One of the most hospitable countries is Kazakhstan. The national dishes of this state are loved by many peoples. Pilaf, Ayran, Baursaki, Beshbarmak and many other delicacies conquered the stomachs of gourmets around the world. Kazakhstan will turn out to be a real paradise for those who like to eat with taste. Kazakhstan is the homeland of nomads, which is known for its hearty meat dishes. All of them are referred to by one common name "et." But in addition to meat dishes, dairy delicacies and drinks are widely popular here. In Kazakhstan, homemade food prepared according to special recipes is welcome. And the main ingredient of any of the dishes is a special and reverent love.
A short story about Kazakh cuisine
Kazakhstan has a rather young cuisine. National dishes in the country began to form only in the late XIX - early XX centuries. And already after the transition of the Kazakhs to a settled way of life was completed, the local cookery developed completely. For a long time, the basis of Kazakh gastronomy was meat and milk. So, the Kazakhs prepared food from products such as Kazakh mare, camel, sheep and cow's milk, Kazakh lamb with horse meat and some other products of their processing. As you can see, the list is not very diverse. Therefore, it is very difficult, even with a highly developed fantasy, to prepare an abundance of dishes only from meat, milk and their derivatives, while cereals and vegetables are practically absent.
But this was not enough for the people living in Kazakhstan. He began to develop national dishes based on Kazakh meat and milk, which could be stored for a long time and at the same time not waste his taste. In this way, fried Kazakh dishes from mutton and lamb liver became widespread. Also, salted-smoked, smoked and smoked-boiled semi-finished products have become popular.
Kazakh sour-milk products and semi-finished products were also in demand. From agricultural products, the Kazakhs began to cook food quite late. Most often they use grain and flour. A characteristic highlight of the cuisine of Kazakhstan is the predominance of meat and flour delicacies.
Other features of Kazakh culinary excellence
Other features of Kazakh cuisine consist in the predominance of boiled meat-dough and semi-boiled foods. Kazakhs are not familiar with soups. The only exception is the Shurpa borrowed from the Uzbeks. A characteristic feature of gastronomy in Kazakhstan are dishes, the consistency of which looks like something in between the first and second dishes.
Another culinary feature is Kazakhstan. National dishes here are often prepared from offal, which is a favorite delicacy of the Kazakh people. In the modern cuisine of Kazakhstan there is also fish, vegetables, various Kazakh cereals in tandem with fruits.
The most famous dishes
Many traditional Kazakh dishes are known to gourmets all over the world. The story about them should start with the popular types of bread in Kazakhstan. It exists in two varieties here. The first option is Baursaki, which is pieces of dough fried in boiling oil. The second option is tandoor cakes. They are baked on the inside of the tandoor oven. Since baursaki can be prepared in a cauldron under the conditions of a campaign, it was always more in demand. Also, Kazakh bread can be represented by such products as shelpek (thin cake), tandoor-nan, taba-nan (baked on charcoal) and shek-shek.
Kazakh dishes are, first of all, flour meat dishes. For example, samsa - pies with meat, puktermet - pies with offal, or kausyrma - special pasties. Kuyrdak is considered the most popular dish in Kazakhstan. This is a roast prepared from lamb kidneys, heart, lungs, liver and fat tail fat. Well, the visiting card of the country is, of course, pilaf.
Real Kazakh Baursaks
Baursaki on kefir (a real Kazakh cooking recipe can be read on) is a classic flour dish of Kazakhstan. Often a dish is prepared from yeast or unleavened dough. Small round or rhomboid donuts are fried in a cauldron (deep-fried). Baursaki serve shurpa or tea.
A delicious dish of Baursaki on kefir. The real Kazakh recipe looks like this: first you need to prepare half a kilogram of wheat flour, 300 milliliters of kefir, four tablespoons of vegetable oil and one tablespoon of sugar. You will also need one teaspoon of salt, two eggs, 15 grams of baking powder and cooking oil for frying.
