National dishes of Azerbaijan. Popular recipes of Azerbaijani cuisine

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Azerbaijanis love and know how to cook deliciously, but strict religious norms dictate certain restrictions to Muslims. Islam left its imprint on the national dishes of Azerbaijan. Meat recipes, for example, call for any meat other than pork.

Distinctive features of Azerbaijani cuisine

A characteristic feature of Azerbaijani cuisine, unlike Russian, is that here in every kitchen there is always a strong aroma of spices. It is customary to complement the national dishes of Azerbaijan with a generous set of spices. Fragrant herbs are used in large quantities. These are such well-known plants as basil, mint, dill, parsley, as well as sumac, saffron, cumin, fennel, various types of pepper, cinnamon, cloves and many others.

National dishes of Azerbaijan include all kinds of vegetables and fruits. Fresh and dried plums, grapes, figs, apples, apricots, plums, barberries, pomegranates, citrus fruits, etc. are even added to soups and hot meat snacks.

Azerbaijani chefs know a lot andin the preparation of desserts. Various dried fruits and nuts are crushed, and together with cinnamon, honey, saffron and mint, they improve the taste of original sweets - nougat, Turkish delight, firni, baklava, kurabye, halva. They are also used for stuffing shor-kogal, shakerbura, zeyran, mutaki, kyata and many other sweet products made from dough and without it.

For cooking, housewives take special containers - cauldrons, pits, sajis, tandoors and others, but this is not a mandatory requirement, they are just very convenient and, as a rule, have thick walls and special cavities for hot coals or electric heaters.

Baku pilaf

Azerbaijani pilaf with dried fruits and meat is a complex dish that is prepared in several stages.

Rice is cooked separately - 1 kg of cereal should be poured into a cauldron with plenty of cold water and put on fire. When it boils, add 2 tbsp. spoons of s alt. Boil the rice until half cooked, then rinse with hot water and drain in a colander.

Next, the gasmah is done. From flour and one or two eggs, the dough is kneaded and rolled into a cake according to the size of the bottom of the cauldron.

5-6 tablespoons of ghee are poured into the bottom of the cauldron, a cake is placed on the oil, and prepared rice is poured on top of it. Half a glass of saffron infusion is added, covered with a lid and simmered over low heat for about an hour.

Nar guvruma is prepared separately - usually lamb, but you can also use chicken. For the dish, you need to cut 1 kg of meat into pieces, s alt, pepper,sprinkle with zira and put in a roasting pan with melted butter. Fry over high heat. At the end, add two heads of finely chopped onions and dried fruits (apricots, figs, prunes, sultanas and barberries). Stir and pour hot water with half a glass of saffron infusion. Simmer until the meat is done.

During the table setting, put the rice with gazmakh broken into pieces on a large dish, beautifully distribute the guvruma and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Azerbaijani pilaf with dried fruits and meat can also be made in a slow cooker. In this case, the cooking time will be significantly reduced.

Lamb offal dish

This dish is called jiz-byz. For it, intestines, heart, lungs, testicles, kidneys, liver and fat tail fat of a young ram are used, as well as 2 onions, potatoes and spices (pepper, sumac, cumin, s alt).

Jiz-byz, like many national dishes of Azerbaijan, is cooked in a special cauldron.

Fat tail fat is melted in a cauldron, washed and cut into small pieces of offal, spices and chopped onions are placed in it. Everything is fried over high heat, then potatoes are placed in a cauldron and hot water is added. Everything is stewed for 40 minutes. Served sprinkled with cilantro, basil, dill and other herbs.

Khamrashi soup

Azerbaijani hamrashi soup is prepared just before serving, as noodles are added to it, which loses their taste from a long stay in the broth. As for beans,it is better to cook it in advance or soak it overnight.

National dishes of Azerbaijan are often prepared from young lamb with the addition of legumes. Hamrashi is no exception. For him, the meat should be scrolled through a meat grinder and combined with s alt and pepper. Add s alt and spices to a pot with boiled beans. Bring to a boil, form large meatballs from minced meat, put them in a saucepan and leave to boil.

Prepare unleavened dough from flour and water, roll into a very thin layer and cut into small strips. Send the resulting noodles to the pan with beans and meatballs. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat.

Serve generously sprinkled with chopped cilantro, basil, mint, coriander and parsley.

Azerbaijani okroshka ovdukh

Azerbaijani-style okroshka is made not on kvass, but on fermented milk drink matsoni. The composition of the ovdukh includes boiled eggs, fresh cucumbers, green onions, cilantro, dill and garlic, mashed with s alt. All of the above components must be cut, put on a plate and pour matsoni. The ingredients are combined just before serving, and before that they are stored separately in the refrigerator.

Sometimes pieces of boiled lean beef are added to okroshka.

Chagyrtma

National dishes of Azerbaijan rarely leave anyone indifferent. This also applies to chagyrtma. The composition of the tasty and nutritious food includes a lot of onions, chicken meat with bones, eggs, butter, bell peppers, freshtomatoes, aromatic herbs and dry spices.

