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Friday, May 27, 2011

How to make "Suzma"


As I mentioned in my older posts, "Suzma" is quite popular in Uzbekistan, especially in hot summers! It is used for salads, beverages, for soup toppings, also served with vegetables. For making "Suzma", try to use "Qatiq" which is made of full fat milk  - it will be thick and yummy! The taste of "Suzma" depends on how tasty is your "Qatiq", if it is sour, then your "Suzma" will also be sour. That's why it is important to have tasty and full fat "Qatiq", in this way, your "Suzma" will taste just like cream cheese! Spread it to bread, put some sun dried tomatoes, that were soaked in olive oil on top and try- it is irresistible!
Ingredients:
1.5 liters of "Qatiq" (http://uzbekcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/qatiq-natural-yogurt.html)
Salt to taste
Cheesecloth or cotton fabric
Finely mix half a tbsp or less salt with "Qatiq". Layer cotton fabric/cheesecloth over the strainer and pour all of the "Qatiq" on it.

Gather the edges and secure with rubber band. Hang over deep bowl and let it drain for 7-8 hours.

Spoon out all of the "Suzma" in to a glass jar and enjoy it!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

13 comments:

  1. This looks amazing...thank you for sharing this! I am a student giving a talk on fermented dairy to my class. May I use an image to show my class how to make this? I will tell them where the info and image came from and give you credit. Thank you SO much for sharing this!

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    1. Melissa, sure dear, as long as it will help others, I am happy to help:)

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  2. Thank you SO very much...I love your blog! :)

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  3. is there an Arabic word or Persian word for that?

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  4. Dear Melissa:
    20 years ago in Tashkent my hostess served little cakes (croquettes) made of Suzma (or similar cheese) for breakfast. I watched her, she put about .25 kilo/8 ounces cheese in a bowl, added salt, an egg, and maybe flour & baking soda. Plus she sweetened it a little, but not like dessert, just slightly, but I didn't see with what, honey, beet sugar, I don't know. Then she formed little cakes/patties by hand, about 2" across and .5 inches high and fried them in oil or butter very quickly. She would go to the market each morning for fresh cheese and make these for breakfast with tea.

    I keep trying to copy these and I've come close but I'm still not sure of the ingredients and since I don't know the name I have been unable to track down a recipe.

    In my trials without flour I get a large, flat blini-looking thing (which still tastes great, but not a good copy). If I add a little flour and baking soda then I can't get them cooked through before the outside burns (on low-medium heat). Her cakes were slightly dry, the cheese wasn't melted inside, and they had enough structure that you could break it in half.

    I've tried Quark, dry cottage cheese (not the regular 'creamed' kind), which was too dry and crumbly. Today I tried Mexican Queso which crumbles up nicely, and the cakes tasted fine, but again the problems with and without flour I mentioned above.

    Thank you very very much and if this is not an appropriate place to ask such a question please just ignore or, if not too much trouble, tell me the name of these cakes so I can search the web for them.

    Thank you very much!
    Melanie Grube

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  5. Great stuff, suzma! After many unsatisfactory samplings of all manner of supermarket yogurts and kefirs and tvorogs I was lucky to find a Crimean tatar family who make it for me to order and now I am addicted. My only concern is just how many calories does it have? It is so incredibly yummy that I can't imagine it being low fat although it says everywhere the stuff is low on calories. Would you have any idea?

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    1. Hi Yasmean, the calories depends on how fatty is your yogurt-"qatiq". I usually use full fat milk to make my yogurt and from 1.5 litres of yogurt you will get about 250 grams of "suzma", so there is as much calorie as in 1.5 litres of full fat milk which is approximately 900 calories:)

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  6. Thanks Malika, that was very helpful. I understand that if I want it less calorific I should ask them to make the qatiq from skimmed milk rather than full fat, right?

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  7. Would you be able to post a recipe for kurt (yogurt balls)? I know you make them from suzma, but I'm not exactly sure how. I live in Australia but I grew up in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and I miss kurt so much!!

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    1. Hi there, that will be a new challenge for me - I know how to make it, tried as well, but they never come up as kurt we buy in the markets)

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    2. FYI I found this post via https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-qurt which has such a recipe.

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