Dimlama (Stewed vegetables with meat)

Dimlama is very easy to cook and useful meal, your home will fill with mouth watering aroma while cooking Dimlama. It takes some time, but it worth that.
You will need:
300 gr of meat (beef or mutton)cut in small pieces
150 ml of vegetable oil
2 onions peeled and chopped
2 carrots peeled and cut in 5-6 pieces
2 tomatoes peeled and chopped
2 sweet pepper, it can be green or red, sliced
2 eggplants cut in cubes
2 turnips quartered
one small cabbage cut in medium pieces
200gr pumpkin cut in medium pieces
8 cloves of garlic
2 potatoes peeled and quartered
Salt, cumin seeds, ground coriander, 2 bay leaf and pepper.
Take deep pan with heavy bottom, put an oil and heat it. Fry meat until brown, add in onion, continue frying until onions are light brown. Reduce the heat, layer all the vegetables by turn- first carrots, then turnips, bell pepper, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, cabbage, pumpkin and at the end put potatoes on top. Sprinkle some salt, add one glass (150 ml) of water and cover the lid. You are free now for 2 hours. But for safety u can check up in 1 hour. After 2 hours, open the lid, put in bay leaf and spices, cover it for 10 min.
Serve it while hot with fresh chopped dill or coriander leaves.
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Bahor salati(spring salad)

We call this salat as Bahor salati, because mostly we prepare it in spring. The reason is, to get more vitamins for the body. But you can prepare it anytime you want, it's very useful and it's found of vitamins.
Ingredients:
One small cabbage
2 cucumbers
3 red radish
2 sweet red pepper
2 red carrots
One big hard tomato
Fresh chopped dill and coriander leaves
2 cloves of garlic
Pinch of chinese salt
Salt as taste
3 tbsp of vegetable or olive oil for dressing
Chop a cabbage, set aside. Grate separately carrots,put 1 tbsp of oil,pinch of salt, add in finely mashed garlic and mix it with hands until carrots soften. Grate cucumbers, radish. Slice with knife tomato and sweet pepper in long sticks. Take a deep bowl, put chopped cabbage, mashed carrots, grated cucumber and radish, tomato and pepper. Add in the rest of oil, salt, chinese salt, chopped coriander and dill leaves. Mix all the ingredients finely.
You will love this crispy salad, enjoy it!!!
Yoqimli ishtaha:)

Lavlagi salat(Beetroot salad)

I must say that this salad is very healthy and a real found of vitamins:) It is very good, for the people who suffer from constipation and anemia. If want to look young you have to eat this salad at least twice a week. Lavlagi salat is good with plain yogurt.
Ingredients:
3 beetroot
100 gr of walnut, chopped
100 gr of prunes (soaked in boiling water for 30 min)
Salt as taste
2 tbsp of olive oil or vegetable oil for dressing
Fresh chopped coriander or dill
Bring water to boil, wash beetroot and put in to the boiling water. Let it boil for 1 hour. Take it out. Peel the skin. Cut in to long strips or grate. Add in finely chopped walnuts, chopped prunes, salt, oil and mix carefully.
Serve with chopped coriander leaves.
Sog buling:) (be healthy in uzbek)
Yoqimli ishtaha!

Gushtli non (meat pie)

Gushtli non is like uzbek pizza, I am sure you will like it. You can shape up your gushtli non in different way, I make every time in different shape, like it can be basket, it can be crocodile, or it can be simple round pie:)No matter what is the shape, it is mouth watering taste will surprise you.
The dough for gushtli non is same with my sutli non, but you will take half of ingredients.
For filling you will take:
300 gr of lamb or beef
2 onions chopped
7 tbsp of butter
Cumin seeds, ground coriander, ground pepper
1 egg, sesame or poppy seeds
Finely chop up or just mince your meat, put it in deep bowl. Chop onions and fry them in butter until light golden.Take from the heat. Mix while hot with meat, add in spices.
Take your dough, divide in two, roll the one half in flat big round, put all of the filling, spread evenly all over. Roll out the other half and place it over meat filling. Pinch the edges. Notice that you should pinch it carefully, there must be no holes.Brush with finely beated egg and sprinkle with seeds:)
Preheat the oven, put the "Gushtli non" and bake it until golden.
Yoqimli ishtaha.

