Uzbek dish with dumplings. "Chuchvara": recipe

Uzbek dumplings are a wonderful and tasty national dish. It differs from ordinary dumplings in the way it is molded and in its serving. Uzbek families usually have a lot of people: children, daughters-in-law, brothers and sisters, parents. Therefore, dumplings are prepared by the female half of the house in a simplified version and are always served with liquid, be it broth or sour milk. The task is to feed everyone, and that everyone has enough.

The filling for Uzbek dumplings is usually beef, sometimes lamb is added. To make the filling juicier, I added a little vegetable oil to the minced meat. It is not felt in any way in taste, but the stuffing itself softens very much.

This time I cook dumplings and serve them with the same broth in which they were boiled, making vegetable frying. This is the most common way of serving, as is the addition of sour milk with herbs to the broth. My Ukrainian soul is always satisfied after tasting this delicious dish.

To prepare Uzbek dumplings, we will take the main products.

Whisk the egg in water, adding salt and flour. Add flour gradually, not all at once. You may need a little more or a little less, depending on the gluten.

Knead a tight dough. Knead the dough on the table until it stops sticking to your hands and to the table. Cover the dough with a towel and leave for 15 minutes. Then knead again without adding flour. The dough becomes obedient, soft and almost does not require dusting with flour.

Mix minced meat with ground onion. You can immediately skip the meat with onions through a meat grinder or add onions separately by rubbing it on a grater or chopping it in any other convenient way. We love to add hot peppers to minced meat. Pour half a glass of water and vegetable oil. Salt to taste. Stir until smooth and uniform. How to try minced meat for salt? It is enough to lick it lightly with your tongue, it is not at all necessary to swallow it))))

Divide the dough into three parts. Roll out one part very thinly, until transparent.

Cut the dough sheet lengthwise into strips no more than 3-4 cm wide.

Then cut the strips across into identical small squares or rectangles.

Put a drop of minced meat in the center of the dough square and press it down, as shown in the photo. It is not at all necessary to connect the dough edge to edge, with a shift - even more interesting. So, in addition to the dense center with the filling, thin dough wings will turn out - the thinner they are, the more beautiful.

Blind such dumplings - chuchvara.

Put ready-made dumplings on a tray sprinkled with flour. You can freeze them right away.

The first. You can cook bone broth by adding onions, carrots, spices, salt to it. And already boil dumplings in it. Serve with broth.

Second. Boil dumplings in salted water, adding roasted onions and carrots, plus spices to taste.

Third. Boil dumplings in salted water, but serve them with sour milk, vinegar, herbs, adding a little liquid in which the dumplings were boiled. Salt and pepper - to taste.

This time I chose the second method of preparation.

Prepare a roast of finely chopped onions and grated carrots.

Dip the chuchvara in boiling salted water (you can add bay leaves and allspice to the water), add the frying and cook for another 5 minutes after the dumplings float.

Serve Uzbek dumplings with broth and fresh herbs.

There are ideas that are so simple that they could not help but come to mind, no matter where people live. For example, wearing a hat. Or cook meat by wrapping it in dough. It is no coincidence that the idea of ​​dumplings covered a whole continent - from Yakutia to Lebanon.
But just as you can guess where a person comes from from a traditional hat, you can tell a lot about the culinary traditions of the region from dumplings.
For example, Uzbek dumplings - chuchvara, reveal the character of Uzbek cuisine no worse than the great Uzbek pilaf. And, importantly, dumplings tell about the other side of Uzbek cuisine, not the front, but everyday, less wasteful, but no less bright and tasty.

Uzbek traditions do not approve of wastefulness at all. The question "how to make it tastier" here is more often solved by painstaking work than by using expensive products. But at the same time, the technology of small handmade work is rational to the point of admiration and thought out to the limit!
But let's talk about everything in order.

There should be no questions about minced meat - if you want it to sound Uzbek for you, put onions a little more than you are used to, simply because in Uzbekistan they put more onions in any dish. Eat, in addition to the self-evident black pepper, traditional Central Asian cumin and coriander. But meat in Uzbekistan would be taken what is, without much choice, because dumplings, in fact, are homemade, without frills. This is in front of the guests, or from a good life they begin to cook with lamb and even with fat tail fat, and not only because lamb in Uzbekistan is traditionally more expensive than beef, but for the most ordinary reason - in the opinion of any Uzbek, any dish with lamb is tastier. It tastes like this, you know?
So, if you want to feel the whole difference between chuchvara and traditional Russian dumplings, take half a part of tail fat for one part of lamb pulp, and much more onion than you usually take - for example, seven hundred grams of onion per kilogram of meat, no less. Season with coriander, black pepper, cumin, add dry herbs - the same coriander, basil, and if you wish, then also mint. To be honest, mint in minced meat is not quite common in Uzbekistan, so consider this point as my personal advice.

