When it comes to some Asian dish - pilaf, mantah or lagman - there are always culinary critics who question the composition of ingredients or the technology of its preparation. Surprisingly, these same critics are unanimously silent about the variety of recipes of cabbage soup, but they are sure that there is only one recipe for the Lagman, and one cannot step back from the technology of cooking.
Cooking does not stand still, like any science. In addition, the national cuisines of neighboring nations are closely intertwined, complement and enrich each other. For example, dumplings have long been considered the property of Russian cuisine, and, in fact, they were not invented by the Slavs, and it does not occur to anyone to argue about what the filling for them should be considered correct. But one criticism is right: each national dish has its own peculiarities, which need to be guided.
Step-by-step recipe for lagman - basic technological principles
Since Lagman is a dish of Oriental or Asian cuisine, the basic principles of its preparation are closely related to the traditions of the peoples inhabiting this continent. First of all, it is the type of meat and the method of its preparation.
Lagman is characterized by the use of lamb or beef. The meat is cut into small pieces, in the form of bars or cubes, fried, and then stewed with vegetables. Regarding the composition of vegetables, just, and there is the greatest number of disputes.
In one locality it is considered unacceptable to add carrots and cabbage to meat, in another they are outraged that someone has blasphemously dared to add eggplants, radishes or radishes, potatoes to the stew. But if such a step-by-step recipe for the lagman already exists, then why not take it? There are no disagreements about tomatoes, celery, garlic, onion and bell pepper - these are the essential ingredients of gravy. The next moment: Lagman, though, not the soup. Rather, the meat portion looks more like zirvak - the basis for pilaf, with the only difference being that the rice is stewed in gravy in the preparation of pilaf, and the lagman is a side dish for meat with vegetables and is cooked separately.
The most difficult part of the dish is lagman, a kind of homemade noodles or pasta, as the Italians would say. The composition of the ingredients is well known: flour, eggs, salt, water. True, there are also different opinions regarding the addition of eggs to the lagman's dough, but without the eggs, the noodles will turn into liquid flour porridge, unpleasant in appearance and taste. Therefore, the opinion of culinary critics in this part will be wisely completely ignored.
The complexity of making noodles lies in the process of modeling, which requires both great physical effort and patience. If you replace the lagman with ready-made pasta bought in the store, then the real lagman really won't work.
Step-by-step recipe for veal lagman
Ingredients:
Meat (fillet) 1.5 kg
Celery stalks 100 g
Garlic
Tomatoes fresh 500 g
Bulgarian pepper 0.5 kg (net)
Tomato paste 120 g
Badian (anise) 3-4 pcs.
Black, fragrant and red hot pepper - 1.5 tsp.
Leafy greens (parsley)
Vegetable oil 150 ml
Asparag beans (pods) 400 g
Beef broth 1.5 l
Soy sauce 75 ml
For the test:
Flour 1.0 kg
Eggs 3 pcs.
Cold water 600 ml
Salt 15 g
Vegetable oil 120 ml
Cooking:
Eggplants, Chinese cabbage (stalks), radish, potatoes and carrots are ingredients that can be added as desired. The weight of all vegetables should not exceed the total weight of the meat. The consistency of gravy must be medium. Prepare a cauldron or suitable cast-iron dishes.
Starting work is better with cooking lagman.
Boil water for dough and cool it. Dissolve the salt.
In a deep and convenient for kneading dishes sift flour. Beat the eggs and mix them thoroughly with flour until smooth. Pour water into the dough with parts, trying to distribute it evenly over the entire surface of the flour. It is important to ensure that the dough turned out steep and plastic.
When the flour is lumped, wrap the dough in a film, put it at least 1.5-2 hours so that the gluten is well swollen, and the dough becomes plastic. The dough can be kneaded the day before and kept it longer in the refrigerator.
Lubricate the working surface with butter, roll out the dough into a rectangular layer, 0.5 cm thick, cut it into strips of the same width.
Make sure that the dough does not stick together, do not stick to the hands and to the surface. Lubricate the strips with an oil brush.
Each billet roll out very thinly, starting from one edge of the billet, pulling it with your left hand, and gradually moving the strip and at the same time rolling it with your right hand.
