In any oriental teahouse, in any oriental restaurant, in the colorful markets of Central Asia, you can find and taste the real mutton shurpa. This dish is legendary comparable to Ukrainian borsch. As in borsch, unique aromas, rich taste, and beautiful look are combined in shurpa. It looks like a culinary still life: an iridescent broth is generously filled with colorful vegetables, meat, greens. For more than a thousand years, people have been cooking shurpa, but it does not lose popularity. She is prepared for a wedding and large holidays, she is effectively treated by patients, she is a frequent guest of family dinners or a friendly feast.
History
The word "Shurpa" has Persian roots and translates as "acidic water." Today it has spread throughout Central Asia; shurpa variations can be found in the national cuisines of the Balkan countries, Moldova, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Tatarstan. Many of these countries consider themselves inventors of the first shurpa. However, it is impossible to say reliably who started cooking a rich, very thick soup of meat and coarsely chopped vegetables. The first mention of shurpa dates back to the fourth century, and already in the tenth century, the great healer Avicenna described in detail its health benefits.
Beneficial features
And this benefit is surprisingly versatile. In Asia, mutton shurpa is given as an indispensable medicine for colds: fatty, spicy soup quickly and effectively relieves symptoms of the disease. In addition, shurpa helps with stomach ulcers and gastritis, pneumonia, rheumatism, anemia, tuberculosis. Of course, such a universal healing potential of a dish can cause skepticism at a serious doctor, but shepherds who consume shurpa constantly do not suffer from tuberculosis and are distinguished by excellent health.
Fat mutton broth, saturated with vitamins and useful elements, strengthens the immune system, instantly gives strength, helps to warm up in cold weather. There is a persistent legend that this dish increases potency. But perhaps the most famous healing effect of the classic mutton shurpa is its ability to relieve a hangover. It is worth eating a portion of fragrant, sharp shurpa, and unpleasant hangover symptoms become milder or disappear altogether.
Varieties
Despite the fact that shurpa is always prepared according to approximately the same principles, there are dozens of its variations. Moreover, even in one country, depending on the shurpa region, it can differ markedly. First of all, the differences relate to the set of ingredients. Shurpa from lamb is considered to be classical, but it is also made from beef, poultry, and even, which is unthinkable in Muslim cooking, from pork.
In addition, in search of new flavors, mushrooms, peas, apples, chicken tail, corn, quince, cabbage, apricots are added to the shurpa, using meatballs instead of coarsely chopped pieces of meat. Each of these ingredients contributes to the taste of the dish, changes it, so it makes no sense to focus on each of them. All recipes for mutton shurpa at home can be divided into two groups, based on the method of preparation:
- boiled shurpa, in it the ingredients are successively laid in water and boiled without prior heat treatment;
- fried shurpa, some products (meat, large pieces of carrots, onions) are first fried and then poured with water, brought to a boil, and then cooked in the same way as a cooked version of the dish, but in this case the dish cooks faster.
Features
For centuries, shurpa remains one of the favorite soups in Central Asia. She won the fight against other soups, many of which disappeared without a trace, thanks to her features, or rather, a very successful combination of the following features:
- Richness and density. Recipes of classic mutton shurpa prescribe cutting meat and vegetables in large pieces. Therefore, it is difficult to call shurpa soup, it simultaneously combines the first and second dishes.
- Fat content. Very fat mutton broth is not only tasty, but also has healing and warming properties, in addition to fatty meat, fat tail is often used in cooking.
- Aroma and pungency. Shurpa is not spared greens, it gives the soup fragrance and beauty. Spicy and aromatic spices, first of all - capsicum, are essential components of the dish.
Classic Product Set
What does the dish consist of?
- Meat. Of course, lamb shurpa at home will be to your liking the closest real shurpa, which is cooked in Asia. However, it is problematic to get high-quality mutton in Russian realities. It is too expensive or of dubious quality due to repeated freezing. Therefore, it is better to take fresh beef, chicken, pork, ducklings or turkey. You need to choose meat with fat and bones, for example ribs or brisket, this will make the broth stronger and more rich.
- Vegetables. Shurpa must contain carrots, onions and lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes. Otherwise, the choice depends on the flight of culinary thought and season. If apples, bell peppers, turnips, quinces, plums or corn have ripened, you can safely add them to the dish.
- Greens. Here the principle prevails: greens will not spoil the shurpa. The soup is generously flavored with green cilantro, dill, basil and finely chopped parsley.
- Spice. In real mutton shurpa, cooked at home, be sure to put cumin, hot pepper, savory, coriander.
Tableware
Traditionally, shurpa is cooked in thick-walled cauldrons, this is the perfect combination of dishes and dishes. In a voluminous cauldron, you can easily cook a lot of food for a big company, and making shurpa in small quantities is sacrilege. The cauldron evenly distributes heat to its volume, this allows the broth not to boil, but to languish slowly. In addition, the cauldron is universal, it is hung over a fire, put on a stove or on a special roasting pan. If there is no cauldron, then it can be replaced with a large pan. Shurpa is also cooked in slow cookers, but they usually do not have very spacious bowls.
