How to cook beshbarmak

The word “beshbarmak” is familiar to many by ear, and most even know that it is a dish. However, not everyone is able to cook it, moreover, not everyone even imagines what this dish looks like. Translated from the Kazakh "beshbarmak" means "five" (five fingers). The name has nothing to do with the composition of the dish or its preparation, its appearance is due to a special way of eating the dish for food: it was eaten with its hands. For this reason, traditional recipes of beshbarmak, which is popular with almost all Turkic peoples, do not include finely chopped products. So it's easy to cook. The main components of beshbarmak are meat, noodles and onions. Meat is used today any, before nomads preferred horse meat. Now traditional are recipes for cooking beshbarmak from horse meat, beef, lamb, as well as poultry meat. The only thing that beshbarmak from pork can not be called classic, since the inhabitants of Central Asia are mostly Muslims, which means that they do not eat pork at all. Beshbarmak differs from European dishes from similar products by the way of cooking, which makes it unique.

Cooking Features

Beshbarmak, despite the variety of recipes, is prepared according to the same principles. They must be observed in the preparation of this dish at home, if you want it to come out tasty and satisfying.

Meat for beshbarmak should be purchased fresh, unfrozen. From the frozen product it can also be cooked, but in this case, the meat will come out more hard and dry. In order to minimize the damage from freezing and subsequent defrosting of meat, it should be thawed in the refrigerator. Defrosting food in warm water or a microwave is an error, due to which the dish will not be tasty enough.
For the preparation of beshbarmak, it is advisable to use the meat of a young animal, as it is softer, softer and cooks faster. To distinguish young meat from the old can be in color, shade of fat, the length of the fibers. The meat of a young animal is characterized by a lighter and brighter color, white fat color, small fibers. The old one, on the contrary, will be dark, with yellow fat, large fibers.
Cooking meat is required separately. This is a long process, usually taking from 2 to 3 hours, depending on the type and age of the meat. To speed up the process, you can cut the meat into pieces of the desired shape and size before boiling, although according to traditional technology already boiled meat is cut into pieces.
In order for the meat and broth to be more fragrant, when boiled, they add whole or sliced onions, carrots and garlic. After they are not eaten, they are thrown away. The very same broth is filtered and boiled noodles in it.
When cooking meat from broth, you must remove the foam and fat. Fat is stored to lubricate the noodles, if such is provided by the recipe. Otherwise, it is thrown away, just like the foam removed before.
It is not recommended to cut fat from meat before cooking. He will give the meat juiciness, and broth - richness.
Noodles for beshbarmak require a special shape - in the form of large rhombuses or rectangles. On sale is not often seen, so it is recommended to make dough for noodles at home. You should not be afraid of it: the dough for beshbarmak is quite easy to make, and for this you do not need to have culinary skills. The main thing is to follow the recommendations in the recipe, and the result will certainly meet the expectations.
To boil the noodles for beshbarmak, boil water and lower the quadrilaterals of dough into it one at a time. After that, it is necessary to boil them, stirring for 5 minutes.
An important component of the dish is onions. It is cooked separately in a special way: lightly fried over low heat, then stewed with the addition of a small amount of broth. As a result, it is soft and juicy.

It is possible to cut meat for beshbarmak differently - it depends on the specific recipe. It also depends on the method of filing.

Traditional beshbarmak from horse meat

Composition:

horse meat - 1, 5 kg;
onions - 0, 3 kg;
carrots - 100 g;
flour - 0.5 kg;
chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
bay leaf - 2 pcs .;
salt, ground black pepper, greens - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Horse meat should be thoroughly washed, cut into large pieces and put into a cauldron or pot with a thick bottom and walls. Fill with water so that its level is two fingers above the level of the meat.
Put the pan on the fire, wait for boiling, reduce the heat and cook for 20 minutes, removing the foam.
Peel the vegetables. Put carrots and one small onion in a saucepan, without cutting. Boil the meat for 2, 5 hours, if necessary, add warm boiled water.
For half an hour until the meat is ready, remove the fat that has formed on the surface of the broth and drain it into a clean bowl. In the broth, put the bay leaf, pepper, salt it to taste and continue to cook until meat is ready.
Remove the meat from the broth, strain the broth. Discard vegetables from broth. Pour a glass of strained broth and cool it - the colder it is, the better.
Sift flour, add eggs to it, mix. Pour in the broth and knead the dough. Put it in a bowl for half an hour, cover it with a cloth, then knead it with your hands again and divide it into several parts (preferably into 4 parts).
Roll each piece of dough into a layer about 2 mm thick. Cut into strips, then cut in the other direction, to make pieces in the form of rhombuses.
Boil the broth remaining in the saucepan. One by one put pieces of dough into it, cook for 5 minutes, remove and place on a large dish.
Lubricate the dough with grease from broth. Put the meat on it.
Cut the remaining onion into rings.
Put the fat from the broth into the pan, put the pan on the fire.
Put the onion in the pan and sweat it on low heat until it stops being tough. Put the onion on top of the meat.

Before serving, beshbarmak should be generously sprinkled with chopped greens. Cilantro and parsley will go well with it.

Traditional lamb beshbarmak

Composition:

lamb - 1, 3 kg;
wheat flour - 0, 35 kg;
onions - 0, 5 kg;
carrots - 150 g;
chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
black pepper peas - 5 pcs .;
bay leaf - 2 pcs .;
greens, salt, spices - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Rinse the lamb well, divide it into pieces and put it in a saucepan or cauldron. Fill with water and boil. When the broth boils, be sure to remove the foam formed with a skimmer.
Peel the vegetables.
Cut the carrot into 3 pieces.
Set one onion to the side - it is needed whole, cut the rest into thin half rings.
Chop fresh greens with a knife. It must be a lot.
After an hour and a half after the start of cooking the meat, put the whole onion and all the carrot pieces into the broth. Dip pea pepper and laurel leaves in the broth. Salt the broth to taste. Continue cooking meat for an hour.
Sift the flour and mix it with whipped eggs, spreading them with half a glass of molten pan and cooled broth. Knead the dough with your hands. Wrap it in cling film and leave it to “rest” for half an hour.
After a specified time, knead the dough again, cut into pieces, roll out and cut into small diamonds. Sprinkle flour over the diamonds and allow them to dry for a while.
Remove the cooked meat from the broth, cut it into smaller pieces, free from bones.
Discard vegetables from broth, strain the broth itself and divide into two parts. One part pour the chopped onion rings and boil it in the broth until soft.
Remove the onion from the broth, dilute it with water, bring to a boil and put the diamonds in it from the dough. Boil them for 5 minutes, then carefully remove and place on plates.
Add greens to the rest of the broth. Pour it into the cup.
Put slices of meat on the noodle beds. Broth serve separately in drinking bowls.