Best Spice Mix For Kazakh And Uzbek Recipes

UZBEK KAVURMA

Steps:

• For the Meat: Cut meat into serving sized pieces. Brown in oil. Add onions and saute until golden. Add tomatoes and mix. Remove from heat and add cubed potatoes and sliced carrots. Fry a few more minutes. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower heat, and cook until vegetables are tender.
• For the Rice: Soak rice for about 1/2 hour. In a skillet saute onions until tender. Add carrots, raisins, spice mix, and cardamom, continue frying slowly until onions are golden. Sprinkle sugar over this and set aside. Place rice in a pot and stir in onion mixture. Add vegetable oil and stir to mix ingredients into rice. Cover rice with water, about 1 inch of water should be over the rice. Bring to a boil, lower the temperature, and cover. Let it cook about 15 minutes then check it. Continue to cook until water is absorbed and rice is fluffy.
• Spoon rice onto a serving platter. Flatten the rice and pour the meat and veggies over the rice. Garnish with green onions.

SPICE MIX FOR KAZAKH AND UZBEK RECIPES

Steps:

• Mix well and store in an air-tight container.

MANTY FROM KAZAKHSTAN

Steps:

• Place bay leaves and peppercorns in just over 1/3 cup water and boil breifly. Remove leaves and peppercorns, set aside.
• Slowly fry onions until golden. Half way through the cooking, add spice mix, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat.
• In a bowl, mix ground meat, onion mixture, and the boiled water. Set aside.
• Mix dough ingredients and kneed well. Shape dough into balls the size of walnuts. Flatten these, and add 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture. Fold dough around the meat to form triangles. Normally, these are steamed, but if you prefer to bake them, add oil or butter to the dough.
• While they are cooking, mix the yogurt with grated garlic and crushed mint, stir well. When manty are ready, place them on a serving platter and cover them with the yogurt sauce. Serve hot.

KUYRDAK FROM KAZAKHSTAN

Steps:

• Cut meat into serving sized pieces and fry with chopped onions. Make balls with bread dough. Add broth, bread dough, spice mix, chopped tomatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then stew about an hour or until tender.
• Meanwhile, fry garlic and spring onions until golden, then add all other sauce ingredients except yogurt and fry another minute or so. Set aside.
• When ready to serve Kuyrdak, add yogurt to sauce and stir well. Remove bay leaves, spoon meat onto a bed of rice and serve sauce on the side, as people will prefer different amounts.
• Variation: Skip the yogurt and oil. Do not cook greens, just sprinkle them over the Kuyrdak. This is how it is served when yogurt is not available.