So about the test, I once again want to advise you to deviate from the traditional test for chuchvara, which is not much different from the Russian dumpling test. I suggest going in the direction of using a little more eggs and combining regular flour with durum wheat flour to make Italian durum pastas. It does not matter that durum was not delivered yesterday to the supermarket around the corner of your house - you will remember the name, and you will certainly come across flour, then buy it. While you can cook with plain flour.
So, for five eggs, a glass of water, salt, 700 grams of durum flour, and as much ordinary flour as the dough asks for. Or immediately put a kilogram of ordinary flour and gradually add more, how much it takes. What does it mean? You start kneading and add flour until the dough is very hard, so that its pieces no longer want to stick together. Wrap the dough in cling film, let it rest for thirty to forty minutes, and when it becomes softer, knead again.
Roll out the dough into one large, thin sheet.

Cut the sheet into squares 2.5 by 2.5 cm.

No spoon will be able to spread the minced meat on such small leaves, so take a lump of minced meat in one hand, and with the fingers of the other hand, quickly, quickly lay it out in squares.
Sculpting Uzbek dumplings, like Russian ones, would be better with three or four people. One person lays out the stuffing, and the rest sculpt, because a little more and the dough will dry out - you have to hurry!

Sculpting is very easy! You fold the leaf with a scarf.

Taped up the edges.

And now they wrapped the two lower edges of the scarf around the little finger - that's it!
You know, you can spend even less time - it’s enough to blind the upper corner of the scarf and the two lower corners with each other, the minced meat will already be held inside and will not fall out - many people do this and the chuchvara does not become less tasty from this.

Is it possible to somehow speed up this business using ingenious machines?
The ravioli machine lay idle for a long time. And I thought: if not this time, then when? After all, the content is more important than the form, and if the form of the ravioli contains minced meat that tastes Uzbek, then it will still remain chuchvara!
But alas, there was no time saving. First roll out the dough, then fold it in half, insert it properly.

Then install the minced meat hopper on top, lay the minced meat, tamp, and only then the most interesting begins. Twist your handle, and get a machine-gun belt with ready-made ravioli at the exit. It remains only to let them dry, and then separate.
Interestingly, did it ever occur to anyone to cook with a ribbon or large pieces, say, three by three? To divide them into pieces already in the plate? Let the eaters exercise!

However, it turned out that the Italian machine is designed for a thicker dough, not as thin as we are used to.
It turned out that the dough should be fairly dusted with flour, otherwise nothing will work.
And it also turned out that our minced meat is too thick for this machine - we need a thinner one.
Well, how to make it thinner? Take a bad meat grinder and squeeze the meat juice? Or take more onions? But everything is good in moderation, so the idea with onions is also not suitable ..

Look, I'm glad when I meet problems that make me think. For example, solving this problem prompted me to a very simple but successful idea. Yogurt! Katyk! Sour cream!
After all, in Uzbekistan, as in Russia, many people eat dumplings with sour cream or katyk. And someone - I heard - adds yogurt to minced meat for chebureks to make them juicier. And in Lebanon, they generally serve dumplings in sour-milk sauce.
So why not add yogurt directly to dumplings? Looking ahead, I will say - I really liked the result. And you, too, try, if religion does not prohibit.

But it would be somehow not our way, not Uzbek, to just boil dumplings and get drunk. Need sauce!

Everything is as usual: fry onions in oil, add turmeric, garlic, carrots, cumin and coriander.
Just don't let the words "as usual" discourage you. What does it mean to keep traditions? It means doing things as usual!

And this sauce absolutely fits into modern Uzbek traditions, because it is cooked as usual. After the carrots, put chopped or mashed tomatoes, let them fry. Out of season for fresh tomatoes and no canned, no salt and vinegar? Well, take a tomato paste, fry it and add some water. What is this product for? To replace missing tomatoes!

Sweet paprika, and perhaps in combination with hot chili pepper - you should definitely put it quite generously, because it is inexpensive and quite tasty.

Bulgarian pepper and dry herbs. Here celery is still rare in Uzbekistan. Well, nothing, once upon a time tomatoes were new, but now - go ahead, do without a tomato in Uzbek cuisine!

