Lagman, perhaps, is better than all Uzbek dishes associated with oriental bazaars. It combines the tastes, colors and aromas of many components. It elicits delight from the consumer, like the exotic, noisy markets of Tashkent, ancient Bukhara or the beautiful Samarkand. Lagman, along with manti and pilaf, occupies such an important place in the Uzbek cuisine that one does not even believe that the Uzbeks borrowed this dish from other nations.
History
The invention of the lagman is attributed to the Dungans and Uigurs, two Muslim peoples who lived in China. When exactly this happened, no one knows. There is a very beautiful legend about how three hungry travelers met on the road. One had flour and some meat, the second had a radish and a pinch of spices, the third had a round Chinese frying pan called a wok.
Among the travelers there was a cook's apprentice. He suggested making a sauce from meat and vegetables, and knead the dough from flour and water, and then draw noodles from it. A rich man, passing by seductive smells, joined the meal of the trinity. The dish so impressed him with its taste and simplicity that he immediately got the idea to cook and sell it all over China. The word "lyumyan", which in translation sounds like "stretch, pull the dough," gave the new dish a name. Lagman quickly became a popular dish in the Middle Kingdom, and then throughout Central Asia.
Varieties
Today, lagman is considered a national dish in China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other countries. The principles of its preparation are the same, but each country has its own nuances and features that relate to the choice of meat, a set of vegetables, spices, cooking noodles. Therefore, there are many varieties of this dish.
For example, if you compare the recipe for a lagman in Uzbek with the recipe for a real Uigur lagman, then the following differences are immediately evident. Uzbeks prefer to cook lagman in cauldrons. Cut the noodles with a knife or pull. Meat and vegetables are chopped into cubes, use potatoes and be sure to bring the ingredients to full readiness. The sauce turns out to be liquid, almost a soup.
Uyghurs cook in woks. On a very high fire, the products are practically fried, the sauce is thick and saturated. Use only drawn dough. They don’t recognize potatoes, but they must add garlic sticks to the sauce, and sometimes cucumbers. The meat and vegetables are cut into fairly long plates. Vegetables are not brought to full readiness, they should crunch slightly.
Tableware
In the Lagman recipe in Uzbek, an important role is played by the choice of dishes. It is best to cook in a real thick-walled cauldron. Due to the rounded bottom and a fair thickness of the walls, the cauldron evenly warms up all products in it, which rarely burn even on high heat.
A wok with a sloping bottom is also good for preparing this dish. Especially if you need to get a thick sauce. The round bottom and large area of ​​the wok help the liquid evaporate quickly, vegetables and meat begin to fry, rather than stew.
Not all Russian housewives have a cauldron or wok in the kitchen. Cast iron pots, thin-walled stew-pans or ordinary ducklings may well replace traditional oriental dishes. In addition, on the Internet you can find many recipes for a classic Uzbek lagman with photos that are cooked in a slow cooker.
Products
Any lagman includes five components:
- Noodles. The dough is kneaded on water, like dumplings, or on eggs. The noodles are either stretched by hands, then it turns round, or cut from thin layers of dough, then it is flat.
- Meat. Asian classic recipes use lamb or beef. But on the Internet and cookbooks there are many variations of recipes of the Uzbek lagman at home with photos in which the sauce is made from pork, turkey, chicken.
- Water or broth. Water affects the taste of the dish, so it should be extremely clean, better than spring. Water is sometimes replaced with broth, vegetable or meat.
- Vegetables. There is a huge field of activity for culinary experiments. In the classic Uzbek lagman recipe, carrot roots, onions, potatoes, bell peppers, Chinese or ordinary cabbage are certainly present. But other vegetables are often added to the lagman, such as eggplant, radish, green beans, tomatoes, quince, beets, apples. The more components, the richer, more complex the taste and the more beautiful the appearance of the dish.
- Greens and spices. Garlic, fresh herbs and capsicum, zira, ground coriander, black pepper are the required ingredients in the Lagman recipe in Uzbek. But their composition and quantity are not strictly defined, here, as with vegetables, the hostess has the opportunity to show culinary intuition, try something new, add the favorite spice in the family to the sauce.
Main principles
Despite the opportunity to experiment with the composition of the products, the general principles for the preparation of the lagman are practically unshakable. The dish consists of noodles, Uzbek chuzma, and sauce, its Uzbeks are called waji. Chuzma is prepared separately from the waji, they are connected immediately before serving. About the choice of dishes and the method of shredding vegetables said above. The rest of the principles of preparation of the lagman are as follows:
- The dough is kneaded, noodles are cut or pulled out of it.
- The meat is fried in a cauldron over high heat. Vegetables and spices are gradually added to it.
- Water or broth is poured.
- Vaja is cooked until cooked.
- Separately boiled chuzma.
- Noodles are generously sprinkled with fragrant meat sauce. Lagman is ready!
Waja
When preparing the sauce, it is important to use fresh and quality products. For waji, all components are cut into approximately equal cubes. So the dish turns out more beautiful, it is easier to eat, and the ingredients are prepared faster and better. Although the meat is subjected to prolonged heat treatment, fried, and then stewed or cooked, it is better to choose fresh and soft. Moreover, before sending to the cauldron, veins, films, bones must be removed from the meat.