So, in a bowl you need to mix eggs, butter, kefir, salt and sugar. Also, sift part of the flour with baking powder here. All this mix. Now you need to add the remaining flour and knead the dough. The dough is divided into four pieces, which are separately additionally kneaded. Of these parts, koloboks are formed and left under the towel for a quarter of an hour.
Now you should take a deep frying pan and pour so much vegetable oil into it so that the baursaki float freely in it. While the oil is warming up, cakes are rolled out of koloboks. Then they are cut into strips of seven-centimeter width. The strips, in turn, are cut diagonally into pieces two centimeters wide. Then baursaki can be dipped in oil and fry until a golden hue is formed.
How to cook palau
Palau is an incredibly delicious Kazakh pilaf, the recipe of which we present. In order to get 350 grams of food, you need to take:
- 110 g of mutton.
- 40 g of lamb.
- 36 g onions.
- 50 g of carrots.
- 15 g of dried apples or dried apricots.
- 100 g of rice.
In an oil heated in a pan, chop the chopped onion. Pepper and salted beef is also fried until a crust appears on it. Add carrot (strips) to the meat and fry again. Then washed rice, finely chopped dried apricots and fried onions are added to the meat. All this is poured with water at the rate of 1.5 liters of liquid per kilogram of rice. Two or three punctures are made to the bottom to the full depth, cover the container and cook until tender over low heat.
All drinks drink
Just as kefir is popular with us, so the Kazakh milk is in special demand with the sour-milk drink Ayran. To obtain it, specially bred milk bacteria are used, which are planted in a mixture of cow, goat and sheep milk. Then, water from the spring and salt (sugar) are added to this composition to taste. All this should be kept warm until sour.
Ayran in Kazakhstan is considered a summer drink. They use it fresh, but also on its basis make a variety of stew with the addition of various cereals. In addition, irimshik is made from ayran - fatty cottage cheese.
Sweet dishes
Kazakh sweets deserve special attention. They are so tasty that it is almost impossible to break away from their use. Among the most popular desserts in Kazakhstan are:
- Chuck-chak is a sweet dish consisting of fried or baked dough, which is abundantly greased with syrup and spread with nuts.
- Gent is a dish in which taste creates fresh oil. To prepare a zhent, you need half a kilogram of tulcan, one hundred grams of some shortbread biscuits, two tablespoons of honey, one spoonful of jam syrup, 200-250 grams of butter and raisins with sugar to taste. In a coffee grinder, grind cookies and sugar. Then they are mixed with raisins and talcan. On low heat melt the syrup, honey and butter. All this is poured in a thin stream into the talcan. A warm mass is placed in molds and put in the refrigerator for two hours.
- Mysek is an incredibly satisfying dessert made from containers. It can be eaten not only as an independent dish, but also added to tea.
Recommended Meals
There are dishes in Kazakhstan that you should definitely try. So, incredibly delicious is beshbarmak - which is pieces of cooked meat with noodles. They cook it from beef, camel, horsemeat and lamb. Sorpa is also considered very appetizing. This is the famous oriental meat soup. You can also add onions, herbs and vegetables to such a treat.
Probably everyone heard about Kazakh manti. Manti in Kazakh is made from finely chopped lamb and chopped onions. Minced meat is also salted and pepper. And in Kazakhstan it is worth feasting on a shuzhik. Shuzyk is one of the varieties of sausage. In this country, horse meat is used for its preparation.
Hospitality of Kazakhs
Kazakh cuisine, the recipes of which are in our article, is so rich that it is difficult to describe all the dishes in one review. In addition to extraordinary dishes, Kazakhstan boasts a special hospitality. Residents of this country always welcome their guests. And whoever comes into the house, he is immediately seated at a generously laid table. In this case, one cannot refuse, citing employment or lack of hunger. Otherwise, you can offend the owners. The feast among the Kazakhs is a kind of ritual. It is so complex that it can easily compare with the famous tea ceremony in China.
First of all, in the Kazakh house, the guest is offered tea, which is served in a bowl. Then they begin to recommend the dishes available in the apartment or yurt. Today in Kazakh cooking there are many foreign borrowings. But still, a special place is given to traditional dishes.