Recipes with pomegranate sauce narsharab. Why serve narsharab sauce besides meat? Learning the basics of Caucasian cuisine

Narsharab sauce belongs to Azerbaijani cuisine and is made from pomegranate. The sauce goes well with both meat and fish dishes. It’s even amazing how from a completely minimal amount of products you can get such an incredibly rich sauce in both color and taste. Now is the time for pomegranates, and you can cook this sauce quite inexpensively and even make stocks for future use.

We'll need grenades, lots of grenades. All other ingredients in this recipe are optional. You can add spices, salt, sugar or not. There are a huge number of varieties of sauce that differ precisely in additives. I will prepare my narsharab sauce with cinnamon, oregano and sugar, and in the end it will turn out very tender.

First you need to break the pomegranates into halves, for this you need to cut off the top and bottom of the fruit (peel) and make one longitudinal cut along the peel, then open the pomegranate with a little effort.

Then comes the time of the monotonous process of extracting grains from the fruit. After all the grains have been removed, be sure to remove pieces of peel or film that could accidentally get to the grains during the cleaning process.

We put the grains in a saucepan and put the saucepan on the fire.

Stir constantly with a wooden spatula. Not only that, we try to squeeze out the juice with a spoon, you can use a potato crusher for this purpose, BUT it must be made of wood.

We keep the grains on fire until they turn white. Then pour the contents of the pan into a colander, after placing a bowl under the colander to collect the juice.

We grind the grains very hard in a colander - until all the juice is extracted. Pour the finished juice back into the pan, add sugar and spices and evaporate over low heat for 1-1.5 hours.

This is such a beautiful sauce we should get. The color depends on the original color of the pomegranate seeds and on the degree of evaporation. The consistency of narsharab sauce will be similar to liquid sour cream. From 1 kg of grains I got 200 ml of sauce.

Pour the sauce into a jar and close the lid, store in the refrigerator.

This sauce is very good for meat and fish. We love pouring sauce.

Pomegranate sauce is a very unusual dressing, and few people know where it is used. Let's see what dishes this sauce is suitable for, and how to cook them.

Pomegranate sauce is made from ripe pomegranate seeds. They are squeezed, and the resulting juice is boiled several times and seasoned with various spices.

Of course, like any unusual product, "Narsharab" arouses genuine interest among housewives. And first of all, I want to understand what pomegranate sauce is eaten with.
It goes best with meat. They are poured over a ready-made meat dish or make a marinade. This pomegranate sauce softens even the toughest fibers very well and at the same time gives the dish a special piquant taste.
In addition, the dressing goes well with vegetables, such as beans.
Even stews are seasoned with sauce.
Some simply dip slices of bread into it and enjoy the taste.

Classic homemade pomegranate sauce

Required products:

Salt and other spices to your taste;
three kilograms of ripe pomegranates.

Cooking process:

1. First, free the grains from the peel and white streaks. You should be left with only "ruby tears" in their pure form, everything else can be thrown away.
2. Transfer them to some deep container and crush with a spoon or crush to release the juice.
3. Then put it on the stove and heat until the grains turn white. At the same time, they need to be mixed all the time.
4. Pass the resulting mass through a sieve to separate the juice and pulp.
5. Return the container to the stove again and simmer the pure juice over low heat until it thickens. After that, season the composition with spices and the sauce is ready.

Turkish sauce recipe

Pomegranate sauce from Turkey is prepared very simply and practically does not differ from the classic version. It is great for marinating fish and meat.

Required products:

Three kilograms of pomegranates.

Cooking process:

1. Peel the fruits from the peel, separate the grains and smash them in a juicer to make juice. If this device is not available, then use a pusher or the most ordinary spoon.
2. Strain the juice through a sieve or cheesecloth, remove the pulp and grains, leaving only the juice. This is where the sauce is made from.
3. Pour it into a saucepan, make a slow fire and keep it on the stove until the liquid becomes thick enough, about the same as ryazhenka in consistency.
4. Divide the prepared dressing into glass jars or bottles and use as needed.

Chicken with pomegranate sauce

Chicken in pomegranate sauce is just an incredible dish. The dressing makes the meat tender, juicy, and the crust is simply delicious.

It only requires a few ingredients.

Required products:

A spoonful of vegetable oil;
one chicken carcass;
spices to your taste;
two tablespoons of pomegranate sauce.