The cauldron heats well on high heat, oil is poured into it. Its amount depends on the fat content of the meat and the amount of ingredients. Then begins the preparation of the vaja. Some put onions first, and after that meat and other products. However, in the classic Lagman recipe in Uzbek, the meat is first fried until a crust appears, which subsequently retains part of the juice in the meat.
For meat begins a consistent laying of vegetables. First onions and carrots, then potatoes, followed by cabbage, peppers, tomatoes and other ingredients. An important point: if you add potatoes after products containing a lot of acid, it can harden, then even prolonged stewing will not make it completely soft.
Spices, garlic, herbs are added. At this point, the contents of the cauldron must be thoroughly mixed so that the spices do not burn, but reveal their taste, enveloping the products. Then, broth or water is poured into the cauldron. The amount of fluid depends on which result is expected. If the output requires a sauce with the consistency of soup, then the liquid should cover the food for a couple of centimeters. If you need a thick waja, then the water is poured about two-thirds of the level of vegetables and meat. After boiling, the fire under the cauldron decreases. Vaja is cooked until all products are ready, in the region of half an hour or a little longer.
Chuzma
In Asia, women either make noodles themselves or buy ready-made ones, since there are a lot of them in eastern markets. In Russia, finding a chuzma is difficult. Therefore, many Russian housewives, not daring to make noodles on their own, prefer to buy spaghetti or noodles in the store. But in this case, the lagman only remotely resembles the Uzbek. It’s better to learn how to make chuzma once, so that later in your life you can cook according to the classic recipe Lagman in Uzbek at home.
Two types of noodle dough are common. On water and on eggs. Dough on water is done in the same way as dumplings. 500 grams of flour and a teaspoon of salt are mixed in 150 milliliters of water, sometimes one egg is added. The dough on the eggs is kneaded without water: flour and salt are gradually added to the beaten eggs until you get a pretty cool dough. Before making noodles, the dough must lie down for at least half an hour, so it will become more elastic.
It’s easier to make sliced ​​chuzma. It is necessary to roll the dough into thin layers, let it dry a little, sprinkle with flour, roll it into rolls and cut with a knife. Elongated noodles require skill and skill. Although the technology of drawing the test itself is understandable. The dough should be divided into small portions, rolled into sausages, then, wetting the palms with oil, gently pull the workpiece, turning it into thin and long noodles.
It’s unlikely that you can immediately learn how to flawlessly do chuzma, but do not despair, efforts and practice will quickly acquire this very useful skill. Turn-based recipes of the Uzbek lagman with photos and videos are an excellent tool.
Cooking Chuzma
This procedure does not cause any particular difficulties, but it is advisable to observe a number of rules. It is better to cook the noodles immediately before serving. In a volumetric pan with boiling water add salt, and then noodles. You don’t need to mix the chuzma, otherwise it will get confused. After five minutes, remove the noodles, rinse with ice water, add a little sunflower oil.
Innings
Recipes of the Uzbek lagman with a photo at home will not only help to prepare a delicious dish, but also tell you how to properly serve it. Traditionally, lagman is served in deep plates, in Uzbekistan special bowls are used for this - kasy. First, heated noodles are placed in the bowl, and sauce is poured on top of it and chopped greens are placed. Experts say that, according to the Uighur tradition, this dish needs to be eaten with chopsticks, but it’s easier for Russians to wield a fork and a spoon.
The subtleties of lagman
There are several subtleties that will help make the lagman tastier:
- If vinegar is added to the dough, it will become more elastic, it will be easier to pull the chuzma, and this will not affect the taste of the dish.
- It is not necessary to throw away meat wastes; you can make broth for sauce from them or flavor the oil by frying them to the state of cracklings.
- For the appearance of sour notes and a beautiful shade, a couple of spoons of tomato paste are added to the lagman, and vice versa - the sour taste of tomatoes, apples and cabbage can be balanced with a pinch of sugar.
- In Asia, lazhan sauce is cooked for lagman: chopped garlic with ground red pepper is mixed and this mixture is poured with hot oil.
- Another original component to the dish is egg noodles, it is cut from beaten eggs fried in the form of thin pancakes.
A classic Uzbek beef lagman recipe
Structure:
- beef - 600 grams;
- onions - 200 grams;
- carrots - one medium;
- potatoes - a couple of tubers;
- tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, bell pepper - 200 grams each;
- garlic - one head;
- greens - to taste;
- zira, coriander, hot pepper, salt - to taste;
- vegetable oil - 50-70 milliliters.
This is a traditional recipe for the Uzbek lagman (for a photo of the finished dish, see the article). It is popular because of its simplicity and the presence of beef; it is easier to find it in Russia than lamb, which is usually preferred by Uzbeks.
- The meat and vegetables are diced.
- Beef first goes to the cauldron, where it is fried in hot oil until a delicious crust appears.
- Vegetables are successively added to meat: onions, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, Peking cabbage, tomatoes, you can previously remove the skin from them. Each ingredient is fried for approximately two to three minutes.
- Chopped or simply peeled garlic, chopped herbs, spices and salt are placed in a cauldron.
- Products are poured with broth or cold water so that the liquid covers them.
- Vaja is preparing for half an hour or an hour over low heat.
- Separately, the noodles are boiled and poured with sauce immediately before serving.