Gushtli Somsa (Samusa with meat)

Somsa is very famous not only in Central Asia, but also in many other countries. It is Delicious, and very nourishing meal. We so many ways of preparing Somsa:) Soon I will be posting all of them. For today I want to give you recipe of Somsa with meat(it can be lamb or beef), and the dough will be prepared with milk and butter.
This kind of somsa is easier to make and it's dough soft and tender.
You will feel yourself as you are in the heaven eating this meal, biting every piece you will wish that it will never end:) I must mention that we have different style of pinching eddges:) Soon you will see all of them.
Now you will need for this Somsa:
300ml milk
70gr butter
120 gr butter for greasing
Flour
Salt
300gr meat chopped
2 onions chopped
Cumin seeds, pepper, ground coriander
100gr of fat of lamb's tail(or you can add 3 tbs of olive oil)
1 egg
First make the dough. Warm up the milk, add 70gr butter and 1 tbs of salt, stir well. Add in flour, mix until you shape the dough. Let stand for 15 min.
Until your dough is resting, make the filling. Mix chopped meat and onion, put all the spices and salt, stir well, if u r adding olive oil instead of lamb's fat, then put the oil into meat and stir well.If you're using lamb'f fat then cut it in small cubes and put separately.
Take your dough,roll up until 4 mm layer and grease with the rest of butter (you must melt the butter first). Now roll up the dough tightly around itself, forming a long stick. Put in the fridge for 30 min.
Take your dough, cut in same 2 inch pieces, put on their flat side, sprinkling over some flour and roll up each piece into small flat rounds. Put the filling (about 1 tbsp)and some 2-3 cubes of lamb's fat and pinch the edges forming half moon. Pinch all of your Somsa in this way, put on your baking sheet, separately beat one egg and brush it over Somsas , sprinkle some sesame seeds and bake it in the oven, until golden color.
You will see how beautiful will be your Somsa, not talking about it's taste:)
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!
I am waiting for your respond and comments:) Just let me know if you have some kind of problems:)

Mastava (soup with meat and rice)

This one is our favorite and preferred recipe for cold winters. In folk medicine, this soup (as other soups) is a good cure for high temperature, if eaten with freshly grounded pepper.
Ingredients:
60 ml of olive oil or vegetable oil
300gr of freshly chopped meat, you can use beef or mutton
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 carrot, peeled and chopped in cubes
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 sweet pepper, cleaned from seeds and cut in cubes
1 cup of short grain rice (if you want thinner soup, then 3/4 cup)
1 medium sized potato, peeled and cut in cubes
1liters of water
Cream for serving
1 tsp of cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Fresh chopped coriander or dill
Heat up the oil in pan, add meat and fry until brown, add onions, fry about 5-6 min,
place tomatoes, carrots, and sweet pepper and fry frequently stirring until oil separates out. Add rice, fry about 20 seconds and pour water, put in potatoes. Bring to boil, scoop put all the foam and reduce the heat. Let it simmer until the rice is soft and ready. Add in spice and salt.
Serve it with freshly chopped coriander leaves and one tsp of cream.
You can also sprinkle fresh grounded pepper.
Yoqimli ishtaha!

Pie with caramelized apples

I am a big fun of Apples! I enjoy chewing fresh apples and also I love baking with them. Although this recipe is not purely related to Uzbek cuisine, still is quite famous among people, so I decided to share this recipe with you:)
For caramelizing apples you need:
1.5 kg semi sweet green apples, peeled and chopped in 6 pieces
Juice of one lemon
4 tbsp of brown sugar, you can also use regular sugar
50 gr butter
2 tbsp spoons of ground cinnamon
For the dough:
100 gr of butter
100gr cream
1 egg
150gr sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Flour as needed.
Take non stick pan, put the butter and wait until it melts, add sugar and continuously stir while cooking, when it begins to thicken, add apples and lemon juice, bring to boil, lower the heat, add in cinnamon and cover the lid. Let it simmer for 10 min, or until apples will be soft. All depends what kind of apples you are using. Make sure that apples are warm otherwise when you put them into hot caramel, you will end up hard pieces of sugar.
For the dough: mix melted butter and cream, add in sugar, egg and baking powder and mix with hand mixer, until smooth. Add in flour until you form medium hard dough.
Take your baking pan, roll half of your dough and layer on the pan. Pour in the apple mixture. From other half of the dough cut out stripes and layer on your apples. Bake in the oven for 50 min or until it is ready. Take out your pie, let it cool down and sprinkle icing sugar on it.
Apples will be like a marmalade, the pie is wet and smells great!!!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

