Thursday, February 24, 2011
Nuhot sho'rva (Soup with yellow peas)
"Nuhot sho'rva" is made from yellow peas. Vegetarians can cook it without meat, as it is good source of protein. Use fresh meat, preferable meat with some bones, it will give special flavor and helps this soup to be thicker. I like it to make this soup thick, but if you like making it thinner then add not 140 grams but 100 grams of peas.
Ingredients:
60 gr of vegetable oil or 50 gr of lamb's tail fat
350 gr of meat
2 onions, peeled and sliced
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 small capsicum, seeded and cubed
1 turnip peeled and cubed (optional)
2 medium sized tomatoes, cubed well
140 grams of peas, washed well
1.5 liters of water
Salt to taste
1 tbsp of coriander
1 tsp of cumin seeds
Fresh coriander chopped
Heat oil well and brown meat on a high heat. Put in onions,spices and fry until onions are transparent and add in carrot and capsicum. Fry constantly stirring until carrots are half done. Add in tomato and turnip. Fry until oil starts to separate out. Add in peas and immediately add in water. Bring to boil, scoop out little foam and lower the heat. Half cover the lid and simmer until peas are soft. At the end add in salt. Serve in individual bowls sprinkling some coriander.
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tovuq dolma (Stuffed whole chicken)
Usually this kind of dolma is made from whole chicken, stuffing just the empty space, but as usually, I like to make more generous filling, so I decided to debone a chicken. I involve my husband to this process, as I couldn't do it as well as he can. We bought fresh chicken from the market and as soon as we get home he started to deboning it:)
Meantime I prepared ingredients for stuffing. Our "Tovuq dolma" turned out to be so delicious! It was moist, juicy and mouthwatering tasty! I was telling my husband from now on we have to try different recipes for stuffing a chicken, I have lots of them!
Ingredients:
Whole fresh chicken 1.5 kg (or even bigger)
1 medium sized zucchini
1 egg
3/4 cup of rice
4-5 tbsp of clarified butter
Salt to taste
1 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of coriander
half a tsp of cumin seeds
1 big onion
2 potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of mayonnaise
1 tbsp of mustard
1 tbsp of sour cream
Wash rice carefully and put in a boiling water. Stir immediately and cook until rice is done and soft, but don't overcook. Stir occasionally as it tends to stick to the bottom of a pan. When all the water evaporated and rice is done,add in salt and butter and stir well.Set aside.
Debone a chicken and put all the meat part (that's exactly two breast and some few meat out of the thights) in food processor. Grind chicken meat together with rice, egg and zucchini. Grind well until all the ingredients are finely blended. I am posting some pictures of how to debone a chicken, but if you couldn't understand, then, go to you tube and search videos on deboning a chicken, find one that you like and try to do that!
First of all break the middle bone:
Carefully cut out the spine bone with a sharp knife:
There it is:
Now carefully cut out breast bone, don't cut up the skin!
Carefully cut out chicken breast for filling.
Spread the leg in two parts and take out upper bone.
We got it, deboned chicken!
Stuff chicken with filling.
Sew the bottom and tie legs crosswise.
Sew up the top and tie wings.
Mix well mayonnaise, mustard and sour cream all together and rub it evenly all over the chicken.
Peel onion and potatoes and slice up thick circles. Chop up garlic. layer vegetables evenly in your baking dish and put chicken on top.
Pour 200 ml of water on the sides.
Bake in preheated oven until chicken is nicely golden in color about 1.5-2 hours. (Depends on the size of a chicken) Occasionally pour up the juicy water from the sides of the chicken on to the top of it with a spoon. That will make chicken moist and juicy.
Serve with fresh salad and enjoy!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!