Cooking process:

1. Rinse the meat well and let it dry or speed up the process with paper towels.
2. Rub the chicken with seasonings (such as salt and pepper), you can use other spices that are combined with chicken.
3. Mix pomegranate sauce with vegetable oil, and spread chicken with half of the total mixture. Then bake it for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees.
4. After this time, take out the dish, brush it again with the sauce that remains, and put it in the oven for another half an hour at the same temperature.

Use for marinating meat for barbecue

Of course, pomegranate sauce is very good for making barbecue marinade. But before you lower the pieces of meat into this sauce, you need to know how much it will take, and after what period of time the kebab can begin to fry.
It is necessary to keep the meat in a solution using pomegranate sauce for at least 10 hours. Ideally - about 15 - 20 hours.
The total amount of marinade should be such that the pieces of meat do not float in it, but simply cover well and evenly.

Basic marinade recipe

Required products:

Half a glass of sauce;
several bulbs;
spices for barbecue to taste.

Cooking process:

1. We interrupt a little onion through a blender or grind it, and cut what is left into rings. Mix everything with pomegranate sauce.
2. Put the selected seasonings there and mix the ingredients thoroughly.
3. Portionally cover the meat with the dressing made and leave for 10 - 12 hours.

Perfect marinade for beef

Required products:

a tablespoon of pomegranate sauce;
four tablespoons of lemon juice;
three bulbs;
one and a half tablespoons of mustard;
other seasonings to taste.

Cooking process:

1. Cut the onion and mix with meat. We combine the rest of the ingredients from the list and fill the meat with them. Don't forget to add spices.
2. Mix everything well and leave the kebab for about a day, after which it can be fried.

How to cook delicious pork

Required products:

A piece of pork pulp;
any spices to your liking;
three tablespoons of pomegranate sauce.

Cooking process:

1. Rinse the pork, let it dry and cut into medium portions, but not more than one and a half centimeters thick.
2. Sprinkle them with your chosen spices (such as salt and pepper), pour over the pomegranate sauce, spread it evenly and leave the meat for about 60 minutes to soften it.
3. Put the prepared meat in a heated pan and fry it on medium heat on both sides until a golden crust appears.

Unusual salad with pomegranate sauce

Required products:

One sweet pepper;
15 cherry tomatoes;
pomegranate sauce - a spoon;
pine nuts to taste;
100 grams of arugula;
130 grams of Mozzarella;
salt and pepper;
one avocado;
slice of lemon.

Cooking process:

1. Rinse the arugula, wait until it dries, and put it in a salad bowl.
2. Send halved tomatoes and diced peppers there.
3. Mozzarella and avocado, also chop into squares, mix with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Sprinkle food with spices and sprinkle with a little lemon juice.
5. It remains only to fill the dish with sauce and mix it well to evenly distribute the latter. Put some toasted pine nuts in the salad.
Yes, dishes with such a sauce are certainly unusual, but they are really tasty and worth trying at least once.

Those who first heard the word "Narsharab" have a variety of associations. To some, it reminds the name of a distant southern resort or the name of a fabulous Shah. Someone will even remember "Massaraksh!" - a favorite curse of the inhabitants of the "World Inside Out", invented by the Strugatsky brothers.

In fact, narsharab is a wonderful sauce made from pomegranate seeds. It is worth trying it only once, and it will surely be remembered forever. The first acquaintance with its rich taste suggests the most complex technology and a variety of ingredients, thanks to which a wonderful thick texture and rich bouquet turned out. But narsharab sauce, the recipe of which came to us from Central Asia, can be prepared independently. To do this, it is not at all necessary to travel around the world in search of exotic products or complete cooking courses. This article will help you understand all the subtleties and features.

Required Products

If this delicious sauce is given to someone for the first time to try, they will probably suspect anything in it, but not for someone in its taste it seems wine, for someone berry or fruit syrups. But apart from fresh and ripe pomegranates and a pinch of your favorite spices, we don’t need anything.

When buying grenades, carefully consider their quality. It’s great if the seller allows you to cut the skin to make sure that the grains inside the fruit are not underripe and whitish, but poured with ruby ​​red juice, ripe and fragrant.