There would also be herbs called "jambul" for freshness, but since there is no jambul and it is not expected (it does not tolerate transportation well, and does not grow as it should in central Russia), then we will take thyme leaves.
In general, I want to say again about the ingredients and especially about spices and spices. No jambul? No garden savory harvested before flowering? Well, it is not necessary! Do you think you can't do anything without them?
Now, if you don’t have black pepper for minced meat, will you discard the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bpreparing dumplings because of this? And there will be no bay leaf, so you won’t boil them, right? Well, it's funny! Look at the main thing, stop rushing about because of the unimportant details. Everything will come with time, not immediately. Do you have onions, carrots, tomatoes? This is the main thing in this sauce, and not some kind of jambul. And the rest - no matter how it happens another time, buy it, let it lie at home, but don’t ask for bread. And the food will change every time, the taste will be richer and brighter.

Do not fry for a long time, add a little broth and reduce the heat to a minimum or, after it boils, completely remove from the heat and cover with a lid. Look, do you see the green pepper? This is optional. I love. In a man, when he eats, his forehead should sweat.

About the broth. I know for sure - after reading up to the word "broth" many will throw up their hands and either refuse chuchvara or go to Zimin. This is all because many have begun to live so well that they leave the bones in the bazaar, and bring home only the pulp so as not to tear their hands. This is wrong, comrades. Bones from the market must be taken. Butchers don't need them, and in the kitchen, where there is no broth, you look like yesterday's bride, who was sent to cook breakfast.
Boil five or six liters of good broth at once, pour into containers and freeze! And it takes up little space, and is stored for a long time and there is always something to eat.
Okay, if there is no broth yet, add water to the sauce, and I will wink at you in secret - it will still be very tasty. With broth it would be even better, but we will leave this idea for later.

So it would be better to cook dumplings in broth. But there is no broth, so put a saucepan of water on the stove, an onion there, carrots, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt - let it cook and it will also be very good!

First put the same sauce in the cash register.

Then dumplings, as much as they should.

Top up with the broth in which the dumplings were cooked. If you want, add a little more sauce, and if not, then be sure to finely chop the sweet lettuce onion, mix it with herbs and decorate with this bunch of dumplings.
It's hearty food, you know? Therefore, onions are necessary for digestion.

Tell me, does this chuchvara remind you of anything in this form? Do you remember Lagman? After all, the ingredients are the same, the form of serving is the same, and the dish ... even tastes different. Still, the form means something!

Can you not run right now to the refrigerator or to the dining room, but listen to me a little more? I want to talk to you on a very interesting topic.
What kind of name is this - chuchvara - what does it mean, did you think? Vara is a distorted from the Arabic varakh, Persian and Turkic varak, which means leaf in translation. Chuch is a corruption of the Persian dush - to cook. Boiled leaves - that's what the name of this dish means.
But boiled leaves with meat and onions (and tomatoes and bell peppers are superficial, recent) - this is beshbarmak. But the name Beshbarmak already has a successful, undoubted translation - five fingers. Listen, this is a clear adaptation, changing the word to a more convenient and meaningful form. I'm just absolutely sure, at first there were no fingers in the name of this great dish, but there was a warak, a barak - a leaf! Well, fingers could not appear there, just as a fork could not appear in the name of any European dish. Do not form the names of dishes from the tools with which they are eaten. From dishes - they form, from the method of preparation - please, from the form and content - very often. And the form and content of the current beshbarmak in the Kazakh version are the leaves!
The same thing happened with beshbarmak as with Ukrainian dumplings - the incomprehensible word varak, varaki was transformed into convenient and understandable dumplings - they are cooked! But right there, nearby, in Ukrainian cuisine there are pancakes - that's the thing.
Therefore, the root of all these dishes is the same - the same beshbarmak, boiled sheets of dough. The fact that these sheets began to be used for packing meat is a consequence of the fact that they wanted to make it more convenient for the consumer, so that he would not take meat separately, separately onions, separately dough, but here you have a finished product. And the meat did not turn into minced meat right away - it’s even more convenient for you, you don’t even need to chew the meat. And the dimensions of the product have reached comfortable, such that one product can be placed in the mouth at one time, also due to a completely logical development of the topic.

Why am I telling all this? Many chefs and amateur cooks undertake to invent new dishes. I think it's very good. The kitchen needs to evolve. But in order for development to go in the right direction, the chef must not only look back, but carefully study the foundation on which he stands - folk cuisine and its history.
These dumplings, chuchvara, dyushbara and anything else, up to dumplings, are tenacious and loved by the people because they were born and developed to please the eater, everything is done here for his convenience. You see, you don’t have to invent dishes to show your coolness or the genius abilities of your supplier. Meals should be easily reproducible in any kitchen, they should focus on convenience for the eater, they should be light and easy to transport. The fact that dumplings were later invented to be frozen and this turned out to be the most convenient preparation in the conditions of a long and cold Siberian winter is a consequence, not the cause of the appearance of dumplings. Stroganina and crackers are more rational, easier to manufacture and no less nutritious, and dumplings were also created for the soul, for the enjoyment of the eater, for pleasure. The combination of simplicity, taste and ease of use is the secret of their success and wide distribution. Now, no matter how you cook them, what filling you don’t put, what shape you don’t give - you can’t kill the idea, you can’t spoil the dish, unless you set yourself the goal of extracting as much dough from them as possible, but this does not concern us and thank God.

