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Turkmen cuisine. The best recipes of Turkmen cuisine. National cuisine of turkmenistan Turkmen national cuisine

National cuisine- this is a special part of the culture of any people, accessible to everyone, both natural born aesthetes and gourmets, and simple food lovers.

For a very long time it was thought that Turkmen cuisine, as such, does not exist at all, the food of the numerous tribes inhabiting the country was painfully different, and the dishes common to all were unusually similar to traditional diet of peoples living in neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But thanks to inquisitive and not lazy people who have done a great job of collecting information, systematizing the description of the subject, today we have the opportunity to get acquainted with one of the most original culinary traditions of the East.

Turkmen cuisine- this is a continuation of a glorious story huge country. So, for example, the nomadic past left a very noticeable mark on Turkmen cuisine- the basis of the diet is meat: lamb, goitered gazelles, non-working camels, wild birds, chicken. Beef meat is consumed much less frequently, simply because this product appeared on the table much later, Turkmens do not eat horse meat at all. Also popular: rice, ghee from camel milk, sour-milk products, cereals, Sesame oil, flour products. Many vegetables, herbs and spices entered the national diet quite recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, but immediately took a strong place in national cuisine.

A distinctive feature of Turkmen cuisine there has always been an extraordinary satiety of dishes and the relative simplicity of their preparation, which, however, does not mean “primitive taste”.

So in Turkmen cuisine, more than in other kitchens countries of Central Asia many dishes are prepared from the same meat and differ only in the way it is cooked. Meat is boiled, fried here, often followed by stewing, and dried is common.

« Govurma"- the most common way of cooking meat, which consists in intensive overcooking of small pieces of meat on their own fat in a" ghazan "(a hemispherical cauldron common in all countries of the East). The meat prepared in this way is consumed hot, cold or canned, for subsequent use in meat soups, which are abundant in local cuisine.

Soups are cooked here mostly in meat broth chorba”) and add various ingredients to them: peas (“ gaynatma», « dograma”), tomatoes (“ gara-chorba"), flour (" umpach-zashi"), beans and noodles (" unash”), mash (“ shurpa-mash"), dumplings (" etli-borek-chorbasy”), milk and noodles (“ suitly unash”), rice and vegetables (“ mastava»).

One of the favorite dishes of Turkmens is pilaf(« ash”), although it differs significantly from the traditional one that we all know. Instead of meat, game is often used here, in the Caspian regions even fish, carrots are partially or completely replaced with apricots, rice is often boiled separately and then all components are mixed, sesame oil is used instead of fat tail fat. Pilaf is served with a sauce of sour plums and pomegranate juice.

The Caspian regions of Turkmenistan are famous for their fish and dishes from it. Used for cooking different kinds fish, but the Caspian beluga is especially valued. It is used to prepare traditional pilaf(« ash»), kebab(« balyk-shara”), it is fried, stewed in pots, soups are cooked from it, and complex dishes are also prepared using many ingredients (“ what», « balyk-berek», « balikly-yanakhly-ash»).

Also one of characteristic features Turkmen cuisine is widely used milk and dairy products. The most commonly used are sheep and camel milk, from which various kinds of lactic acid products are made by fermentation, followed by straining, churning and drying. Vivid examples of this are: aragan», « edge», « chal», « teleme», « sykman», « garfish". Milk is also used to prepare various cereals or milk soups.

Various flour products are also very loved by Turkmens. " Churek» - national flatbread, baked both in a handicraft way and at state bakeries, various kinds are also popular sour dough cakes that are baked at home vegetable oil or sala. There are many different types of pies, one of the most popular are " gutap”, for which various fillings and meat pie « atli-nan". Prepared from unleavened dough dumplings- « borek" or noodles- « unash».

Sweets of Turkmenistan very similar to the typical products of the entire region: “ halva», « baklava», « sherbet», « tocsin», « bekmesam”, for the preparation of which sugar or fruit juices are used. Sweet pastries are represented by biscuits " kulche", cookies " write me", donuts" chapadas».

Turkmens, like all peoples of Central Asia, very fond of tea, and in the northern and western regions of the country they prefer black tea, and in the eastern - green " gok tea". Very often, especially in winter, this drink is brewed not with water, but with milk, with the addition of butter or fat, which makes it incredibly satisfying and turns it into a kind of soup.

Local varieties of wines are very popular among the population: Dashgala», « Yasman-Salyk», « Kopetdag».

A good reputation has been earned by the local mineral water « Berzengi».

Due to the diversity of peoples inhabiting or inhabiting the region and Turkmen cuisine is very diverse, it strikes the imagination with its unusualness, great taste, and often the way it is cooked. It is difficult to say whether you will become a fan of her or not, but you must definitely try it cooked with love!

Recipes of the most popular Turkmen dishes.