My peach biscuits

Who ever see this biscuits, smiles and wants to try them. They really look like peaches, but tastes different. U can surprise your guest with this dessert.
You will need:
200gr of butter
2 eggs
250 gr sugar
0.5 tsp of baking soda
Flour as it needs
1can of condensed milk
50 gr of butter
Pinch of vanilla powder
One piece of almond for each peach
Grate the hard butter, separately mix eggs with sugar, add in butter, baking soda. Add in flour and mix until you form hard dough. Wrap it, and put in a fridge for 1 hour. After take your dough, divide it in 22 pieces, shape the balls. Cut each ball into half and place on a baking sheet. Bake over medium heat, until ready. As soon as you take them out of the oven, quickly make holes with a small knife in each of half piece. Set aside.
Cream: Beat the butter with condensed milk, add in vanilla.
Take one half and put one almond into the hole and spread the cream, stick on the other half, spreading cream on it too. Stick all of your halves in this way.
Die them with the juice of beetroot and carrot, (or you can use red and orange food colors)and roll over the sugar.I use a piece of sponge to die my peaches, that's more comfortable. You can also put some lives to give more dramatic look:)
Yoqimli ishtaha!

Qozon kabob (mutton crock pot kebab)

There is an easy way to bring my husband home(he is a big workaholic)- I just say that today is Qozon kabob for dinner:)He rushes home as soon as he hears this:) He is the person who tries my new recipes and always encourages me:) I want to thank him for his support and help, as without him I couldn't have done any of my artwork. I cook my meals with love as I know that I have my main and biggest fun at home:)Now the recipe.
Actually this Qozon kabob is prepared with the fat of sheep's tail, but I understand that it is hard to find this kind of fat everywhere, so I replace it with olive oil. But if you can find this kind of fat then cut the 300 gr in stripes and just put it to the bottom of your crock pot(thick pot with the heavy bottom), no other oil needed. And you don't have to melt it, just place all ingredients, put on a small fire (no water is needed) close the lid and just leave it for 1.30 hour. After check and carefully mix everything and leave for another 30 min, be careful as it can stick to the bottom in this stage. Now the recipe with an olive oil.
Ingredients:
1.5 kg of mutton
250 gr of olive oil
250gr of water
salt as taste
Cumin seeds, fresh ground pepper, ground coriander
Pour an olive oil in pot(or the stripes of lamb's tail fat), place the meat onto it, pour one glass of water and then put on the fire. Let the water to boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot and leave it for 30 min. Open the lid, see if all water is gone, if not replace the lid and continue to cook. After all the water is dissolved, just stir carefully, and fry until golden. Add in salt and spices. Sometimes I add potatoes in this kabab, in this case u should put potatoes just 20 min before the kabab is ready.
Serve it with onion sliced in circles and mashed with 1 tbs of vinegar. Yummy!
Yoqimli ishtaha:)

Achichiq chuchuk(salad with tomatoes and cucumber)

This salad is served mostly with Palov and Qozon kabob. Nice, fresh and juicy salad is a good complimentary for this meals.
You can cut tomatoes and cucumbers in different shape, but I prefer cutting them in cubs. Usually the shallot or regular onion is added, but today I prefer to put fresh spring onion.
You will need:
2 tomatoes
2 cucumbers
1 shallot or onion or 3 strand of spring onion
Fresh chopped dill or coriander
Salt as taste or soy souse
Cut tomatoes and cucumbers in cubes, chop the onion and dill. Stir carefully, add in salt, but usually I add 1 tbs of soy souse.
Serve and enjoy.
Yoqimli ishtaha:)

Sutli Non (bread with milk)

I love baking bread on Sundays, it is pleasure, as u can enjoy the process:) It's hard to think about more appetizing smell than of baking bread. When you bite into the crisp crust and crumbly inside of a home made bread you will understand my feelings. Nothing compares to the taste of melting butter on a freshly baked hot bread.
It's pertinent to mention that bread is considered as sacred for uzbeks. We have saying that if you eat the crumbs of bread you will get blessings. Usually bread is baked on our so called "tandur"s, but I always bake them in my oven.
I have so many variates of bread recipes, you'll get them all:) For today I want to give you recipe of my milk bread.
For 4 medium sized bread you will need:
500 ml full fat milk
70gr butter
1.5 tbs salt
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs of instant dries yeast
Flour
Warm up the milk, add in butter, stir until bitter will melt. Add in sugar and salt, add yeast, stir finely. Add the flour and mix well to form a dough. Knead for about 10 min, until its smooth and elastic. Cover the bowl and leave to prove for about 2 hours.
Divide the dough in 4 pieces, and form a ball. Place on your baking sheet grazed with some oil, and shape your bread with your hands, just press the middle and shape the edges. Separately beat 1 egg, and brush it on your bread, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake it in the oven on a medium heat. Bake until golden color.
Take it from the oven and enjoy your hot freshly baked bread:)
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Mohora (soup with chickpeas)