Azerbaijani way of cooking

In Azerbaijan, narsharab sauce, the recipe of which has been inherited for many centuries, is customary to cook immediately in huge portions. On average, one bookmark takes about 10 kg of pomegranate seeds! Consider how much you need such a huge amount of sauce. Perhaps you should start with a small portion? Perhaps, for the first time, a kilogram of fruit will be enough. From this amount you will get 200-250 grams of sauce, that is, a full gravy boat.

Put the pomegranate on the board, make 5 cuts on the fruit, as if you were going to divide the orange into slices. Then it will easily be divided into parts, and you can easily select all the grains without losing a drop of precious juice in the process.

Put all the grains in a saucepan, crush with a wooden pestle so that they let the juice go. Put the container on a small fire and start boiling the narsharab sauce.

The recipe, common in Azerbaijan, implies the presence of a small amount of seasonings and salt. But in no case do not add them immediately!

Boiling will last a long time, from one to two hours. The whitened bones that have surfaced will serve as a signal of the completion of the process. By that time, all the pulp will completely separate and the juice will completely come out of it. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, put it on fire again and wait until 2/3 of the original volume remains.

It's time for the spices. You can add some cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, dried herbs to narsharab. Try not to overdo it - this sauce is wonderful on its own.

Turkish narsharab

In Turkey, this sauce is simply adored. But they cook it a little differently. Local chefs are convinced that the wonderful taste of pomegranate does not need any additions, so they simply boil the juice to a thick cream and do not even salt the resulting sauce. Try to follow their example.

By the way, this method can save a lot of time. If you have the opportunity to purchase natural pomegranate juice, just boil it down to 1/5 part. Please note: nectar in a tetrapack is not suitable for this purpose!

Storage

Narsharab sauce, the recipe of which does not contain any chemical preservatives, keeps well. To save yourself from unnecessary worries, play it safe: pour jars with boiling water or steam. Use airtight containers to store narsharab. can be sent to the refrigerator, basement or cellar.

Narsharab in cooking: and fish

How to use pomegranate sauce? The use in cooking is very wide. It goes well with meat, fish, poultry and game. In the homeland of this sauce, it is served with lamb, veal, homemade bread. You should definitely try narsharab with grilled vegetables.

It perfectly tolerates heat treatment, meat can be watered with it during baking. But most often this sauce is served already with ready-made dishes, in a gravy boat or poured directly onto a plate.

Take a look at how appetizing a simple dish of baked meat, simply flavored with narsharab, looks like.

This culinary masterpiece is within the power of even a bachelor who does not shine with culinary talents. It will certainly impress the chosen one or make a splash at the bachelor party.

Marinade

Many people know that pomegranate is a wonderful ingredient for a marinade. It is enough to add a handful of crushed grains, and the meat will acquire a unique aroma and sourness in taste. Narsharab sauce is also suitable for these purposes. The marinade recipe is a matter of taste, someone likes the vinegar base, someone likes wine, someone likes kefir. The controversy of lovers of various marinades does not subside, but hardly any of them would be against adding a couple of spoons of pomegranate sauce to their favorite recipe.

Benefits and contraindications

It should be remembered that the delicious narsharab sauce, as well as rich in acids. In small quantities, they are useful, but even healthy people should not abuse this sauce. It is even more dangerous for those who have problems with high acidity. Everything is good in moderation.

Narsharab sauce contains many vitamins, microelements, amino acids, antioxidants. It is deservedly considered one of the most useful.

Only a lazy housewife will not want to show her imagination to please her loved ones with a dish like homemade sauce. Its taste cannot be compared with any canned product that is offered to customers in stores. Moreover, industrial products that are used to prepare seasonings leave much to be desired, their quality and freshness are always in doubt. And if you also take into account the various preservatives, food additives and flavors that are used in cooking, then the most correct decision will be to cook it at home.

Homemade sauces, such as pomegranate sauce, are a fresh, tasty, flavorful and high-quality dish. In addition, it does not take much time to prepare it, but there is an opportunity to save money.

What is sauce and its types

The word itself comes from France "sauce" - gravy. In culinary art, this dish is simply indispensable, it is universal in its own way. Any dish is seasoned with all sorts of gravies, which bring their zest, unforgettable taste and excellent aroma to the main dish.

Sauces are so diverse that you just can’t remember all the recipes. We can say one thing with certainty that home-made gravy will be special, since the hostess is given the opportunity to experiment and add spices, spices, seasonings to her taste.