Soups of Turkmenistan

Turkmen soup-shurpa. Products: lamb meat -250g, lard or interior fat - 30g, flour -30g, potatoes -400g, onions -100g, tomatoes -250g, carrots - 100g, flour -50g, spices. Fry the meat in fat, pour boiled water and cook until half cooked, put potatoes cut into large cubes in the broth, let it boil. Then add the tomatoes, cut into four parts, saved ...

Plov "Ash"

Ash Ogurdzhalinsky. Products: lamb meat -750 gr, onions - 4 pcs, carrots -3-4 pcs, rice -2 cups, 0.75 g of sesame oil, 1.5 cups of apricots, 2 tsp. - azhgona, 1 tsp red pepper, saffron, parsley and dill, 1 liter of boiling water. Fry small pieces of lamb in hot sesame oil, add finely chopped onions and carrots. After 20 minutes, remove the meat and cook in boiling water until tender, then ...

Meat dishes

Steppe barbecue. Products: lamb pulp - 500g, onion -2 pcs., garlic - 6 teeth, greens - 100g., spices, salt. Lamb is cut into narrow strips, 10-15 cm long, then minced meat is wrapped in them, strung on skewers and roasted over coals. For minced meat: finely chopped onion, garlic, herbs, spices. Sprinkle with salt when serving. Lamb fried with tomatoes. Products: …

"Patyr" - Turkmen cakes, Fitchi. flour products

Turkmen flatbread "Patyr". Products for the cake: wheat flour - 3 cups, milk - 1 cup, dry yeast - 1 tsp, lamb interior fat - 100g. 1 tsp salt. Sift the flour well and collect in a slide. Pour yeast into a small amount of milk, stir well so that there are no lumps, add salt, pour in the remaining milk, combine with flour and knead well. …

Turkmen cuisine has not yet been the subject of study. The fact is that, firstly, Turkmen cuisine, both in terms of technology and to a large extent in terms of the range of products used, is close to the cuisines of other Central Asian peoples - Uzbeks and Tajiks, so for a long time it was believed that there was no Turkmen cuisine at all; secondly, the inhabitants of different regions of Turkmenistan have their own ethnographic features, including in the field of nutrition, which has made it difficult and still makes it difficult to determine general characteristics Turkmen national cuisine.

However, it still differs from Uzbek and Tajik cuisines in a number of features related primarily to the unique natural conditions of Turkmenistan, the unusual distribution of its population and the relative isolation of some Turkmens from others.

The huge desert spaces with rare oases of Turkmenistan led to cattle breeding and contributed to the fact that meat and milk became the main food products for the majority of Turkmens. Only some Turkmens, for example, among the Murchaly people, who were engaged in agriculture, flour dishes prevailed in the past.

Turkmens primarily value lamb meat. However, it is used more often by Turkmen-Tekins, and Turkmen-Yomuds, Saryks and others use the meat of gazelles (mountain goats), young non-working camels, game birds (pheasants, partridges, quails). Beef used to be little known in Turkmenistan, and it was completely unknown among the Balkhan Yomuds.

Turkmen cuisine, more than the cuisines of other Central Asian peoples, is characterized by purely meat dishes, more precisely, dishes from one meat that has undergone heat treatment without admixture of other products or side dishes.

In most cases, in Turkmenistan, there are methods of cooking meat common to all of Central Asia - frying it in its own fat in small pieces, followed by preservation in earthenware glazed from the inside (among the Turkmen this is called "govurma" - a dish similar to the Kazakh and Uzbek "kavurdak"), as well as frying the meat of young animals over coals (kebapa or ball). At the same time, the national Turkmen kebab (kebap) is "keyikjeren kebap", i.e. kebab from the meat of a young mountain goat. Finally, in Turkmenistan, as in Tajikistan, meat is often baked in a tandoor (tamdyr).

At the same time, the Turkmens have such national methods of cooking and preserving meat that are not found among neighboring peoples and are due to specific natural conditions: the presence high temperature air, dry hot winds and strong heating of the sand. One of these methods, common among the Yomuds, is to dry the meat in the wind under the scorching sun. Very large pieces of meat, along with bones, are strung on the tip of a high pole and left for several days. Such cured-dried meat is called "kakmach". Another method - Tekin - is based on a combination of different environments. In a pre-prepared (i.e., washed and grated with salt and red pepper) stomach of a ram or goat, meat and lard cut into small pieces are stuffed so tightly that there is no air left. After that, the stomach is sewn up and buried in hot sand for a day, and in the evening it is pulled out and tied to a high pole. This change of conditions is repeated until the stomach dries up. Then the meat enclosed in it acquires a special pleasant taste, it does not deteriorate for a long time. This meat is called garyn (gastric).

In modern Turkmen cuisine, purely meat dishes are increasingly giving way to combined meat and cereal, meat and dough and meat and vegetable dishes common among other peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, i.e. pilaf, manty, beshbarmak, etc.

