Caucasian cuisine has its own characteristics that distinguish it from other cuisines of the world. Traditional Georgian, Armenian, Circassian, Ossetian, Azerbaijani dishes are prepared from lamb, beef, vegetables and herbs in large quantities, rice, seasoned with hot sauces and fragrant spices. The national Caucasian dishes are barbecue, shurpa, basturma, chanakhi, chakhokhbili, kyuhta and lak khinkal. The article is devoted to the last dish.
What it is
Lak khinkal is a national Caucasian dish, especially often it is prepared by Dagestanis, for whom this dish is the basis of the table. From the Avar language, the word "khinkal" is translated as "a piece of dough." This value fully reflects the essence of the dish itself, which is a dumpling (khinkalin), cooked in meat broth from lamb or beef. Dumplings are served at the table in the broth in which they were cooked, a piece of meat, chopped greens are necessarily put on the plate, and hot garlic sauce serves as a seasoning. Lak khinkal - an original dish with a spicy taste.
Ingredients
The hostess, who decided to surprise her husband with Caucasian food, will need such products:
- 450-550 g of flour;
- 1 chicken egg;
- 1 glass of water;
- 1 onion head;
- 1 tbsp. l vegetable oil;
- 0.5-0.6 kg of meat on the bone, most preferably lamb;
- a good bunch of greens;
- salt, allspice - at the discretion of the hostess.
Cooking process
A piece of lamb must be sent to the pan, pour water, put on a strong fire. After boiling water, let stand for 2-3 minutes and drain the first broth, rinse the meat thoroughly again, add three liters of water and put it to simmer over low heat under a closed lid. Remove foam occasionally with a slotted spoon. An hour later, toss the whole onion (of course, peeled), salt and pepper, cook over low heat until the meat is ready. Strain the broth, cut the mutton in portions.
While preparing the broth, you need to knead fresh dough. Lay the flour on the board with a slide, make a depression and drive an egg into the funnel, pour in vegetable oil. Knead the dough, gradually adding water. Then cover it with a clean white towel and leave to "rest" for 30 minutes.
To make real khinkalins, you need to tear a small piece from the dough from which to form thin sausages. Press each sausage in the middle with your finger so as to give a piece of dough the shape of an “ear” or “shell”. Dumplings toss in strained boiling broth, cook for about 5-6 minutes. Now everything is ready, but you need to properly submit the Lak khinkal. Put dumplings in a plate, fill them with hot broth, put a portion of meat and chopped greens. To the dish we serve tomato or sour cream spicy sauce.
Tomato or Sour Cream Sauce
A dish of Lak khinkal, the photo of which is in the article, is usually served with spicy red or white sauce. We prepare red sauce based on such products:
- tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l (can be replaced with 3 ripe sweet tomatoes);
- cow oil - 100 g;
- garlic - 3 large cloves;
- flour - 1 tbsp. l full;
- water - half a glass;
- greens;
- salt to the taste of the hostess.
Heat oil in a frying pan, put tomato or chopped tomato pulp (without skins) and flour, pour in water, cook until thickened over low heat, stirring constantly (about 4-5 minutes). Add salt, grated garlic and chopped herbs to the finished sauce.
To make white sauce, the hostess will need:
- a glass of sour milk (you can replace a glass of low-fat natural yogurt);
- 3 large cloves of garlic;
- 100 g of cow's butter;
- incomplete tablespoon of flour.
The flour should be fried to a light golden color in cow butter, then mixed with kefir and chopped garlic. Lak khinkal, the recipe of which you already know, goes well with garlic sauce.
Options
There are many more options for preparing this dish. For example, Kumyk khinkal or Dagestan, as well as Avar, Lezgi, Shepherd, Chechen and Dargin khinkal. All of them have no fundamental differences. The basis is a meat broth with dumplings. But the dough for the Dagestan "khinkalin" is kneaded not on water, but on kefir, dumplings from it are very tender and lush. And the dumplings for Lezgin Khinkal are made square, the dish is usually served with adjika.
Now you know how to cook a real Lak khinkal. A recipe with a photo of this Caucasian dish is in the article. Enjoy your meal!