At the same time, dumplings are easily transformed from everyday food into a festive dish.
Tell me, if you serve these dumplings, ravioli-chuchvara not with broth, but with sauce - it will not turn out festive, will the table look bad? But it’s very convenient - you can stick and freeze them in advance, the sauce can also stand, nothing will happen to it, but put it all together and, please, the holiday is ready on the table!

Enjoy your meal!

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Step 1: prepare the dough and make blanks for dumplings.

Step 2: prepare the filling.

Step 3: prepare the greens.

Step 4: prepare barak-chuchvara (Uzbek dumplings).

Step 5: serve barak-chuchvara (Uzbek dumplings).

If you do not have the opportunity to cook meat broth, then you can make broth according to the following recipe. Cut the onion into half rings and fry in a pan with sunflower oil. Cut bell pepper into small pieces. Put the water to boil over high heat, add onion, bell pepper, bay leaf, pepper and salt.

Barak-chuchvara can also be served with sour milk and sprinkled with red ground pepper.

Onions in minced meat can not be scrolled in a meat grinder, but chopped finely, thanks to this, the dumplings will be more juicy.

Step 1: Cook the broth.

Step 2: Knead the dough.

Step 3: Prepare minced meat.

Step 4: Roll out the dough.

Step 5: We make dumplings.

Step 6: Cooking chuchvara.

Step 6: Serve chuchvara.

Send the remaining dumplings to freeze in the freezer, and use the next time to make chuchvara, having cooked only the meat broth.

Please note that the “dumplings” themselves should be small in size, a maximum of 4 cm.

If you still have no time to play with meat and chop it, use a meat grinder to prepare minced meat.

Chuchvara is a dish of Uzbek cuisine that will simply captivate you with its originality and unique taste. It cannot be called a ceremonial dish; the Uzbeks themselves cook it in their home circle. But this does not make these Uzbek dumplings any less tasty. And how chuchvara is prepared correctly will tell the recipe with the photo below, read carefully and get down to business!

Uzbek chuchvara: recipe with photo

Ingredients

Flour 500 grams Fat fat 100 grams Salt 2 pinches Onion 2 heads chicken eggs 1 piece(s) Flour 500 grams Zira 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp

• Servings: 4
• Time for preparing: 20 minutes

Uzbek dish chuchvara: what you need to cook chuchvara in Uzbek

To prepare a dish, you need to stock up on ingredients. The Uzbek dish chuchvara, as mentioned above, is the so-called dumplings, which are prepared according to a special recipe. Be prepared for the fact that some of them will seem a little exotic to you, because Uzbek cuisine differs in traditions from Russian.

So, here's what you'll need:

500 g flour.

One egg.

Salt to taste.

500 g boneless lamb.

2 heads of onions.

100 g fat tail fat.

One teaspoon of zira and coriander.

A special sauce is prepared separately, which we will talk about a little later. In the meantime, let's start making dumplings in Uzbek style.

How to cook chuchvara in Uzbek?

So, you should start by kneading the dough:

Sift flour thoroughly, add salt. Break the egg into a specially prepared bowl, mix well with about a glass of water.

Pour the beaten egg into the flour, mix thoroughly. Knead the dough. Wrap the finished dough in a film and send to cool for 30-40 minutes.

While the dough comes, you need to do the minced meat. Finely chop the lamb and fat, finely chop two onions. Mix meat with onions and spices.

It's time to take out the dough. Roll out the layer and cut it into squares about 4x4 centimeters in size. Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle, fold the corners so that you get a triangle.

Lift the central corner higher, and wrap the other two around your finger and tightly blind together.

When you have fashioned all the dumplings, you need to prepare the sauce. To do this, you will need three tomatoes, an onion, carrots, some chopped cilantro, dill and parsley. Cut all the ingredients, fry and boil until the juice evaporates, then pour in about a liter of water.

Boil the chuchvara in the sauce until the dumplings begin to float - this will mean that they are ready to eat. That's all, serve the dish on the table necessarily hot!

As you can see, we answered the question of how to cook chuchvara with your own hands. We hope that you will like this dish and you will often delight your family with this unique masterpiece of Uzbek cuisine.