True, Turkmens have their own names for these dishes, and often they are different. This leads to the fact that it is often thought that we are talking about completely different dishes. So, for example, pilafs are called ash in Turkmenistan, manty - berek, beshbarmak for most Turkmens - gulak, for Tekins - squirrel, and for northern Yomuds - kurtuk. Already from this example, it can be seen that Turkmen cuisine combines dishes typical of both Uzbek-Tajik and Kazakh-Kyrgyz cuisine.

Only a minor part of the Turkmen second courses is distinguished by original technological methods and a combination of products not used by neighboring peoples. These dishes include meat-groats and meat-dough ogurjali-ash, yshtykma, etli unash, gatykli unash.

As for milk, the most commonly used is camel and sheep, from which various kinds of dairy products are mainly made using lactic acid, rennet and alcohol (yeast) fermentation, followed by straining, churning, squeezing and drying. The Turkmens have a varied dairy table, dairy products undergo complex biochemical and chemical-physical processing. Such, for example, are the original Turkmen dairy products agaran, chal, karagurt, teleme, sykman, and garfish.

The originality of dairy products of the Turkmen cuisine is due not only to the originality of the original product - camel milk, but also to the uniqueness of the climatic conditions of Turkmenistan - dry subtropics, which create special conditions for lactic acid and yeast fermentation.

Camel milk and products made from it, mainly chal, are more typical for the western and southwestern part of Turkmenistan, while in the oases in the east and southeast, sheep's milk is more often used.

In contrast to the Uzbek and Tajik cuisines, much fewer vegetables are used in the Turkmen cuisine, which is again due to climatic conditions and, in most cases, the semi-nomadic rather than agricultural way of life of Turkmens in the past. Perhaps, radish and tomatoes are used more often, pumpkin and carrots are used much less often and less often, mung bean is even less common. The lack of vegetables in the diet is partially compensated by greens - sorrel, Turkmen quinoa (gara selma), Turkestan spinach (ysmanak) and tubers of kozelets (skorcener). Of the fruits, the most common is apricot (apricot), used not only in meat and flour, but also in fish dishes. Of the melons, melons and watermelons are widely used.

The set of spices used is somewhat different from Uzbek and Tajik. Along with the indispensable onion and red pepper among the Yomuds-Balkhans, Tekins and Saryks, with black pepper among the Yomuds-Ogurdzhalins, most Turkmens widely use mint, wild parsley, azhgon, Tekins - buzhgun (galls of a pistachio tree) for game dishes; instead of turmeric, Turkmens use saffron (especially Ogurdzhalins) and, finally, asafoetida or its substitute - garlic. Apparently, the Turkmens are the only people within the USSR who use asafoetida (chomuch) as a spice * and even make a special seasoning from it - alazhu (among the Yomuds).

* Asafoetida is found in the wild in South-Eastern Kazakhstan, but the author has no information about its use in Kazakh cuisine. However, the Kazakhs in Xinjiang and Dungan, and the Uyghurs living in Kazakhstan have used asafoetida in the past. Due to the pungent smell, asafoetida is used in minimal doses: they do not put it in dishes, but draw one or two lines along the bottom of the boiler with a piece of asafoetida, and then lay rice, vegetables, meat, etc. This is enough to make the whole dish acquire garlic- onion aroma. One trait is equal to two bulbs in terms of the strength of the smell.

Turkmen cuisine also differs from the cuisines of other Central Asian peoples in a set of fats. Much more widely used in Turkmenistan than melted fat tail fat, which is common throughout Central Asia, is melted butter from camel milk (sary yag) and especially sesame oil, which Turkmens use not only in the manufacture of meat dishes, but also flour, sweet, and fish dishes. .

The presence of fish national dishes among the Turkmens, created by the Caspian Yomuds-Ogurdzhalins, sharply distinguishes the Turkmen cuisine as a whole from other Central Asian cuisines. Even among the Karakalpaks living along the banks of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, fish dishes are more or less sporadically found. And among the Ogurdzhalins they occupy a central place in the kitchen. At the same time, it is important to emphasize not only that the product itself is unusual, rare in the conditions of Central Asia, but also that its preparation technology is special.

Turkmens-Ogurdzhalins adapted fish to traditional Central Asian technology (for example, to frying on a spit or in hot oil, in cauldrons), as well as to traditional Asian plant products - sesame, rice, apricots, raisins, pomegranate juice, which, from the point of view of Europeans, absolutely incompatible with fish. The result is a whimsical mix that, thanks to the carefully considered proportions of the main products and the skillful combination of spices and fats, gives new, pleasant and unexpected taste effects.