Basic principles
How to cook lamb shurpa? In fact, it is simple, it is enough to follow principles that have not changed for centuries.
- If boiled shurpa is being prepared, then first water is poured into the cauldron, moreover, the water should be good, preferably from a spring or a well. The quality of water affects the taste of a dish no less than the quality and freshness of meat, herbs and vegetables.
- They put meat in water, quickly bring to a boil and very carefully remove the resulting foam. If this process is neglected, the broth will turn cloudy. In the cauldron lay onions chopped in large half rings. Reduce the fire so that the broth does not boil. If the boil still appears, then the fire must be reduced still or pour the broth from a place where it does not boil into a hotbed with a high stream. Meat with onions is cooked for about an hour and a half.
- After the laying of the remaining vegetables begins. First, the broth is salted, then carrots are added, it can be cut across or along, a question of aesthetics, the main thing is that the pieces should be large. Together with carrots, they put a part of spices: coriander, zira and capsicum. It is important that the pepper does not have defects and damages, otherwise all its internal sharpness will turn into shurpa, it will become excessively sharp. The contents of the cauldron are cooked for another hour.
- Then comes the turn of potatoes, it is put whole or cut in half tubers. After five to ten minutes, peeled tomatoes cut in half or whole, and other vegetables, such as turnips, large half rings of bell pepper, quince, apples, are added to the shurpa. The article contains photos of mutton shurpa that amaze with the beauty of this soup. Sometimes some vegetables are added not only for the sake of taste, but also to improve the appearance of the dish when serving. Red tomatoes, yellowish potatoes, orange carrots, bright green parsley, purple salad onions, colorful peppers - this play of colors only enhances the charm of the shurpa.
- Five to ten minutes before turning off the fire, put onion rings, lettuce, chopped herbs and other spices in the cauldron. Give a little insist and serve.
The preparation of fried shurpa differs only at the initial stage, when in a cauldron with melted fat tail fat or vegetable oil, the meat is fried to a crust, then carrots and onions are added to it. After this frying is poured with water and cooked in the same way as boiled shurpa.
Innings
There are two ways of serving shurpa: everyday and holiday. In the first case, the shurpa is poured into deep plates, sprinkled with herbs and eaten like an ordinary soup. In the second - vegetables and meat, generously sprinkled with herbs, spread on a festive dish covered with ornate patterns, which in the East is called lagan. And the broth is poured into portioned bowls. Therefore, in Central Asia they often say “drink” shurpa instead of “eat”. Oriental people are completely dispensed with cutlery: they eat meat and vegetables by hand, drink the broth from the bowls, and pieces of tortillas collect delicious sauce remaining on the dishes.
The subtleties of cooking shurpa
How is the dish prepared?
- First, under the cauldron, you need to make maximum fire so that the water boils faster, slow boiling makes the broth turbid.
- If, together with meat, a pinch of salt is thrown into the water, the foam will separate faster.
- Potatoes and tomatoes appeared in Central Asia relatively recently, they are not found in old shurpa recipes, but it is difficult to imagine a modern recipe without hearty potatoes and tomatoes that give a piquant sourness.
- In addition to traditional herbs (dill, parsley), lamb shurpa often use basil and tarragon, which are great for meat.
- The present shurpa is tastier than fresh, but you should not cook it for the future, because of the variety of products it is poorly stored.
- No need to eat it cold. Mutton fat freezes easily, the dish loses taste greatly.
The classic recipe for lamb shurpa at home
Structure:
- lamb on the bones - 1 kilogram;
- carrots - 1 large or 2 medium;
- onions - 500 grams;
- onion salad - 200 grams;
- potatoes - 7-8 medium tubers;
- Bulgarian pepper - 2 pieces;
- tomatoes - 3-4 pieces;
- dill, basil, parsley, cilantro - 1 bunch each;
- hot pepper - 1-2 pods;
- spices, salt - to taste.
Cooking
How is shurpa prepared?
- Peel the meat from veins and films, and then wash thoroughly.
- Put meat in a cauldron with cold water, put on a large fire, quickly bring to a boil and very carefully catch the meat foam.
- Reduce the heat to a minimum; immediately put the onion chopped into rings into the lamb water. Boil the broth for about an hour.
- Then add spices and large pieces of carrots. Cook an hour.
- Send potatoes to the cauldron whole tubers, and after ten minutes - bell pepper and tomatoes. Cook for twenty minutes, until all ingredients are cooked.
- Add greens and lettuce to the shurpa . Turn off the fire.
- Insist the dish for half an hour - an hour.
Serve shurpa on the table with herbs and fresh tortillas.