If you were asked, how do you imagine the traditionally laid table of the eastern peoples? Most likely, you will imagine tea, dried fruits, rice. This, of course, is true, but there is something else that cannot be excluded from the traditional menu of the eastern countries - a hearty dish with noodles - lagman. This is a fragrant, nutritious stew of Kazakhs, Tajiks, Uzbeks, moreover, the lagman is gaining popularity in Europe.
We are ready to tell you the recipe for a delicious lagman, the most delicious and the simplest.
According to legends, the lagman got its start in the Land of the Rising Sun.
The legend of lagman
The legend tells of three travelers who never knew each other. Each of them went his own way, towards his dream. And they had nothing in common except one feeling: feelings of hunger. The travelers took so long and got so hungry that, having met at the crossroads, looking at the starving faces of each other, they decided to have a halt together. They went down to the spring and opened their bags. Each of them had several simple ingredients, but something was missing for everyone: the first carried a piece of meat and flour, the second had a frying pan and some seasoning and eggs, and the third carried vegetables. Having collected pure water in a stream, they set about cooking edible food, which would satisfy the hunger of travelers and allow them to reach their destination.
They made a fire, made soup from meat, noodles and vegetables - and so the first lagman turned out.
Satisfied, the travelers sat together by the fire and had a conversation, they felt so good, the sun did not shine so brightly and did not burn travelers, a light breeze blew through them, and their bellies were full.
Meanwhile, exhausted by heat, hunger, a rich merchant rode along the road near a spring. His nose smelled of the pleasant aroma of broth, meat and vegetables, his stomach was reduced from hunger, he stopped and went on a pleasant smell. Seeing the travelers resting by the stream and the pan, he realized where the smell came from and asked for a little for himself to satisfy his hunger. Travelers fed the merchant.
The merchant liked the incredible taste of the new dish so much, he was so quickly fed up with a small portion that he offered any money for the recipe for this brew. Travelers shared a recipe with him, and he, in turn, began to sell the recipe to cooks, began to build various establishments in which a hitherto unprecedented recipe was sold. So the delicious lagman gained its popularity, capturing all of China with its taste.
Lagman - oriental dish
The name of the dish - “lagman” - is traditionally translated as “stretched dough”, because homemade noodles are used to prepare this dish. The latter is significantly different in taste from the store. And how could such a noodle without a rich sauce?
Each family uses different products for cooking lagman, especially a favorite combination of vegetables and meat. A delicious beef lagman is traditionally prepared, lamb is often used, we will also share pork recipe, this is one of the frequent ingredients of Russian tables.
Each family has its own special ingredient, a special recipe, passing from one generation to another, changing and improving, but what unites any variation of the dish, like travelers, is that lagman is prepared from homemade noodles in a wok or cauldron.
Let's start our recipe with the main ingredient - noodles.
Lagman noodles
To prepare delicious, home-made noodles for the most delicious lagman, we need extremely simple, affordable ingredients:
- flour - 1 kg;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- warm water - 400 ml;
- salt - 1.5 tbsp. l .;
- soda - 1/2 tsp;
- vegetable oil - 1 cup.
Let's start cooking noodles.
Cooking
To make the noodles you will need a deep bowl. Pour warm water, one tablespoon of salt into it and mix the ingredients thoroughly. Beat eggs in a bowl and stir together with a whisk. When the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, gradually add flour and knead the dough.
Next, take a clean towel, moisten with cold water and wrap the finished dough in it. Leave it like that for 1 hour. You can do more. During this time, several times it is necessary to take out the dough and mash it.
Pour 1/2 cup of water into a bowl and pour out the remaining salt and soda, mix everything thoroughly. This solution must be rubbed a little into the dough so that the dough becomes soft, smooth, elastic. When stretching the noodles in this solution, moisten your hands.
Pull the dough into a tourniquet and cut into several pieces, put on a dish, curled up with a snake. Smear the noodles with vegetable oil, cover with a towel and leave for 10 minutes.
After a while, grease your hands with vegetable oil, roll each piece of the flagellum and pull into thin sausages the thickness of a finger. Put sausages on a board that is also oiled. Cover the noodles with a towel again and leave for a few minutes. The next step involves the same stretch, but the flagella are the size of a pencil. Each time cover with a towel, grease with oil and leave for 10 minutes.
Pull the dough to a thin thread and put in a greasy oily bowl. After 10-20 minutes, fold the flagella like yarn and put on your hands and beat it off the table, each side.
Your noodles are ready. For a delicious lagman, this is the perfect product. If you have too much of it, you can grease the bowl with oil and, folding it in a spiral, lay out the noodles and use for other dishes.
Spaghetti
Of course, a delicious lagman at home is made from homemade noodles, but you can also use noodles or spaghetti from the store. To prepare the lagman, scald the pasta when the gravy is ready. Choose long pasta if you intend to use a non-home option - no less tasty, but much faster.