The main condition for the preparation of Turkmen fish dishes is the presence of completely fresh, best of all freshly caught fish: only with such fish can the sweet-sour range of spices be organically combined: in this case, the question of the type of fish is more or less of secondary importance. Ogurdzhalins themselves use mainly sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, as well as sea and river pike perch, catfish, mullet, carp and kutum.

For the manufacture of Turkmen fish dishes outside Turkmenistan, you can use, in addition to the listed types of fish, cod, hake, macrorus, notothenia, halibut, all perch and carp fish. At the same time, frozen sea fish or fillets do not need to be defrosted beforehand. At the same time, the use of all herrings, which have a specific smell incompatible with sweetish-sour seasoning, is absolutely excluded.

Red fish in Turkmen cuisine is especially often used for cooking kebabs (balyk shara), as well as kavurdak (balyk gavurdak). At the same time, the same technology is completely preserved as for meat. For balyk shara, pieces of fish, pre-salted and interleaved on a rod (skewer) with onion circles, are fried over coals. For gavurdak balyk, as well as for ordinary kavurdak, small pieces of fish, freed from bones, are fried in their own fat (specially cut from the abdominal part) in a cauldron, sometimes with a small addition of overheated sesame oil, after being placed in earthenware jugs, they are poured with melted tail fat.

Other fish dishes - haplama, cheme, balyk b`erek, balykly yanakhly ash - are much more complex combinations of products and processing techniques. Some of them resemble the preparation of pilaf and manti, i.e. meat products, while others have no analogues among meat dishes, since the speed of cooking fish, compared to meat, dictates a special technology.

Ogurdzhalintsy, as a rule, subject fish to mixed methods of preliminary and thermal processing. For example, fish is dried and then fried; treated with salt and acid, and then simmered or fried; or boiled, and then simmered and treated with acid. The main purpose of these operations is to adapt the fish to the sweet-sour and sweet-spicy range of accompanying products and spices.

Thus, the fish dishes created by the Turkmens of the southwestern part of the republic stand out from the general Central Asian cuisine and are the original contribution of the Turkmen people to the world culinary art.

That is why, when reviewing the main national dishes of the Turkmen cuisine, we will pay attention mainly to the most original dairy products made from camel milk and fish dishes of the Turkmen-Ogurdzhalins.

The vast majority of Turkmens, especially those neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, that is, in the eastern and central regions of Turkmenistan, are closer in their cuisine to the peoples of these republics.

Differences in traditional dishes and tastes of the Caspian Turkmens and Turkmens from the eastern regions of the republic are visible at least from the following example. When Tekins eat beef, if they like it, they say: "What a delight, like lamb!" When Ogurdzhalians eat lamb, they praise it in their own way: "What a charm - just like sturgeon!"

It is known that the Turkmens, like the rest of the peoples of Central Asia, drink a lot of tea, but the Tekins, Saryks, Merens drink green tea, like their immediate neighbors - the Uzbeks, and the Yomuds-Balkhans and Ogurdzhalins drink black tea, like the Kazakhs. At the same time, with black tea, they drink fresh camel milk, with which tea is sort of “brewed”, and then put on coals for a short time. This use of milk instead of water for tea brewing is largely due to the fact that the water in the areas inhabited by the Yomuds is too brackish and hard.

As for sweets, among the Turkmens they are basically the same as among the Uzbeks, but their assortment essentially boils down to alarms and bekmes (doshabs) made from watermelon and less often grape juice. The only actually national Turkmen sweet is a special mass of the halva type, prepared from the roots of the lily plant cheresh (chyrysh) - Eremurus grandiosa L., from which the yomuds extract gum tragacanth and cook from it in combination with vegetable juices (grape, watermelon, melon, etc. .) and spices jam-like mass.

FIRST MEAL

Turkmen cuisine knows two types of soups. One of them is shorba, which is similar in technology to the Uzbek and Tajik shurpa (it is cooked by the frying method), but more monotonous and poor in composition of products. So, black shorba (gara shorba) includes only water, meat and onions, in other cases tomatoes and pumpkin are also added. At the same time, in the cuisine of the Caspian Turkmens there is a fish shorba - not known to other peoples of Central Asia and somewhat different in technology from the classic shorba.
Soups of the second type are prepared not by the frying method. These are three varieties - gaynatma, chektyrme and dograma, which do not differ in technology and differ very little in the composition of products. First of all, they are characterized by the fact that the meat is placed in boiling water, and not in cold water. These soups differ only in the number of included products and in some details in the composition of the products and in the cutting of meat. It is these soups, especially gaynatma, that are national dishes among the Turkmens.

SHORBA TURKMEN

500-750 g of lamb, 50 g of melted butter, 2-3 onions, 2-3 tomatoes, 300-400 g of pumpkin, 2 patyrs or kulchas, 0.5-1 teaspoon of ground red pepper or 10-12 black peppercorns (crushed), 2 liters of boiling water.

