A selection of appetizers/snacks from Uzbekistan take from the excellent blog "The Art of Uzbek Cuisine"
The "main" components of this dish are:
Qiyma "Zarafshon" : Omlette with meat filling
Yupqa : Uzbek pancakes with meat filling
Qovurma varaqi somsa : Frid puff samosa with meat filling
The (obvious) common theme of these three was the meat filling, which in this case was fried minced lamb.
The "side" components are:
"Roziya" salati : Garlic & chilli Carrot and Cucumber salad with vinger dressing
Qatiqli salat : Herb infused yogurt dip
When combined togther this makes a very tasty mixed starter - although I think that typically you would only have one of the main components, as the three tasted a bit samey (which they would do having the same filling!).
"Roziya" salati
Neither Helen nor myself are fans of salad dressing, it's usually makes the salad too wet/oily and is generally too vingery.
However, we both loved this recipe, which was mixed in with a baby leaf salads with all the flavour a dressing (if not more), but without the wetness/oiliness.
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| The photo doesn't make it look very appealing, but when mixed in with salad leaves it's delicious. |
Ingredients
- 50 ml of vegetable oil
- 250 gr grated or cut in long thin strips red carrot
- 200 gr fresh cucumbers
- 1 tbsp of vinegar (I used apple, my mom uses cider one)
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, mashed
- 1 tsp of ground pepper
- half a tsp of red chili powder
- Salt to taste
Method
1. Halve the cucumber and quarter each piece, then again cut every piece in
two.
3. Add in vinegar, pepper, salt and chili powder and fry for 2 min more.
4. Take from
the heat and immediately take salad to the other dish to prevent further
cooking. Add in garlic and mix well.
5. Once it has cooled down use your fingers to mix it in with preferred favourite salad leaves as you would a vinegerette seasoning.
Qatiqli salat
This is a really tasty yogurt for dipping. The dill helps take some of the sourness from the yogurt and makes it rich and creamy tasting. Will definitely be making this again.
Ingredients
- 500 ml of yogurt
- 3 green onions
- Bunch of fresh coriander leaves
- Bunch of fresh dill
- Salt and pepper as taste
Method
1. Chop the herbs.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowel.
3. Leave to cool in the fridge.
The Filling
The 3 mains of this dish all require a filling. On this occasion, as I was going to have my hands full preparing and making the various components I decided to use the same filling for all three. This is a fairly basic, but tasty nonetheless, minced lamb filling.
Ingredients
- 600 gr minced meat
- 80 gr of vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp of ground coriander
- 2 tsp of cumin seeds
- Salt to taste
Method
1. Fry ground half the coriander and cumin on a high heat for a 2 min.
2. Add in the minced
meat and fry on a low heat with a covered lid, until meat is brown in color.
3. Add in 30 ml of water and the remaining cumin and corriander, and cover the lid and allow to 'simmer' for another 10 minutes. Take from the heat. Set aside.
Qovurma varaqi somsa
Of the three 'main' components this was my favourite. Crispy samosa's with meat filling (or whatever filling you want once you've learnet to make the pastry - I think next time I would add a nice stringy cheese like mozerrella to the filling, and maybe some fresh chilis.)
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| ummm...crispy! |
It's the first time I made pastry in this way (a kind of flaky, crispy, nearly puff pastry). It's also the only that you can do the bulk of the preperation up front and then just fry them up when you're ready.
Ingredients (makes 6 to 8 samosas)
- 150 ml of luke warm water
- 1 tbsp of salt
- Plain flour as needed
- 50 gr butter melted for greasing
- Oil for frying about 500 ml
1. Mix water and salt and gradually add in flour. Mix until you will form a medium
hard dough. Cover it and let it rest for 20 min.
2. Roll out the dough and grease with a melted butter.
3. Wait until butter slightly hardens and then roll the dough around your
rolling pin (best to cut the dough to fit the width of the rolling pin .It should wrap around the pin 3 or 4 times.)
4. Cut the pastry length ways along the stick (from one end to the other) and carefully remove it from the stick (if you didn't wait for the butter to harden then it may stick to the pin, so be careful).
5. Once removed from the pin, cut it again, this time width ways, in to 2.5 inch pieces and then cut those pieces in half.
6. Slightly roll out each piece of pastry into a square, put 1 tbsp of filling on each. Wrap the pastry over and pinch the
edges. Cut the edges to tidy it up (if you want it to look a bit special use a pasta cutter to trim the pastry).
7. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan (I used a wok). Check to see it is hot enough by putting small bread cube in it, if it turns brown
within a 15 sec, then your oil is heated enough. Start frying "Somsa" s until
they are nice golden color.
8. Serve as immeditely. (They are just as nice the next day cold).
Yupqa
Yupqa
These are thin Uzbeki pancakes wrapped with filling inside. Of the three this was my least favourite. It was by no means horrible, just that the other two were nicer.
This needs to be cooked just as your serving up - you can't leave it lying around otherwise it will dry out.
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 100 gr of water
- Half a tbsp of salt
- Plain flour as needed
- 40 gr of melted butter for greasing
Method
1. Beat slightly together, egg, salt and water
2. Gradually add in flour until you form a medium hard dough, don't make it hard,
as it will be hard to roll it out thinly and the dough will quickly dry out.
3. Cover the dough and let it stand for 30 min.
4. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Heat up your frying pan. Roll pieces one
by one, as thin as you can.
5. Then take it, quickly brush the surface with melted butter, put 1 tbsp of
filling and fold it. Cover with towel. Repeat with other pieces.
Qiyma "Zarafshon"
Meat filled omellettes - that's all there is to say about it. Again needs to be able to be served up immediately once cooked.
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| Meat filled omellettes |
Ingredients
- 1 large eggs per omellette
- Salt to taste
- Fresh thyme
Method
1.Beat the egg with the salt and thyme,
2. Put a splash of oil in a small to medium sized frying pan (depends on how thick you like your omellette - just remember you will need to be able to roll/fold it.)
3. Pour the egg in the pan and cook until the egg on the top is mostly cooked.
4. Flip the egg and cook for about half as long again.
5. Serve onto a plate, put the filling into the centre and roll it up.
Acknowledgements
As mentioned all of the recipes have come from the excellent recipe blog "The Art of Uzbek Cuisine". Please do go and have a look through, as some of these recipes I've used are her own.
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