The best recipes of Dungan cuisine

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

Every housewife dreams of delighting her family and guests with a rich table with incredibly delicious meals. It is especially pleasant if you manage to pamper loved ones with dishes from cuisines of different peoples of the world. Today we will plunge you into the world of the East. And we will teach you how to cook the best dishes of Dungan cuisine. Let's talk about this people and its difficult history. We will also share the best Dungan cuisine recipes with photos and step-by-step descriptions.

Who are the Dungans?

Dungans are an incredibly hardworking and patient people who live on the territory of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. These representatives of the young nation are the descendants of the Chinese-speaking peoples who converted to Islam.

There is a rather interesting legend associated with the emergence of the Dungan nation. One day, a Chinese emperor dreamed of a terrible monster that wanted him dead. In a dream, an unfamiliar young man, dressed in green robes, helped him to cope with this monster, who simply disappeared after the battle. In the morning, having called all the sages and interpreters of dreams, he ordered that the meaning of the dream be explained to him as soon as possible. The sages easily explained to him that the monster in a dream meant the enemies of the empire, and the young man is a new religion (Muslim), with the help of which it will be possible to avoid bloody wars.

Emperorsent ambassadors to Arabia asking for help. Persian and Arab warriors helped the Chinese fight the nomads. And marriages concluded with Chinese women gave rise to a new ethnic community - the Dungans.

For three days after the wedding, there was a ban on accepting complaints from the girls' parents about where they took their daughters. Only on the fourth day they were allowed to see their now married daughters. Since then, and to this day, a custom has been established according to which, after the wedding, the bride's parents bring chopped noodles, snacks and meat.

Dungan cuisine

Cooking has a special place in the life of the Dungans. The vocation of every Dungan woman is to be a neat and good housewife who knows how to cook all national dishes. Even when choosing a bride, they first carefully find out if she knows how to cook, only then they start matchmaking.

The photos of Dungan cuisine make you salivate - national drugs look so appetizing that you immediately want to cook every dish. All this is due not only to delicious and natural products, but also to the special principle of cleanliness in the kitchen "gandin", which means that the kitchen room must be dry and clean.

A mandatory condition for Dungan cuisine is its separate location from living rooms. Not a single housewife will leave unwashed dishes for the night, which, according to existing beliefs, attracts evil spirits into the house. Dungan cuisine recipes are a delicious combination of meat, vegetables, spices and rice. From meat, the main preference is givenlamb and beef. In the following sections, we will look at Dungan cuisine recipes with photos.

Main course - rice with meat and vegetables

In Dungan cuisine, a special place is occupied by rice, which very often even replaces bread. Among the variety of rice dishes on the national menu, there is one that is most often preferred.

To prepare it, boil rice, which must be thoroughly washed and sorted before cooking. The Dungans use a very interesting way of cooking rice - first they pour water into the cauldron and put a grate in it, which is covered with cloth on top. Rice is poured onto the cloth, the cauldron is tightly closed and boiled over low heat for no more than half an hour.

Cooked rice is laid out in portioned guest bowls for each guest. Snacks for rice are laid out on a common plate - these are vegetables stewed with meat, and salads from fresh and pickled vegetables, as well as sauerkraut according to a special recipe. And already from the common plate, each guest puts into his bowl only what he wants.

Dungan lagman recipe

Dungan cuisine has a fairly large number of dishes with homemade noodles. There are several recipes for branded lagman, but we will focus on the most popular one.

To make noodles, you will need 1 kg of flour, a tablespoon of s alt, a couple of tablespoons of oil and water. It is necessary to knead a tight dough, then roll it very thinly and cut into noodles. For saucefry 250 grams of fresh lamb, cut into small pieces. Add a couple of onions, cut into half rings, and 8-9 bell peppers to the meat. Saute the vegetables until the onion is golden. Add 3-4 tomatoes, fry for a few more minutes, then pour in a glass of water. Stew meat with vegetables for some more time and remove from heat. This sauce is served with noodles combined with garlic and pepper seasoning.

Dungan Manti

Manty is another popular Dungan dish. To prepare the dough, use the same recipe as for the noodles. The filling for manti is prepared from lamb cut into small pieces, chopped onion, melted interior fat and s alt. The ratio of meat and onions is 1:1, meat and fat is 1:0, 1.

Shape the dough into small balls the size of a walnut, roll out thin cakes and fill them with stuffing. Pinch the manti beautifully and steam them until tender. Serve them with tomato sauce or pepper seasoning.

Sweet tea

Since the Dungans are very strict about the dry law established within their people, their favorite drink is sweet tea. Such a drink is prepared directly in cups, pouring one spoonful of tea leaves and the same amount of sugar. Pour boiling water over and let steep. This tea is always served after dinner or other meals.