Cut the meat into small cubes of 1 cm, tomatoes and pumpkin - about the same, onions - half as small. Overcook the meat in its own fat, and if it is not enough, then in ghee, then add vegetables, onions, lightly salt, fry and simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Then pour boiling water, add salt, pepper and cook over moderate heat until the meat is cooked.
Before serving, crumble stale patyrs or other cakes into bowls, first pour them with broth, and then divide the thick part of shorba into bowls.

SHORBA OGURLZHALINSKAYA

For shorba: 500-750 g of fish, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 parsley, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of sesame oil, 3 bay leaves, 10-15 grains of black pepper, 0.5 teaspoons of red pepper, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of parsley, 1-2 tbsp. spoons of fennel or azhgon greens, 7-8 stamens of saffron, 3-3.5 teaspoons of salt, 2 liters of boiling water
For unash (noodles): 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. spoons of water, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dill.

Noodle preparation. Beat the egg with water and finely chopped dill and knead the flour on this mixture into a stiff dough, roll into a ball, let lie under a damp towel for 15 minutes, roll into a thin layer, cut into thin noodles or, without rolling, make unash from the dough, rubbing it through a colander. Use only half of the resulting noodles in shorba.
Preparation of the base of the shorba. In a cauldron or a metal saucepan with a thick bottom, heat the oil, add finely chopped onion, carrots, chopped into thin strips, fry for 10 minutes. then transfer to an enamel bowl.
Shorba cooking. Put the enamelware with the base for shorba on low heat, immediately put the fish, cut into pieces 2.5 cm thick, salt, pepper, put part of the bay leaf and saffron, pour in boiling water, increase the heat and boil the fish for 7-10 minutes.
Then take out the fish, put the noodles into the boiling shorba, put the rest of the spices and cook until the noodles are cooked over moderate heat.
When the noodles are cooked, put the fish in the shorba again for 2-3 minutes, and then remove the shorba from the heat and let it brew for another 5-7 minutes.

GAYNATMA

3 liters of boiling water, 750 g of lamb (or young camel meat), 3 onions, 2 tomatoes, 1-2 tubers of scorcener (goat) or potatoes, 1 parsley root, 1 head of garlic, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of azhgon greens or 1 teaspoon of seeds, 2 teaspoons of dry mint, 0.5 teaspoons of red pepper, 4-5 stamens of saffron, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of parsley.

Put fresh meat, cut into large pieces with bone, in boiling water, boil for about 1.5 hours over low heat, add finely chopped onions, tomatoes and skorcener, cut into slices and cubes, lightly salt, continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Then add salt, add pepper, saffron, after 5 minutes - mint, ground into powder, and, after boiling for another 1-2 minutes. remove from heat, then add finely chopped garlic, mix well, close the lid and let it brew for 10-15 minutes.

CHEKTYRME

750 g lamb (half brisket), 4 onions, 4 tomatoes, 1 head of garlic, 2 cups of quinoa leaves, 2 tbsp. tablespoons parsley, 0.5 cup finely chopped sorrel, 6-7 saffron stamens, 0.5 teaspoon mint, 1 teaspoon red pepper, 2.5 liters of boiling water.

Chektyrme is prepared in the same way as gainatma, but only young lamb should be taken for it.
Cut the meat into not such large pieces as for gaynatma, but always with a bone.
In chektyrma, compared to gainatma, there should be a higher percentage of vegetable grounds.
Quinoa leaves should be cut very finely and put them in 10 minutes after onions and tomatoes.
The remaining operations are exactly the same as for the preparation of gaynatma (see the previous recipe).

DOGRAMA

500-750 g of lamb, 1-2 carrots, 2-3 scorcener tubers or 2 potatoes, 3 onions, 1.5 heads of garlic, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, 3-4 saffron stamens, 8-10 sour plums (albukhari) , 2 patyrs or kulchas, 3 liters of boiling water.

Dograma technology is close to gaynatma. But for dograma, you should use the meat of the back with the bone in a single piece. When the meat is half cooked, i.e. after about 1.5 hours, add the scorcener and diced carrots to the broth, as well as finely chopped onions and lightly salt. Plums, cut into halves, put 10 minutes later. After the vegetables are ready, take out the well-boiled meat, cut it off the bone, crumble it into pieces of the same size as the vegetables and put it back into the broth. At the same time lay pepper and saffron, add salt and keep on fire for another 3-4 minutes. Then remove from heat, add finely chopped garlic, mix and let it brew for 10 minutes under the lid.

