Uzbek Food: A Culinary Journey

Uzbek cuisine is one of the most colorful in Central Asia and has a centuries-old history and reflects the unique customs and traditions of the people. In every Uzbek home, a guest will be greeted with a bowl of fragrant green tea. The Uzbeks have a unique tea ceremony: a freshly brewed drink is poured into a bowl three times and returned to the teapot. It is believed that only after this will the tea reveal its full aroma and taste. As a sign of respect for the guest, the host will pour the drink only up to half the volume of the bowl and, placing his right hand on his heart, serve tea with his left. Fresh flatbreads baked in an old-fashioned way in a clay oven - tandoor - are also served on the table.

We invite you to take a short gastronomic tour of Uzbekistan. Here they prepare dishes for true gourmets and connoisseurs of oriental hospitality.

PILAF (Oshi Palav) is a dish for true gourmets and connoisseurs of oriental cuisine. There are more than 100 recipes for plov in the world, and in Uzbekistan it is special. Each region of Uzbekistan can boast of its own unique recipe for cooking plov.

In Uzbekistan, plov has long been an indispensable dish for family celebrations, be it the birth of a child, a wedding, a funeral, or the return of a person from the great Hajj pilgrimage.

There is even a saying that guests can leave the house only after they have tasted the pilaf prepared by the hosts. Palov is a traditional dish that every resident of Uzbekistan should be able to cook.

Manti is a dish made of dough and filling, which is steamed. The secret is in the right dough and the juiciest filling.
Chopped beef is usually used as a filling, less often - lamb. There are manti with pumpkin and potatoes.
The dough is rolled out into portions, the filling is placed in the center and the manti are formed into an envelope or a bow. Although, in fact, there are many ways to mold it. Manti are steamed in a manty cooker (a steamer) for 30-40 minutes (depending on the filling). A bowl of kaymak (a fermented milk product similar to sour cream) is served with the dish.

If we list the most popular Uzbek dishes, we cannot help but mention the most famous Uzbek fast food – samsa. Only, unlike other “street food”, one samsa in Uzbekistan can not only fill you up, but also overeat.
This dish of Uzbek cuisine is present at every feast. Samsa is usually cooked in a tandoor (national oven). Samsa is made in different shapes and sizes.
Uzbek samsa can be with chopped meat and minced meat, with or without fat tail fat, with potatoes and pumpkin, with mushrooms and greens, with chicken and cheese, with peas and even with sweet jam.
Most often, samsa is made from puff pastry.

Spanish gazpacho, Russian borscht, Japanese ramen and Georgian kharcho are known all over the world. But what about Uzbek shurpa? This dish is the king of all soups in Uzbekistan! A wonderful dish - healthy, nutritious, appetizing, has its origins in ancient times and reflects the rich culture of the entire Uzbek people. Shurpa is an integral part of the Uzbek national cuisine. The shurpa broth should be rich and strong. The Uzbeks have a saying: "Good meat makes good shurpa", so the broth is usually cooked from lamb. Vegetables for shurpa are cut into large slices to preserve vitamins and taste. At the end of cooking, spices, salt and herbs are added to the dish. Classic Uzbek shurpa is a tasty dish with a clear broth. Shurpa is especially good in cold weather!

Nahut shurak in Samarkand?
It's all about the way this aromatic dish made from lamb and chickpeas is served. It's served on slices of a special Samarkand flatbread called gallasiye. These are very dense and heavy flatbreads, each at least a kilogram. If you put slices of this flatbread in broth, they won't get soggy, but will only slowly absorb the liquid, keeping their shape. All attempts to bake gallasiye flatbread outside the Samarkand region have ended in failure. They tried to export a tandoor made from local clay, and flour, and even Samarkand water. It just doesn't work out, and that's it! Not planning to go to Samarkand anytime soon? So, all that's left is to find a worthy replacement for gallasiye, cook nuhat shurak and serve it in your own way.

..There is no tastier bread than Samarkand flatbread. A real Samarkand flatbread should be fit for consumption for three years. To do this, it was enough to sprinkle it well with water and heat it in a tandoor (a clay oven where flatbreads are baked). All people who have visited Samarkand at least once will not leave without Samarkand flatbreads. They come in different sizes: small with sesame, large, covered with glaze and always incomparably delicious, so it is not surprising that legends are composed about them.

In Central Asian countries, shashlik is called "kabob", but in Uzbekistan, even in catering establishments, you will hardly come across this name. And if you ask: "Where can I try kabob?", you will most likely be recommended kazan-kabob, which has nothing to do with shashlik.
Shashlik is pieces of marinated meat, strung on a skewer and fried over coals. Fruit firewood is needed for shashlik. The traditional type of shashlik is considered to be beef with fat tail fat - when fat and meat are alternated when strung, and the shashlik turns out very juicy.
Meat for shashlik is always marinated. There are many marinades - each cook has his own secrets, because the taste of the dish depends not only on the quality of the meat and the type of firewood, but also on the marinade. In Uzbekistan, they love beef and lamb shashlik, and lula kebab (ground shashlik), and zhigar (liver shashlik), and chicken, and vegetable, and mushroom, and even fish and quail (bedona) shashlik.
Shashlik is served with onions sprinkled with vinegar.