastova is a very hearty soup; it can easily replace both the first and second courses.
Shish kebab in Tajik style
Shish kebab is the king of meat dishes. In Tajik cuisine there are several types of shish kebab: ground (from minced minced meat), lump, liver, chicken and vegetable.
It is often prepared from beef and lamb, always using fat tail fat, alternating it on a skewer.
Before you start cooking, the selected product should be softened in any marinade: onion, kefir, lemon juice, and even next to pomegranate (namely pomegranate, not pomegranate juice).
Secret recipe for delicious kebab from Sputnik Tajikistan
A classic recipe for Tajik kebab: cut the lamb pulp and fat tail fat into large pieces, marinate and leave for 2-3 hours in a cool place. Then thread the meat onto skewers and fry over hot coals.
Separately, ripe tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants are baked on skewers as a side dish. The finished kebab is served to the table, garnished with fresh chopped onions.
Mantu (Manty)
In Tajikistan, manti are steamed in a mantuvarka “mantupazak”. Most often, minced meat is mixed from lamb or beef, fat tail fat and pumpkin.
When hand-molding, a special way is characteristic of fastening the ends crosswise – approximately, like a postal envelope. There are also many sculpting technologies; each housewife has her own secret and recipe.
The shape for the base can be round, triangular or square. A popular seasoning for mantou: zira, black and red pepper, mint, basil and other seasonings are also added.
How to properly prepare “pilaf of reconciliation” – recipe Sputnik
Tajik mantu is eaten with sour milk, kaimak (the same “chaka”), sour cream, smeared with butter and sprinkled with fresh herbs.
Oshi Tupa
Oshi tupa or “oshi burida”. The dish is reminiscent of Kazakh beshbarmak and Uzbek lagman.
The base is homemade dough, cut either into squares or wide noodles. Pre-soaked chickpeas, beans and other available legumes are added to the meat broth.
When cooking, you should get a thick consistency, and the final point in serving the dish will be chopped tomatoes, herbs and onions sprinkled on top.
