Uzbek cuisine
Uzbek cuisine shares the culinary traditions of peoples across Central Asia.[1] There is a great deal of grain farming in Uzbekistan, so breads and noodles are of importance, and Uzbek cuisine has been characterized as "noodle-rich".[2] Mutton is a popular variety of meat due to the abundance of sheep in the country and it is a part of various Uzbek dishes.
Description
Bread (nan or non) is a staple; it is baked in a tandur, which is frequently a pot rather than the deep pit or oven of India and Afghanistan. Many varieties of rice are eaten.[3] Potatoes were introduced by the Soviets, and some elder Uzbeks still refuse to eat them.[4]
The most popular meat is mutton. Beef is common, and goat is eaten only rarely. Horse meat is used as well; there are sausages made of horse meat, as is the case with many other Turkic peoples.[3] Karakul sheep provide meat[5] but also fat, particularly the fat from the tail end, called qurdiuq.[3]
Uzbekistan's signature dish is
Other notable national dishes include
The use of alcohol is less widespread than in the West. Uzbekistan has 14 wineries, the oldest and most famous being the Khovrenko Winery in Samarkand (est. 1927). The Samarkand Winery produces a range of dessert wines from local grape varieties: Gulyakandoz, Shirin, Aleatiko, and Kabernet likernoe (literally Cabernet dessert wine in Russian).[6][7] Uzbek wines have received international awards and are exported to Russia and other countries in Central Asia.
The choice of desserts in Uzbek cuisines is limited. A typical festive meal ends with
Bukharan Jewish cuisine
The cooking of Bukharan Jews forms a distinct cuisine within Uzbekistan, subject to the restrictions of Jewish dietary laws.[8] The most typical Bukharan Jewish dish is oshi sabo (also osh savo or osovoh), a "meal in a pot" slowly cooked overnight and eaten hot for Shabbat lunch. Oshi sabo is made with meat, rice, vegetables, and fruit added for a unique sweet and sour taste.[9] By virtue of its culinary function (a hot Shabbat meal in Jewish homes) and ingredients (rice, meat, vegetables cooked together overnight), oshi sabo is a Bukharan version of cholent or hamin.
In addition to oshi sabo, authentic Bukharian Jewish dishes include:[10]
- Osh palov – a Bukharian Jewish version of palov for weekdays, includes both beef and chicken.
- Bakhsh – "green palov", rice with meat or chicken and green herbs (coriander, parsley, dill), exists in two varieties; bakhshi khaltagi cooked Jewish-style in a small bag immersed in a pot with boiling water or soup and bakhshi degi cooked like regular palov in a cauldron;[11] bakhshi khaltagi is precooked and therefore can be served on Shabbat.
- Khalta savo – food cooked in a bag (usually rice and meat, possibly with the addition of dried fruit).[8][12]
- Yakhni – a dish consisting of two kinds of boiled meat (beef and chicken), brought whole to the table and sliced before serving with a little broth and a garnish of boiled vegetables; a main course for Friday night dinner.[8]
- Kov roghan – fried pieces of chicken with fried potatoes piled on top.[13]
- Serkaniz (Sirkoniz) – garlic rice dish, another variation of palov.[citation needed]
- Oshi piyozi – stuffed onion.[11]
- Shulah – a Bukharian-style risotto.
- Boyjon – eggplant puree mixed only with salt and garlic, the traditional starter for the Friday-night meal in Bukharan Jewish homes.[8]
- Slotah Bukhori – a salad made with tomato, cucumber, green onion, cilantro, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Some also put in lettuce and chili pepper.
- Noni Toki – a crispy flat bread that is baked on the back of a wok. This method creates a bowl shaped bread.
- Fried fish with garlic sauce (for Friday night dinner):[11] "Every Bukharian Sabbath ... is greeted with a dish of fried fish covered with a pounded sauce of garlic and cilantro".[14] In the Bukharan dialect, the dish is called mai birion or in full mai birion ovi sir, where mai birion is fried fish and ovi sir is garlic sauce (literally "garlic water").[8] Bread is sometimes fried and then dipped in the remaining garlic water and is called noni-sir.
Uzbek dishes
Palov
Palov was not available to the general population until the 1930s, the Soviet era. Traditionally only men cooked the dish, but when the Soviets took over control of the country, they liberated women, who were then also allowed to prepare it. Since then, however, according to food scholar Nancy Rosenberger (writing in 2012), "the pendulum was swinging back, if it had ever swung very far".
The basis is meat, usually mutton, with vegetables (carrots and onions), fried in qurdiuq (fat from the
The meat is either boiled or fried with the zirvak. The rice is cooked by being soaked and then placed on top of the other ingredients, so it steams--in contrast to other popular ways of making pilaf, where rice is fried, and the other ingredients added, and then the entire dish being cooked in water.[3]
- Oshi toki – stuffed grape leaves, similar to dolma, usually served as a cold appetizer.
Breads
Traditional Uzbek bread, called generically
- Obi non is the staple bread of Uzbek cuisine. Obi nons are mentioned in one of the oldest written works, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Obi nons are baked in clay ovens called tandir.
- Samarkand non. In different areas of Uzbekistan, obi non is baked in different ways. In Samarkand, small thick obi nons, the shirma nons are the most popular.
- Bukhara obi non sprinkled with sesame or nigella, making a delicate aroma.
- Wedding patir (flaky obi non) from Andijon and Qashqadaryo. According to ancient traditions, this aromatic bread prepared with cream and butter was served during matchmaking meetings.
- Tashkent lochira, plate-formed obi non, baked from short pastry (milk, butter, and sugar). Jirish non is specially prepared bread from flour mixed with wheat. Nomadic tribes did not make tandirs because of their way of living, but cooked bread on butter in kazans (cauldrons), preparing the dough on a milk base.
Gallery
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Manti
See also
References
- ^ "Uzbek Food: Festival of Taste". advantour. Archived from the original on 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
- ^ "The noodle-rich cuisine of Uzbekistan" Archived 2007-12-11 at the Wayback Machine, The Village Voice, Dining, 19 January 1999.
- ^ ISBN 9789004432109. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
- ISBN 9781133386520. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
- ISBN 9781502658791. Archivedfrom the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
- ^ Dessert wines from Uzbekistan Archived 2009-04-02 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
- ^ Tokay-style wines from Uzbekistan Archived 2009-02-21 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
- ^ a b c d e Claudia Roden, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, Alfred Knopf, New York (1996).
- ^ Oshi sabo recipe Archived 2008-03-11 at the Wayback Machine (in Hebrew); recipe in English from Jewish Woman Archived 2008-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, Fall 2005.
- ^ BJews.com. "Bukharian Jewish Global Portal: Cuisine". Bukharianjews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ^ a b c Ethnographic Atlas of Uzbekistan: Central Asian Jews Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, p. 93 (in Russian)
- ^ Bukharian Jewish practice of cooking in a bag Archived 2023-02-02 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
- ^ Kov roghan recipe and photo Archived 2012-10-14 at the Wayback Machine in Wiki Cookbook
- New York Times, 18 January 2006, accessed 13 September 2008.
- ^ Hansen, Eric (July–August 2015). "The Fabled Flatbreads of Uzbekistan". AramcoWorld. Archived from the original on 2016-09-16. Retrieved 2016-09-03.