Uzbekistan Salad is a relatively new recipe that appeared in Soviet times when the first restaurant with Uzbek cuisine was opened in Moscow . It is a joint work of Asian and Moscow technologists.
Some features of Uzbek cuisine
Uzbek cuisine has its own characteristics and traditions. For example, it mainly uses lamb, and it is cooked or baked on bones. Beef is used less often, but pork and poultry dishes are practically not cooked. The fish also did not take root here. Uzbek chefs use salt, red pepper, cumin, cumin, coriander, barberry, sesame, basil, dill as seasonings. An additional component for many dishes - soups, salads - is suzma and katyk (these are fermented milk products prepared in a special way). Garlic, which is so popular in Russia, is used extremely rarely. The most popular vegetables are onions, carrots, turnips, pumpkins. But locals do not recognize eggplants and mushrooms at all. In soups, which are always fatty and rich, add cereals, chopped beans, sorghum. Instead of bread, cakes are served on the table.
The following describes how to properly prepare the Uzbekistan salad. It’s worth saying right away that the recipe is not very simple.
Ingredients for this dish
To cook a real salad "Uzbekistan" with radish, you need to try. Firstly, it contains ingredients that are unusual for many, and secondly, the cooking process itself has its own characteristics. But the taste of this Asian dish is excellent - fresh, with a light spiciness, a spicy finish and a very mouth-watering aroma!
Products that you will need:
- white radish - 300 g;
- beef pulp - 500 g;
- a fatty piece of lamb brisket - 500 g;
- large carrots - 2 pcs.;
- large onions - 1 pc.;
- large quince - 1 pc.;
- cold water with pieces of ice;
- wheat flour - 1 tablespoon;
- sunflower oil for frying;
- Suzma - 4-5 tablespoons;
- black and red ground pepper, zira, bay leaf, salt.
Uzbekistan Salad: classic recipe
If you are not afraid of unusual game ingredients, then get down to work. The cooking process is time-consuming, so you need to start cooking this dish in advance, and not an hour before the arrival of guests, who, of course, will be pleased with the Uzbekistan salad. Follow the instructions given below step by step.
First you need to cook the meat. To do this, put the beef together with lamb, halve the carrots, large pieces of quince, bay leaf, grate with a mixture of salt, black pepper, zira. Tie all this with a scourge and dip in boiling water. Simmer for about 1-1.5 hours.
While the meat is being cooked, you need to peel the radish, cut it into large uneven pieces (as if breaking off another piece with a knife) and lower it into cold salted water with ice.
Cut onions into large rings, sprinkle with flour, then put in a sieve and shake off excess flour. Deep-fry the onion (a large amount of sunflower oil) until golden brown. Remove the onion from the cauldron (deep pan), transfer to a napkin to remove excess fat. After sprinkle onion with a mixture of spices from salt, red pepper and zira.
Remove the cooked meat from the stove, cool. Now all the components are ready.
We collect the salad "Uzbekistan"
First put the radish in a deep bowl, after drying it on a paper towel. Lay a layer of suzma on the radish, then - meat cut into large strips, lay the fried onion on top. Then mix well.
Of course, you can cook this dish like an ordinary olivier - put all the ingredients in a bowl in any order and mix with suzma. But the Uzbek cooks put all the ingredients in exactly the same order as described above.
Some secrets
The landlady, who undertook to cook the Uzbekistan salad, should know that the onions are sprinkled with flour before frying so that it becomes crispy.
Hot spices are necessarily sprinkled with spices so that it incorporates all the aromas.
It is correct that the meat cools in the broth in which it was cooked.
For this dish, you can use not boiled beef, but baked. First, fill a piece with fat tail fat (it is important not to confuse it with another!), Carrots, quinces, grate with salt, black allspice, zira and any other spices that are traditionally used in oriental cuisine. And then bake in foil in the oven until cooked. By the way, such meat can be served as an independent cold dish.
You can also use a good large piece of fat mutton for salad preparation, fried over low heat with onions, carrots and spices.
Salad "Uzbekistan" will not lose if it is decorated with chopped herbs.
Simplified Recipe
It’s quite difficult to make a real Uzbekistan salad. The culinary recipe can be simplified by adapting it to Russian realities. This is very easy to do, replacing some of the ingredients with the more familiar and affordable for us. Yes, and such a dish is prepared much faster. The taste of the salad from this will not get worse, it just loses the oriental zest.
So, the radish can simply be cut into large strips and not soaked in salty cold water.
You can take any meat (except chicken and rabbit), boiled in spices or smoked.
Suzma is best replaced with unsweetened natural yogurt. It most closely resembles the taste of this oriental fermented milk product, which, by the way, can be prepared independently, but this is another article. Or you can replace Suzma with regular mayonnaise. Although in this case the Uzbekistan salad with radish will completely lose its oriental notes, it will nevertheless remain very tasty and satisfying.
Uzbek salad dressing options
Upon learning that the Russians were filling Uzbekistan salad with ordinary mayonnaise, Asian culinary specialists were upset and suggested dressing options that could be an alternative to suzma. But they are also prepared in advance.
Option 1. Pour ordinary vinegar into a small bottle, add dill seeds, coriander, ground red pepper in half a teaspoon (you can take any spices to your liking). Also pour in a separate bottle of sunflower oil, in which put slices of red hot pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic. Insist everything for one week. Mix and use as an aromatic ingredient for an Asian salad.
Option 2. In a blender chop the herbs of dill, cilantro, celery, basil and a little hot green capsicum. Mix with a dressing of oil and vinegar.
Option 3. Strain the sunflower oil that remains after deep-frying the onions (you need 200 ml, if less is obtained, then add fresh oil to this volume). Add any oriental seasonings to it. Put a clove of garlic in the bowl, egg yolk (the egg should be warm, not from the refrigerator), grind with a blender. Without ceasing to mix, carefully, half a teaspoon, add sunflower oil with seasonings. At the end, pour in the juice of half a lemon.
Now you know how to cook a real Uzbekistan salad, the recipe of which is described in detail in the article.