Now let's find out how to make gravy from meat and vegetables using several options for meat.
Delicious lamb lagman
It’s time to make waji - gravy. This is one of the best ways to cook delicious lagman at home. Lamb - a traditional ingredient for cooking. Lagman is distinguished from ordinary gravy by tasty, traditional spices, a variety of vegetables, including radish. The taste of the dish is aromatic, appetizing. Lagman is a dish that is ideally suited both as the first, as it is served with thick broth, and as the second, due to the large amount of meat and vegetables.
Let's find out what ingredients we need for a delicious lagman:
- lamb - 500 g;
- beef broth - 1000 ml;
- potatoes - 1 pc.;
- tomato - 1 pc.;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- carrots - 1 pc.;
- sweet pepper - 1 pc.;
- radish - 1 pc.;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l .;
- sunflower oil - 3 tbsp. l .;
- fresh parsley and dill - 2 branches each;
- spices for mutton.
Cooking
Take fresh meat and cut into medium slices. Lubricate the cauldron or deep frying pan - wok - and lay out the pieces of lamb. Fry the meat until golden brown. Process the vegetables while the meat is cooked. Rinse and peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. Cut pepper and carrots into short strips, and cut tomato and radish into cubes. Chop the onion to small cubes.
Put onion, radish and pepper to the finished meat. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and lay the tomato in a few minutes.
Fry the ingredients for a few minutes, when the vegetables start juice, add tomato puree or pasta. Mix vegetables and meat with pasta, reduce heat to minimum and simmer for 3-5 minutes under the lid.
Add finely chopped garlic and potatoes to the cauldron.
Take the beef broth and heat it, pour it into the cauldron and add boiled water to the edges of the cauldron. Bring the brew to a boil and simmer the delicious lagman for about half an hour. Cooking time depends on the meat used, pork lagman cooks much faster.
When the potatoes are ready, add dry seasonings, salt and taste for 10 minutes to taste. Grasp the noodles. To do this, heat the water in a saucepan, salt and put the required amount into water, scald the noodles.
Innings
Turn off the heat on the stove and let the lagman stand for a few minutes. Finely chop the fresh herbs. Put the noodles in a deep plate - tureen, put the gravy on top with a lot of tasty, fragrant broth. Sprinkle the dish with fresh herbs and serve.
So you can cook delicious and fast lagman - a traditional dish of the eastern countries.
Now let's try making a pork lagman.
Pork Lagman
As we have already said, lagman has different cooking variations, and although beef or lamb is the standard meat option for lagman, we will try to cook a simplified version of pork. This is a new way to cook lagman quickly and tasty, as pork is cooked much faster. Let's get acquainted with the list of ingredients.
For cooking you will need:
- pork - 500 g;
- sweet pepper - 1 pc.;
- carrots - 2 pcs.;
- tomato - 2 pcs.;
- potatoes - 2 pcs.;
- radish - 1 pc.;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- vegetable oil for frying meat;
- zira;
- greens;
- salt.
You just look at the photo of a delicious lagman, appetizing, aromatic gravy causes a stormy appetite.
Cooking lagman
First prepare the pork. Remove grease from a piece of pork. Cut into medium slices, remember that pork is well fried. Preheat a cauldron, thick-bottomed pot, pan, or wok. Combine the bottom with vegetable oil, lay out the meat, add salt to taste. Cook the meat on medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally so as not to burn.
Peel the onion and cut into half rings, put it in a cauldron.
Peel the carrots and peppers and cut into small strips, also put to the meat. When preparing pepper, remove seeds and stalks.
Peel the radish and chop into small cubes, remove the skin from the tomato and also cut into cubes, the size of the cubes of radish. Put in the cauldron to the remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to a minimum, cover and simmer occasionally, stew meat and vegetables.
In a mortar, grind the zira and put into a container, add the broth to taste and simmer all the ingredients together for 20 minutes.
Prepare the potatoes, chop and put in a cauldron after 20 minutes. Cook the lagman with it for another 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are ready.
Try the broth to taste, add salt to taste, garlic, your favorite spices.
Your lagman is almost ready, all you have to do is cook the noodles.
How to file
Cook the noodles. If you are going to cook lagman from store noodles by boiling water, add a couple of drops of oil. Vegetable oil will prevent sticking of noodles. Serve lagman with fresh herbs. This dish does not require any additional ingredients, offer guests fresh buns, otherwise it is a full-fledged dish with aromatic broth, juicy meat and delicious vegetables.
A little secret in the end, if you want to try the Uyghur lagman - cook it in a thin saucepan over high heat. This will reduce cooking time, and the ingredients will turn out crispy, toasted.