In Uzbekistan this soup is cooked in special occasions, weddings and for a special guests. Try to choose fresh and fat ribs.
Ingredients:
500gr ribs
2 carrots peeled and sliced in 5
2 onions peeled and sliced
2 potatoes peeled and quartered
2 tomatoes peeled and finely chopped
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
Fresh chopped coriander leaves
Approximately one cup of chickpeas, soaked for 6 hours.
Soak your chickpeas with 1 tbsp of salt, take thrice more water than the amount of chickpeas as they will get bigger. Before putting it in soup, pour out the salty water and wash them finely with cold water.
Take a deep pan, pour 3 liters of cold water, put all the ribs and chickpeas, and bring water to boil. Scoop out all the foam, and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for 1 hour. Then put all the vegetables except potatoes. Bring to boil, take the foam, let it simmer for 1 hour. Add in potatoes and boil until they are ready. Then add all spices and salt, wait 10 min and take from the heat. Serve with fresh chopped coriander.
For more richer taste you can fry the onions and tomatoes separately in 3 tbs of olive or vegetable oil before adding them in to the soup.
I hope you will enjoy:)
Yoqimli ishtaha:)

Shirchoy (tea with milk)

I remember my childhood, whenever I serve this kind of tea for the breakfast:) "Shirchoy" is tasty and nutritious beverage which is great when it is served as hot.
Ingredients:
Black tea (you can use leaves or tea bags)
300 gr water
300 gr milk
Small pinch of salt
Sugar to your taste
Put 2 tbsp of black tea (or two tea bags) in the pot. Pour boiling water on top. Wait 4-5 min. Then add in salt and sugar. Pour boiling milk on top. Stir well, and enjoy:)
I usually use my tea strainer, if I am using the leaves,  it helps me to enjoy my tea to the last drop:)
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Chak chak (dessert)

Chak chak is one of the favorite among our national desserts. Mostly, it is cooked on Eid (holy holiday), but I cook it anytime I want. It is a great dessert that can be kept for 2 weeks (but in my case, "chak chak" never lasted two weeks as it is eaten instantly:) )Just wrap "chak chak" with foil and store it in dark cold place, but not in a fridge. It is crispy and sweet, can easily substitute chips:).
Ingredients:
for 5 middle sized plates you will need
6 eggs
a pinch of salt
baking powder or 1 tbs of vodka
Flour as needed
500 gr vegetable oil for frying
300 gr sugar
100 gr of water
350 gr honey
 You can use different kinds of nuts, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, toasted sesame seeds for decoration.
Separate egg whites from yolks. Beat egg yolks with mixer until they are light in color. Separately beat egg whites until it will form stiff peaks. Very carefully mix whites and yolks, add salt, baking powder or 1 tbs vodka. Carefully start adding flour, add some and then mix, add again and mix again. Feel the thickness of the dough.Your dough must be not too soft and not too hard. When you finished shaping out your dough, cover it and let it rest for 15 min. Then cut the dough in 7 equal pieces, and roll each piece separately in circles, (about 4 mm thick) and spread the oil on both sides. Cut out strips 1.5 inch wide, and cut the strips in to short sticks.
Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, put in the short sticks that you cut out from one piece of the dough and fry until light golden color. Repeat the same with other pieces. (Usually I cut out all the dough and then start frying) Set aside fried short sticks.
In a deep pan put all the sugar and water, and cook the syrup. Check the readiness of the syrup: just put some drops of syrup in cold water, when they easily turn to a soft boll, syrup is ready. Immediately add in honey to this syrup and simmer for 4-5 min,more, don't over boil.
Pour the syrup over the fried sticks while hot and carefully mix it with wooden spoon. Quickly serve on plates and shape them with your hands, gradually washing hands with cold water, otherwise, your hands will be sticky and it will be hard to shape the Chak chak on the plate. At the end, sprinkle some seeds on top or decorate it as you wish.
Yoqimli Ishtaha!!!