SECOND DISHES

MEAT AND CEREALS DISHES

ASh (PLOV)

As elsewhere in Central Asia, in Turkmenistan, pilaf (ash) is one of the favorite and most common second courses with meat.
In terms of technology and composition, Turkmen ash is basically similar to Uzbek pilaf, but in Turkmenistan, game, especially pheasants, is used as meat for pilaf more often than in Uzbekistan. This pilaf is usually cooked with green rice. Carrots are partially or completely replaced with apricots, sesame oil is used for frying and ready-made ash is usually eaten with albuhara sour sauce (small sour green plum such as mirabelle or tkemali), or with pomegranate juice extract - narrov, while in Uzbekistan it is used as spices for pilaf are often used guraob or piez-ansur.
Only one type of pilaf in Turkmenistan differs in technology from the general Central Asian type. This is Ogurdzhalinsky plov, common among the Caspian Turkmens. It draws attention to the separate cooking of meat and rice part of pilaf, as well as the digestion of meat after frying.

ASH OGURJALINSKY

750 g of lamb, 4 onions, 3-4 carrots, 1.5 cups of rice, 0.75-1 cup of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, 2 teaspoons of azhgon (seeds), 1.5 cups of apricots, 2 pinches of saffron, 2 tbsp. spoons of parsley and dill, 1 liter of boiling water.

Fry lamb in pieces of 50-60 g in hot oil, add finely chopped onions, carrots in strips, as in ordinary pilaf; after 20-25 minutes, remove the meat from the zirvak, put it in boiling water, boil until tender, put it in a separate bowl, and pour the broth into the cauldron with zirvak, add rice and apricots, spices (azhgon, pepper, saffron) and cook first with an open cover until the water evaporates, and then 10-15 minutes on low heat to dry. 3-5 minutes before cooking, put the meat on top of the rice, sprinkle it with parsley and dill, let it simmer for a few minutes.

YSHTYKMA (BREAKED POULTRY)

Yshtykma is a dish of the Caspian Turkmens. Most often, waterfowl go for it - wild geese and ducks, but it can also be prepared from poultry.
The cauldron for cooking yshtykma should be of such a size that it is convenient to turn the bird over in it and that it does not crawl out of it.

1 duck*, 1.5 cups of rice, 0.75 cups of sesame oil, 1-1.5 cups of boiling water, 1 pinch of saffron.
For the filling: 4 onions, 1-1.5 cups of apricots, 2 tbsp. spoons of raisins, 1 tbsp. spoon of narrov (pomegranate extract) or lemon juice, 0.5 heads of garlic, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, 10 black peppercorns, 0.5-1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of azhgon greens or 1 teaspoon of seeds.
* The set of products is given for the most typical yshtykma - duck. When using goose or turkey, the amount of food should be increased by half.

Bird preparation. Clean the bird, singe, wash, wipe dry, lightly rub the inside with salt.
Filling preparation. Onion cut into cubes, fry in 2-3 tbsp. tablespoons of hot sesame oil, add dried apricots, raisins, a little salt, simmer for 10-15 minutes until golden brown, remove from the cauldron, cool, add pepper, finely chopped garlic, azhgon, salt, mix with narrov. let stand 5-7 min.
Poultry preparation. Stuff the stuffing tightly into the prepared bird, lower the carcass into hot sesame oil, fry well on all sides until a dark golden crust is formed, simmer for 15-20 minutes, then pour about 0.5 cups of boiling water into the cauldron and continue to simmer the bird over low heat, add a little of the same spices to the resulting sauce as in the filling, and pour the bird with this sauce. When the water has almost evaporated, and the bird is ready, transfer the carcass to another bowl.
Cooking rice. In the remaining oil and broth in the cauldron after stewing the poultry, put the rest of the filling, pour boiling water, salt, add saffron and pour rice pre-washed in cold water and soaked for 30-40 minutes in hot water, then cook over low heat until the rice is ready and complete evaporation of water without stirring.
When the rice is ready, rake it up, put the carcass of the bird on the bottom of the cauldron so that it is fried again in oil, bury it in rice and let it sweat and warm over very low heat for several minutes, then let it stand for another 5-10 minutes without fire with closed lid.
When serving, cut the bird into pieces, garnish the filling and rice separately.

MEAT AND DOUGH DISHES

ETLI U NASHI (MEAT WITH AMBER Noodles)

500 g lamb, 4 onions, 20-30 pcs. dried apricots, 1 carrot, 0.75 cups of sesame oil or 150 g of camel oil (sary yag), 2 tbsp. spoons of azhgon greens or 1.5 teaspoons of seeds, 2 tbsp. spoons of dill, 1 head of garlic, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 0.5 teaspoons of red pepper, 1-2 tbsp. spoons of narrov (pomegranate extract) or 1 tbsp. a spoonful of weak grape vinegar or lemon juice, 1-1.25 liters of boiling water.
For noodles: 0.75-1 cup flour, 2-3 tbsp. spoons of water.

