Beshbarmak is a national Kazakh dish of noodles and meat, which got its name because it was eaten with its hands before (“beshbarmak” in Kazakh means “five fingers”). However, this dish is considered not only by the Kazakhs, but also by representatives of other Turkic peoples: similar dishes with similar names can be found in other national cuisines. Traditional beshbarmak recipes suggest the use of horse meat or lamb for its preparation, often made from beef or poultry. But recipes with pork to the Central Asian cuisine have nothing to do. The peoples who invented beshbarmak profess Islam, and therefore do not eat pig meat. Beshbarmak pork - European invention. However, it is to taste it is no less successful than cooked according to traditional recipes. So, if you treat pork positively and calmly include it in your diet, you will surely enjoy beshbarmak from pork.
Cooking Features
The classic recipe for beshbarmak from pork for obvious reasons does not exist. However, when cooking dishes you need to pay attention to certain points. Otherwise, the finished dish will not even remotely resemble the real beshbarmak either in appearance or taste.
- The main component of beshbarmak is meat. Therefore, the quality of this product is key. Preference is better to give fresh pork. If you only have frozen, you need to get it out of the freezer in advance, so that she has time to thaw out by the time of cooking completely. Otherwise, in the process of long-term cooking, the meat will lose juiciness and become tasteless, even if it is well cooked.
- The meat of a young piglet is more tender. It takes less time to prepare it, it turns out to be softer. Therefore, when buying meat should pay attention to the age of the animal. Young pork has a light color, white fat. Yellow fat indicates that before you - the meat of an old pig.
- Horse meat, lamb, beef are not as fat as pork. Therefore, if you want beshbarmak to at least look a bit like the original, choose the most lean pork.
- Meat for beshbarmak can be cooked in two ways: in large pieces or in small pieces. In the first case, the meat will be easier to separate from the bones, in the second case, it will cook faster. For this reason, the pork tenderloin can be cut into pieces immediately, and then cooked.
- Meat for beshbarmak is cooked for a very long time, since it should be extremely soft. For pork on bone, this time is 2-2, 5 hours, pork slices are enough to boil 1, 5-2 hours.
- It is best to cook meat for beshbarmak in a saucepan with thick walls and a bottom. It can be replaced with a cauldron, a goose. A good beshbarmak is obtained in a multicooker.
- When cooking, the foam formed on the surface of the water must be removed so that the broth is more transparent and useful. When cooking, it is most often added not only salt, but also various spices and roots. This gives both broth and meat a brighter aroma and rich taste.
- It is better to make noodles for beshbarmak by yourself, especially since the recipe is simple: shift the eggs, flour and cold water, which can be replaced with broth. When cooking pork beshbarmak, you can move away from the traditional recipe and prepare a dish not with noodles, but with plates of puff pastry bought at the store. This will save time and effort.
Beshbarmak differs not only in the preparation technology, but also in the way of serving. Noodles laid out on plates or a large dish, put meat on top, cover it with onions. Broth is served separately. If the recipe includes potatoes, then all the ingredients can be placed in a common bowl with broth or left in it only onions and potatoes, meat and noodles laid out on a plate.
Beshbarmak from pork and puff pastry
Composition:
- pork - 1 kg;
- puff yeast-free dough - 0, 2 kg;
- onions - 0, 2 kg;
- bay leaves - 4 pcs .;
- allspice - 10 pcs .;
- carnation - 3 pcs .;
- green onions - 50 g;
- fresh dill - 50 g;
- vegetable oil - 50 ml;
- ground black pepper, salt to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash the pork, remove the film and excess fat, cut into pieces of 3-4 centimeters. Put in pan. Fill with water and put on fire. For the specified amount of meat enough to use 1, 5-2 liters of water.
- When the water boils in the pot, reduce the heat. Cook 15 minutes, removing the foam. Put laurel leaves, peppercorns, cloves in a saucepan, add pepper and salt. Then cover the pot tightly with a lid and cook the pork for an hour and a half.
- Thaw puff pastry. Roll it into a thin layer and cut it into rectangles with edges of about 4-5 cm.
- Peel the bulbs and cut into half rings.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion in it until it is golden brown. Pour 50 ml of broth from the pan, pour onions and simmer it on low heat for 10 minutes.
- Finely chop the green onions and dill.
- Remove the finished pork from the broth. Strain the broth and bring to a boil again.
- Dip the puff pastry rectangles into the broth and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove the pieces of puff pastry from the broth, put them on a plate.
- Put boiled pork on boiled dough.
- Cover the pork with onions.
- Sprinkle with chopped green onions and dill.
A dish can be served on a large dish or on a la carte plates. Additionally, you can offer broth.
Beshbarmak from pork with potatoes in a slow cooker
Composition:
- pork - 0, 3 kg;
- onions - 0, 2 kg;
- potatoes - 0, 3 kg;
- chicken egg - 1 pc .;
- wheat flour - 150 g;
- water - 50 ml;
- vegetable oil - 10 ml;
- salt, black pepper - to taste;
- water - 2 l.
Method of preparation:
- Wash the pork and cut it into small pieces, about 2-3 cm each. Pieces can be made flat, then their thickness should not exceed one and a half centimeters, and the width can be up to 4-5 cm.
- Peel and slice the potatoes.
- Free the onions from the husk, cut into halves of the rings.
- At the bottom of the multicooker bowl, place the meat, place the potatoes on it, spread the onions on top. Each layer needs to be salted and pepper to taste.
- Fill the container with water and turn on the multicooker. Select the program “Quenching”, set the timer to 1, 5 hours.
- While stewing meat and potatoes, cook the dough. To do this, sift the flour, in an individual container, beat the egg with a pinch of salt, mix with ice water and oil. Pour the mixture into the flour, knead the dough. After wrapping the dough in plastic wrap, place it in a cool place for half an hour.
- Roll out the dough so that its thickness does not exceed 2 mm. Cut diamonds or squares. Edge length - 4-5 cm.
- Boil water, add salt and boil noodles for 3-5 minutes, putting the dough into boiling water one by one.
- When the slow cooker turns off, lay the pork with potatoes and onions in bowls or tureens. Top with broth. Put a few noodles in each bowl.
Instead of bread, unleavened flat bread can be served to beshbarmak. Beshbarmak itself does not hurt to sprinkle with fresh herbs, after grinding it with a knife.
Beshbarmak of pork is not a traditional dish of Turkic peoples, but it resembles it in taste and appearance, so this recipe may well suit Europeans.