The chicken must be cut into small pieces, 60 grams each, s alt, sprinkle with spices, pour a little grape vinegar and leave to marinate.

1 kg of tomatoes dipped in boiling water and peeled.

One and a half kilograms of onions thinly cut, s alt, add pepper, zira, saffron infusion and simmer in a cauldron until soft, puree. To prevent the onion from burning, add hot water little by little, but not oil.

Butter, 200 grams, mixed with onions, 45 minutes after the start of stewing.

After another 5 minutes, put the chicken pieces in the onion and simmer everything together for about 30 minutes.

8-10 eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a whisk until a smooth creamy mass is obtained. Pour it into the cauldron, stirring constantly.

Immediately after that, cut the tomatoes into small pieces and send to the cauldron. Chop the bell pepper and greens there. Bring to a boil and turn off. Serve hot on individual serving plates.

Lula-kebab

Lulya-kebab is a kind of minced meat skewers. To cook it, you need to get special flat skewers.

Minced meat is traditionally made with fatty lamb, onion, cilantro, basil, parsley, s alt and ground spices - pepper, sumac and cumin.

Short thick sausages are formed from minced meat and strung on skewers, and then fried on the grill. To make the minced meat viscous, it is passed through twicemeat grinder or knead for a long time in an electric combine with knives. After that, the minced meat is beaten on the table and placed for 30 minutes in a cold place. Even without eggs, after such preparation, it clings very tightly to the skewer without losing its shape. Ready-made sausages are placed on thin pita bread and eaten with warm yoghurt.

Pita bread is made from unleavened dough consisting of flour, water and s alt. So that when folding the kebab, cracks do not appear on it, it should turn out to be thin and plastic, therefore, Azerbaijani lavash is not fried in oil, but baked in a tandoor and used for kebab not immediately, but after it has rested and becomes soft. Since not everyone has a tandoor, it is successfully replaced by a cast-iron frying pan with a thick bottom.

Dolma

Dolma are very small cabbage rolls wrapped in grape leaves instead of cabbage.

Minced meat is made from lamb, boiled rice, mashed peas, onions, s alt, pepper and cilantro, basil, parsley and celery. Rice and peas take half as much as meat. Spicy leaves are chopped very finely, and the meat, along with onions, is passed through a meat grinder. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed and put with a teaspoon on grape leaves scalded with boiling water. The leaves are wrapped and dipped in s alted boiling water. Cooking time - 30-40 minutes. Dolma is eaten hot, seasoned with matsoni.

Khinkali

Azerbaijani Khinkali - unleavened dough products resembling noodles, only largerchopped. Nothing is added to the dough except water and wheat flour. In the cuisines of other nations, khinkali is a cross between dumplings and manti, that is, stuffed. Khinkali in Azerbaijani - simple flat squares of dough. They are added to a variety of first and second courses. Khinkali is also served separately, with some kind of sauce, for example, garuda sauce and guimya meat.

For guilleme, minced meat is stewed with spices and grape vinegar until soft.

Garud - a sauce made from yoghurt and garlic mashed with s alt.

Put khinkali boiled in s alted water on a plate, put guima on them, pour garuda on top and sprinkle with chopped herbs.

Kutabs

To make Azerbaijani-style kutabs with meat, you need to prepare dough and minced meat.

The dough requires wheat flour, a little bit of s alt and water. It is kneaded quite coolly so that you can roll out a thin cake, from which cut out circles with a diameter of 17-19 cm. Put minced meat in the middle, fold the dough in half, like on pasties, close the edges tightly. Fry in a pan with oil.

Azerbaijani-style kutabs with meat are prepared from lamb, so they should be eaten hot, sprinkled with sour sumac. Onion, pieces of sour cake made from dried apricots and other fruits, pomegranate juice, s alt and pepper are added to the minced meat.

Churek Shaker

This is a traditional sweet food served with tea. It is very easy to prepare it. From 1 kg of wheat flour, two whipped proteins, halfa kilogram of butter and the same amount of powdered sugar, you need to knead the dough and roll it into balls. Dip each ball in egg yolk and place on a baking sheet lined with Teflon paper. Bake in a hot oven until golden brown. Put the ready-made shaker-churek balls on a dish and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with vanilla or cinnamon.

Fiernie

Firni is another dessert dish resembling a very thick jelly or milk porridge. It is not much more difficult to make than a shaker-churek, and its unusual taste and texture will surprise those who are not familiar with Azerbaijani cuisine. For firni, you need rice flour (100 g), half a liter of milk, a tablespoon of ghee, the same amount of sugar, a little s alt and ground cinnamon.

If there is no rice flour, then use ordinary white rice, grinding it in a coffee grinder. Rice flour is poured into boiling milk in a thin stream, sugar and s alt are added and boiled over low heat, making sure that it does not burn. At the very end, pour in the butter and mix thoroughly. Serve guests pouring into cups and sprinkling cinnamon on top.