Noodle preparation. Knead a stiff dough, roll it into a sheet up to 1 mm and cut into strips from 0.5 to 1 cm wide, or make umach from this dough through a colander.
Be sure to dry the noodles or umach before use.
Preparing meat and vegetables. Cut the meat into small pieces (1x1 cm), fry in hot oil for 10-15 minutes, add finely chopped onions, carrots, dried apricots and continue to fry with the lid open for another 10-15 minutes, adding a little salt, black pepper and a quarter of garlic.
Cooking unash. Transfer the meat and vegetables to an enamel bowl, pour boiling water over it, bring to a boil, salt, lower the noodles and cook over moderate heat until the water boils completely.
Shortly before the end of cooking, add all the spices, except for garlic, and after cooking, immediately add finely chopped garlic to the unash, mix, add vinegar or narr and, covering with a lid, leave for 10 minutes to cook.

GATIKLI UNASH

A variety of etli unash is gatykli unash. This dish is prepared in exactly the same way as etli unash and from the same products. But after its readiness, it is seasoned not with vinegar or sour juices, but with one of the fermented milk products: agaran (camel milk sour cream), gatyk (katyk) or sour whey - turish-chal.
The dressing rate is arbitrary, to taste. But to maintain the taste proportion, you should take about 1-1.5 cups of sour cream or 2 cups of katyk for the above portion of etli unash. Serum, especially very acidic, take from 0.5 to 0.75 cups.
Fermented milk products are seasoned after the unash has been cured, that is, directly at the time of serving.

FISH MEALS

The fish dishes of Ogurdzhalinsky cuisine are characterized by combined, cold and hot, processing, which is not characteristic of other cuisines. Therefore, the recipes for these dishes are given as detailed as possible.

GAPLAMA

500 g dried mullet fillet (replacement: dried mackerel, fish), 5-6 tubers of scorcener or potatoes, 2-3 tomatoes, 2 onions, 0.5 cups of sesame oil, 0.5-0.75 cups of water, 3 tbsp. spoons of parsley, 2 tbsp. spoons of azhon greens, 15 black peppercorns or 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of pomegranate juice.

Fish preparation. Gut the fresh mullet, salt from the inside and wilt lightly for 1-2 days. Then cut into fillets, cut into approximately equal pieces (2x5 cm).
Preparing the scorcener or potatoes. Peel the tubers, cut into cubes of 1-1.5 cm and fry them evenly on all sides in a cauldron until a sufficiently strong golden crust is formed.
Preparation of haplama. In hot oil, fry finely chopped onions and tomatoes for 10-12 minutes, lightly salt, add half the parsley and a smaller part of the pepper, and then put the pieces of fish fillet in the prepared skorzener and fry them for about 10 minutes over moderate heat. Then, carefully pouring water in small portions (best of all, a tablespoon), sweat the haplama, trying to make most of the water (but not all!) Evaporate, and the fish and skorcener soften. Simultaneously with water, it is necessary to introduce the rest of the spices. When serving, you can lightly sprinkle the fish with pomegranate juice.

BALYKLY YANAKHLY-ASH (FISH PILAF)

500-750 g of fish fillet, 0.75-1 l of water, 0.5 cups of sesame oil, 4 onions, 2-3 large carrots, 1-1.5 cups of rice, 0.5-0.75 cups of fatty, thick sour cream or 1 glass of katyk, 20 black peppercorns or 1.5-2 teaspoons of ground pepper, 1 teaspoon of fennel or azhgon seeds, 1 parsley root, 3 tbsp. spoons of parsley, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of dill, 1-2 pinches of saffron or 6-8 stamens, 2 bay leaves, 0.5 cups of sour pomegranate juice or juice of 0.5 lemon, 1-1.5 teaspoons of salt for salting 1 liter of water, the rest of the salt - taste.

Cooking fish. Boil water, add salt, put a bay leaf, half a finely chopped parsley root, 5 crushed peppercorns, half an onion and boil the fish cut into pieces in this broth for 10 minutes over moderate heat. Then take the fish out of the broth, put it in an earthenware bowl, cover it with finely chopped two onions, grated parsley root, half pepper, parsley and dill, ground fennel and part of the saffron, salt, pour sour cream and put to simmer over very low heat or coals, and in the absence of them - in the "steam bath".
Ash preparation. Perekalit sesame oil, fry in it the onion, carrots, cut into thin strips, pour in the strained fish broth, bring to a boil and immediately pour rice pre-washed in cold water and soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, salt. In an open cauldron, continue to cook rice over moderate heat until all the broth has boiled away. After that, season the ash with the remaining spices, mix the rice, close the lid and put on a very low heat to cook for 20 minutes.
Serving the dish. Put the ash in a deep plate, pour over with sour pomegranate juice. Separately serve simmered fish. Eat pieces of fish with hashem.