Roll the thin strips, without cutting, into a skein.
Boil water in a saucepan, add salt. Dip the lagman in boiling and well-salted water. Boil for 3-4 minutes. Flip through a colander and rinse with cold water.
When the water drains, anoint with vegetable oil.
In this form, lagman can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, but Oriental women do not recommend putting out meat in advance. The next stage is cooking gravy.
Meat cut into thin bars, so that it roasted for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle the cut pieces with soy sauce, mix well and soak in the marinade for about an hour.
Wash and peel the vegetables. Cut them into cubes or straws, but the shape of the whole cut should be the same. The aesthetics of the dish is also important, as is its taste. To make the dish look attractive and bright, prepare for it pepper of different colors: red, yellow, green, orange.
Heat the broth in advance so that it can be poured hot if necessary. You can use hot boiled water if there is no broth.
Pour into the cauldron 150 ml of refined oil, heat it over high heat. When light smoke appears, throw in a small pinch of salt to neutralize the harmful substances generated by the incandescent oil. Put the meat in a cauldron and fry with continuous stirring until rosy color.
Add onions. It can be added in the process of roasting meat, in parts, but do not overcook too much.
Chopped garlic can be divided into two parts. Add half to the meat, and add the rest before quenching to refresh the aroma. Determine the amount of garlic yourself, because this spice has a specific flavor, which not everyone understands.
Put the bean pods or asparagus, cut into sticks. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring.
Fresh tomatoes better blanch and remove the skin, and then cut into slices or plates. Put them in the cauldron when the onions are reddened. Now put the fire into moderate mode.
To make the dish look bright, dilute the tomato paste with a small amount of broth and add it with the tomatoes. If tomatoes have dense pulp, which, in general, will give a beautiful look to the sauce, this means that you need to add more broth, but without fanaticism - the stew should not get the consistency of the soup. Do not forget that other vegetables will also give it juiciness.
At the very end of cooking, put chopped peppers, celery, spices. These ingredients do not need to simmer more than a couple of minutes. Turn off the stove, cover the cauldron with a lid and let the dish brew well, for about twenty minutes.
In bowls or tureen lay lagman slide. Pour over the sauce, put the meat and pieces of stewed vegetables on top, sprinkle with greens. Cold noodles will be heated under hot sauce, but if this option does not suit you, then you can heat it up in the microwave.
Laghman can be eaten with a spoon, fork or chopsticks. Served with flatbread, spicy sauce. True, Asian women have a secret ingredient for this sauce, which is difficult to find in the European part of the mainland also because you need to be fluent in Uzbek, Uygur or Dungan. But you can try to make the sauce without this component. Ingredients for sauce:
Cayenne pepper 1 tsp.
Ground paprika 2 tsp.
Garlic 1 slice
Vegetable oil 90 ml
Allspice Ѕ tsp.
Cooking:
Pour the oil into the frying pan, warm it up, add a little salt. Put one clove of garlic, and fry. When the garlic gives away the oil flavor, remove it. Put the pepper mixture in the boiling oil and bring the mixture to a boil. Serve in a separate dish.
Lagman's Step-by-Step Recipe - Tips & Tricks
Choose young and lean meat for the lagman so that it will cook faster and not be tough. This rule applies especially to the choice of lamb: the old carcass has a specific smell, and therefore it is better to give preference to the meat of the young lamb.
Red meat is better absorbed by the body if it is cooked in a sour sauce. That is why tomatoes and peppers are an indispensable component in cooking meat for lagman.
To make the meat soft and juicy, soak it in marinade before cooking.
Fat oil is sometimes added to vegetable oil. In this case, the oil should be heated moderately, so that the fat in it has time to be heated, and not to be roasted outside. The fat is cut into small pieces.
Asian-style noodles can be cooked the day before and stored in the refrigerator, but, unlike the usual homemade noodles or Italian pasta, the lagman is not dried, but placed on a flat dish in a spiral, each layer is coated with butter. Thanks to the butter, through which the dough is rolled out, the lagman has a special taste, and it is difficult to replace it in the dish with ready-made pasta.
