Each housewife wants to delight her family and guests with a rich table with incredibly tasty dishes. It is especially nice if you manage to pamper your loved ones with dishes of kitchens of different peoples of the world. Today we will plunge you into the world of the East. And we will teach you how to cook the best dishes of Dungan cuisine. We will tell about this people and its difficult history. And also share the best recipes of Dungan cuisine with a photo and step-by-step description.
Who are the Dungans?
Dungans are an incredibly hardworking and patient people who live in the territory of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. These representatives of the young nation are descendants of the Chinese-speaking peoples who converted to Islam.
There is a rather interesting legend related to the emergence of the Dungan nation. Once, a terrible monster dreamed of a Chinese emperor wishing his death. In a dream, he managed to cope with this monster by an unfamiliar young man, dressed in green robes, who simply disappeared after the battle. In the morning, having called all the sages and interpreters of dreams, he ordered as soon as possible to explain to him the meaning of sleep. The sages easily explained to him that in a dream the monster meant the enemies of the empire, and the young man is a new religion (Muslim), with the help of which it will be possible to avoid bloody wars.
The emperor sent ambassadors to Arabia asking for help. Persian and Arab warriors helped the Chinese fight the nomads. And marriages with Chinese women gave rise to a new ethnic community - the Dungans.
For three days after the wedding, there was a ban on accepting complaints from the girls' parents, about where they had taken from their daughters. Only on the fourth day were they allowed to see their now married daughters. Since then, to this day, a custom has been established according to which, after the wedding, the bride's parents bring chopped noodles, snacks and meat.
Dungan cuisine
Cooking has a special place in the life of the Dungans. The vocation of every Dungan woman is to be a tidy and good housewife who knows how to cook all the national dishes. Even when choosing a bride, they first carefully find out if she knows how to cook, only then they start matchmaking.
From the photo of Dungan cuisine, drooling just flows - national drugs look so appetizing that I immediately want to cook every dish. All this is due not only to tasty and natural products, but also to the special principle of cleanliness in the kitchen "gandin", which means that the kitchen should be dry and clean.
A prerequisite for Dungan cuisine is its separate location from the living rooms. Not one housewife will leave uncleaned dishes for the night, which, according to existing beliefs, attracts evil spirits into the house. Dungan cuisine recipes are a delicious combination of meat, vegetables, spices and rice. From meat, the main preference is given to lamb and beef. In the following sections, we will consider recipes for Dungan cuisine with a photo.
Main course - rice with meat and vegetables
In Dungan cuisine, rice occupies a special place, which very often even replace bread. Among the variety of rice dishes in the national menu, there is one that is most often preferred.
To cook it, boil the rice, which must be thoroughly washed and sorted before cooking. The Dungans use a very interesting method of cooking rice - first they pour water into the boiler and put a grate in it, which is covered with cloth on top. Rice is poured onto the fabric, the boiler is tightly closed and cooked on low heat for no more than half an hour.
Cooked rice is laid out on portioned guest bowls for each guest. Rice snacks are spread on a common plate - these are vegetables stewed with meat and salads from fresh and pickled vegetables, as well as sauerkraut according to a special recipe. And already from the common plate, each guest puts in his bowl only what he wants.
Dungan Lagman Recipe
Dungan cuisine has a fairly large number of dishes with homemade noodles. There are several recipes of the company lagman, but we will focus on the most popular.
To make the noodles, you need 1 kg of flour, a tablespoon of salt, a couple of tablespoons of oil and water. You need to knead a tight dough, then roll it very thinly and cut into noodles. For the sauce, fry 250 grams of fresh mutton, cut into small pieces. Add a couple of onions, sliced in half rings, and 8-9 bell peppers to the meat . Sauté the vegetables until the onions are golden. Add 3-4 tomatoes, fry for a few more minutes, then pour a glass of water. Stew meat with vegetables for some more time and remove from heat. Serve such a noodle sauce in combination with garlic and pepper seasoning.
Manti Dungansky
Another common dish of Dungan cuisine is manti. To prepare the dough, use the same recipe as for the noodles. The filling for manti is prepared from lamb chopped into small pieces, chopped onions, melted interior fat and salt. The ratio of meat and onion is 1: 1, meat and fat is 1: 0.1.
From the dough, form small balls the size of a walnut, roll thin cakes and fill them with the filling. Cover the mantles nicely and steam them until tender. Serve them with tomato sauce or pepper seasoning.
Sweet tea
Since the Dungans are very strict about the dry law established within their own people, sweet tea is their favorite drink . Prepare such a drink right in the cups, pouring one spoon of tea leaves and the same amount of sugar. Pour boiling water and let it brew. Such tea is always served after dinner or other meals.