According to the method of preparation, they are hot and cold, everything is extremely simple here, hot, those that are served hot, and cold, respectively, cold, that is, cooled down.

Sauces include marinades, syrups, pastes, dressings, mixtures that are used both for main dishes and salads, and for desserts.

Sweet sauces must contain fruits, berries, juices, and other ingredients.

Let's dwell on pomegranate sauce in more detail. Let's weigh the pros and cons of this dish. Let's find out with which dishes it goes perfectly and brings a refined taste.

If you decide to cook gravy from, then know that this is an ideal sauce for meat, fish dishes and dressings for various salads. As you can see, he found the main application in the culinary arts.

We should not forget about the beneficial properties of pomegranate, which is the main one in cooking:

1. In high content, which is necessary to improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
2. For those who suffer from a disease such as anemia, drinking pomegranate juice, in which there is a sufficient amount, and products prepared on its basis are also useful.
3. And yet, pomegranate sauce helps the digestive tract absorb food.

What is the trick of this dish, at its core it is pomegranate juice of strong concentration with the addition of spices. The maroon color gives the sauce the pomegranate, and the viscosity is achieved through the heat treatment process. To bring it to the desired consistency, it should be evaporated over low heat for the allotted amount of time.

Pomegranate sauce has a sweet, tart taste that can be made more aromatic by adding spices to it. The recipes below will help housewives prepare an addition to any dish of excellent taste.

To prepare a dish, you need to prepare special dishes. This is a sieve or colander in which pomegranate seeds are ground to separate the pulp from the seeds. And in order to avoid the oxidation process, you will need an enameled container and a wooden spoon.

Let's dwell on the recipe for the sauce of Azerbaijani cuisine. It is considered one of the universal. The meat cooked in it will be truly divine, soft and crispy at the same time.

Pomegranate Sauce Narsharab

In order to eventually get 1 kg of finished sauce, you will need the following products:

• pomegranate seeds 3 kg;
• , (dried);
• coriander.

Pour the pomegranate seeds into an enameled container and cook until the consistency of jam (readiness is determined by white pomegranate seeds), then turn the mass into a puree with a wooden crush, which should be filtered through a sieve (colander). The resulting juice continues to boil until the consistency of thick sour cream (20-30 minutes). Add the spices indicated in the recipe to the resulting mass and boil for another 5-10 minutes. Pomegranate sauce Narsharab is ready to use. The remaining product can be poured into glassware and stored in the refrigerator.

Turkish Pomegranate Sauce

In Turkey, pomegranate sauce is especially popular; it is served with meat, seafood, and also as dressings for fresh vegetable salads. And the barbecue marinated in it is simply magnificent.

A distinctive feature of pomegranate sauce from Turkey is that only pomegranate is present in its preparation.

In order to get the ruby ​​​​color of the sauce, you should choose fruits only with dark grains, sweet and sour in taste. 150-200 grams of sauce will come out of 2.5 kilograms of pomegranates.

Peel the washed and dried fruits from the peel and squeeze the juice on the juicer. Juice can also be squeezed out manually, through a sieve (this will take time).

Pour the resulting juice into an enamel bowl and bring to a boil over medium heat, after the appearance of bubbles, reduce the heat and continue to boil until thick.

The gravy is ready, but how to use it, decide for yourself, one thing will be indisputable, it will suit almost all dishes.

An ideal option for cooking chicken would be pomegranate sauce, it will easily cope with its task and the dish will be excellent, fried until golden brown, sweetish in taste, soft and spicy.

To prepare the dish, you will need the following products:

• chicken;
• bow 2 pcs;
• garlic 1 clove;
• pomegranate juice;
• basil;
• coriander;
• oregano (dry) 1 teaspoon;
• pepper;
• taste.

Let's start cooking. We prepare all the products, peel the garlic and onions, wash the chicken and dry it with a paper towel.

Squeeze out the juice from the garlic (crush in a mortar or crush with a knife), add spices, oregano, pepper, salt to it. Next, the sauce should be prepared from pomegranate juice, coriander and basil.

Place the pomegranate juice in an enamel bowl and evaporate it over low heat, add spices, basil and coriander three to four minutes before the end of cooking. The sauce should be thick.

Add the prepared sauce and vegetable oil to the spices and garlic. Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour the chicken cut into portions with the resulting marinade, adding sliced ​​\u200b\u200bonion to it. Let stand in a cool place for 30 minutes.