Eggplant sliced salad

Ingredients:
3 large eggplants
2 large eggs
3 large tomatoes
2 sweet pepper
2 cucumber
Salt to taste
Fresh chopped coriander leaves for serving
Slice out eggplants in circles, put them into a salty water for 15 min, then drain well. Separately whisk 2 eggs with a pinch of salt. Dip each circle of the eggplant in to the egg batter and fry in a non stick pan with a little oil. Set aside.
Cut the rest of the vegetables in circles. For serving place eggplants on top of the flat plate, then place sweet pepper, tomatoes and cucumber on top sprinkling some salt to taste. Cover with another circle of eggplant. Sprinkle with fresh coriander. Serve as hot as well as cold.
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Horazmcha Gumma (fried small meat pies)

This is favorite dish of my dad. He always prepares his plate and his green tea, while waiting "Gumma"s to be ready:) As soon as my mom takes out gumma from the pan, he serves it in to his plate and enjoys it. It is important to eat "Gumma" while hot, enjoying the juice that will come out from the first bite.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 cup of water
1 tsp of salt
Plain flour as needed
For the filling:
300 grams of minced lamb
One large onion, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Ground pepper 1tsp
Vegetable oil for frying, about 500 ml
Make a simple basic dough: mix cold water with salt, stir well and add in flour. Mix with hands, shape up your dough, it mustn't be hard but also not too soft. Cover and let it rest. Mix 2 tsp of salt in 250 ml of water and mix well (for sprinkling the meat).
Place minced meat on the chopping board and mix with onion. Tenderize meat with special meat hammer or with a big knife, sprinkling salty water time by time, until it is smooth and juicy. Add cumin seeds and pepper.
Roll the dough into a long sausage (approximately as thick as banana) and cut in equal pieces 2-3 cm wide. Roll out all the pieces one by one in to a circle for about 3mm thick and 10 cm wide. The second method is quite difficult for beginners, but quicker. For that, you have to roll out the whole of the dough into big thin circle and then cut out smaller circles with a big cookie cutter. When your circles are ready, add one big spoon of filling and spread evenly on one half of the circle, then fold the other half over the filling. Finely pinch out the edges.
Place enough vegetable oil into frying pan (try to use heavy bottom or heavy duty frying pans) and fry both sides of "Gumma"s on a medium heat, until nice golden color.
You can make different fillings for "Gumma" as mashed potato with butter and spices or pumpkin with fried onion, or cottage cheese with spinach.
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Qaynatma shorva - Soup with meat and vegetables

I will start my blog with the easiest recipe:)  "Qaynatma shorva" is time taking, but  easy to cook and healthy soup. It is useful for people who caught a cold, flu or who is weak because of the fever.
Ingredients:
500 grams of meat, beef or lamb preferably with some bones, as bones will give special taste to the soup
2-3 onions, one peeled and sliced, the rest just peeled and cut on both sides
2 carrots, peeled and cut in 5-6 pieces
2 tomatoes finely chopped
2 sweet green pepper cleaned from seeds and halved
2 turnips, peeled and quartered
2 potatoes, peeled and cut in two-three pieces
Spices: 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 bay leafs, freshly ground black pepper
Fresh chopped coriander leaves for serving
Put meat in 2,5 liters of cold water, and bring to boil over high heat, scoop out all the foam, and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for at least 1,5 hour. Time by time, check on a soup and scoop out any foam (if you do so, your soup will have clean and beautiful color). Put all the vegetables, again bring soup to boil and again scoop out the foam. Let it simmer for 1 hour. Gradually stir the soup. At the end, take out the whole onions and green pepper. Set aside or just chop them and put into your soup to make it thicker. At the end, add bay leafs, salt and cumin seeds, and let it simmer for another 10 min.
Serve in individual bowls, sprinkling some fresh ground pepper and  fresh chopped coriander. Yummy:)
Yoqimli ishtaha!!! (Bon appetite in Uzbek)

To people who want to try uzbek cooking

Hi to everyone who ever tried or heard about Uzbek cuisine:) It is quite popular among other cuisines of Central Asian countries. You probably have heard about pilav, somsa or manti.
There are many techniques for preparing food in our cuisine, such as frying, boiling, steaming, baking and many recipes are quite easy to follow. Uzbek meals are delicious, flavorful and high in calorie) Once you try Uzbek food, you will fell in love with the cuisine for the rest of your life:) My aim is to introduce you to our cuisine and to show you how to cook tasty Uzbek dishes in your own kitchen. But there is one condition-you MUST cook them with LOVE :) This is my main secret ingredient. As my mother says, you must turn your cooking to art and each time your meal must be an artwork. I hope You will enjoy:)