After waiting a certain time, the chicken can be fried or baked in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

Do not forget to serve Narsharab pomegranate sauce with the dish.

Shish kebab in pomegranate sauce

Preparing a great kebab is easy, for this it should be marinated in a sauce made from pomegranate.

Ingredients needed to prepare the dish:

• meat () 2 kg;
• oil (vegetable) 3 tablespoons;
• bow 4 pcs;
• pomegranate juice (natural) 500 ml;
• (ground);
• coriander;
• hops-suneli;
• salt to taste.

In order for the barbecue to be juicy and tasty, you should choose the right meat. The most suitable parts of meat carcasses for this dish are ribs, neck, thigh.

Without fail, whatever meat you choose, it must be fresh.

Before marinating the kebab, it is necessary to wash the meat under a running water and dry it with a paper towel, then cut it into pieces of 5 cm / 5 cm.

Cut the onion into slices and add to the meat, mix. Add spices (pepper, suneli hops, ground coriander) to the pomegranate juice, stirring constantly. Pour the meat with the resulting mixture. Attention, it should not float in the marinade. Let it stand for ten minutes, then add vegetable oil and mix everything again. After that, cover the kebab with a plate, on which to place the load, so that it is all in the sauce, and put in the cold (up to 10 hours, and the ideal time is 48 hours).

After the meat has passed the marinating process, it is strung on skewers (tightly pressing the pieces to each other), and fried on a fire, in the process of cooking, the remaining sauce is poured over. To make it juicy, it is necessary to turn the skewers twice during the entire frying time.

The readiness of the dish can be judged by its ruddy crust and aroma. The finished dish is served on the table with pomegranate juice gravy.

I tried Narsharab sauce only in commercial editions, and with them I clearly understood 3 points:

1. As with all oriental dishes, the level of Narsharab depends very much on the quality of preparation and the freshness of the ingredients themselves. Because this cuisine primarily stands on such pillars as the experience and skill of the chef, his knowledge of the many nuances of oriental cuisine and the ability to “feel” the products, the sequence of their preparation and their combinations. And last but not least, the variety and high cost of exotic ingredients. As a result, the brand and price of purchased Narsharab are of great importance, because if you replace a natural product here with flavors identical to natural, and if the sauce was prepared using the most elementary recipe without frills, nothing good will come of it.

We bought the first Narsharab with my sister in some grocery boutique, we went specially for the sauce. Some unknown, rare brand for Russia, expensive (even then, before all the crises, it cost 400-plus-rubles), I tried the sauce before cooking and then with meat. By itself, it seemed specific, but quite tasty and interesting, even multifaceted somewhere; in a dish - divine.

And then she bought Narsharab Kinto herself - that's exactly the same as in the main picture here. It cost me less than 100 rubles, but I took it, because I did not believe that the rich pomegranate taste could be spoiled by something. So what ... Kinto, compared to the "real" sauce, turned out to be like heaven and earth. Kinto - some kind of tearing taste, plus at the same time sugary and sour. Rubbish on its own, in a better dish.

And then I bought another brand again, but even cheaper than Kinto (in principle, I was surprised by the fact that Kinto, it turns out, is one of the brands in the middle price category, and not the cheapest - as it would be, judging only by taste ) - and that sauce was even worse!

2. It is not enough just to pour the sauce to the fried meat into the pan and then mix and stew / fry together, as they say in many recipes on the net. With Narsharab sauce, you still need to know how to cook! And you won’t get by with one sauce and meat: other well-defined ingredients are required. Even meat is worth taking, apparently, specific, well, not beef for sure) The meat for this sauce should have a delicate fatty taste. So IMHO lamb, pork, rabbit. Maybe a turkey, a quail.

After the first personal cooking experience, a second one followed, because there was still a lot of sauce due to the overly strong taste of the latter. I didn’t hope for anything worthwhile, but, having poured a little less sauce and managed to make the meat softer, I got the option a little tastier. And that's it. I simply didn’t buy Narsharab sauce anymore, because it takes too much time, effort and additional costs if you want to get something worthwhile out of it.

3. Again, like all oriental dishes, it is better to cook this sauce yourself, but with skill - and you need to learn this from the pros from the east: it will come out cheaper, and certainly tastier, and more correct. Oriental dishes in general should be exactly right, real)