BALYK BEREK (MANTY OGURJALY)

Balyk berek - manty stuffed with fish. The dough for them, as well as the general cooking technology, are similar to Uzbek manti. The difference is the filling, which includes minced fish and spices.
Stuffing for Ogurdzhalinsky manti
1 kg fish fillet, 1 a raw egg, 3 onions, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 cardamom capsule (powdered), 1 teaspoon red pepper, 2-3 tbsp. tablespoons finely chopped dill and parsley, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of fennel, 2 pinches of saffron.
Cut the fish fillet into pieces the size of beans or chop into cubes of 1 cm. Chop the onion finely, mix with ground and chopped spices, combine with minced fish, salt, pour over with a well-beaten egg, mix thoroughly again and immediately stuff the manti, taking a full teaspoon (with a slide) for each manti.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Milk and mainly dairy products play a very important role in Turkmen cuisine. They, along with meat, are the staple food of Turkmens. On average, especially in summer, each Turkmen consumes 4-5 liters of milk per day, and even more if butter and cheese are taken into account.

At the same time, it is not so much milk itself that is used, but various products made from it, the assortment of which is much wider among Turkmens than among their neighbors - Uzbeks. Therefore, in the Turkmen cuisine, we note first of all not dairy dishes, i.e. those made with milk, or where milk acts as the main component, but dairy products obtained entirely from milk through its fermentation, fermentation and other operations.

The special, unique character of Turkmen dairy products is also explained by the use of camel milk. Although the chemical composition of camel's milk is close to cow's, but its taste is sweeter and the smell is specific. Camel milk has a high degree of fat content, but its fat settles more slowly than that of cow's milk, and it is much better absorbed. Compared to cow's milk, camel's milk contains more vitamin C. But the main difference between camel's milk and cow's milk is that with approximately the same amount of proteins, there is a sharp qualitative difference in their protein composition. Camel milk casein produces delicate, small flakes that break easily when shaken. All this is reflected in the fermentation scheme, and, consequently, in the consistency, taste and aroma of camel milk products and products.

Interestingly, when raw camel milk self-sours, a sharp unpleasant acidity with a bitter aftertaste arises in its taste, since this produces a number of fermentation by-products along with lactic acid, such as acetic and succinic acids, which worsen the taste of the product. Therefore, camel milk is always fermented by a special method, using special starter cultures and observing certain conditions that guarantee a controlled, rather than spontaneous, development of the microflora.

So, katyk is prepared from camel milk (or, as it is called differently among the Turkmens, gatyk, egurt, chekiz) according to the method common to all countries of the Near and Middle East. More specific for Turkmen cuisine is chal, a very special dairy product made from camel milk, obtained as a result of not only lactic acid, but also yeast fermentation*. Along with chal (or, as it is also called, due-chal), in the process of its preparation, agaran (or ak-airan) is also obtained, which can be defined as the fatty fraction of chal, a kind of Turkmen "sour cream", and turish-chal - spicy, liquid whey from chala.
* Chal is also made by the Kazakhs of the southwestern regions of Kazakhstan, where camel breeding is also developed, but in Kazakh it is called shubat. That is why chal and shubat are sometimes considered different dairy products or, as they are often incorrectly called, drinks. Chal (shubat) is more correctly called a fermented milk product.

In addition, katyk (yogurt) and its derivatives are obtained from camel and other milk:
mesge yag (oil)- knocked down from a mixture of katyk and a small amount of water;
sari yag (clarified butter)- obtained by melting butter;
durda (oil waste)- used in some types of dough;
ayran(buttermilk remaining from churning, sometimes still mixed with water, which makes up a fifth or fourth of the buttermilk);
kara suzme (black suzma)- obtained by straining buttermilk;
suzme(strained egurg, katyk, similar to Uzbek suzma);
suzme chal(corresponding to airan among other peoples of Central Asia, that is, a mixture of suzma with water in a ratio of 1: 1);
ak group(corresponding to the Uzbek kurt - dried balls of suzma);
kara gurt- whey from katyk or buttermilk, boiled for a long time and slowly until a thick mass is formed, with a sour but pleasant taste (not found in other peoples).

But that's not all. Turkmens prepare local cheeses from sheep's milk - teleme, sykman (aka peynir) and sargan.
According to the method of production and taste, these cheeses differ from the pickled and jug cheeses of the peoples of the Caucasus, although the principle of obtaining them is the same.

Chal is prepared in several ways: with the help of a special starter or its substitutes, with the help of old chal or from a combination of chal with water, and, finally, with the help of pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria.

1. The preparation of a special sourdough, called gor, is difficult and time-consuming, therefore, in most cases, a new chal is obtained using the chal of the previous day as a sourdough. If there is none, then katyk can be used as a primary starter (see p. 286), including from cow and sheep (goat) milk. But in this case, for the first time, the chal turns out to be of a lower quality, slightly carbonated, and only after three or four fermentations does it “level out”, acquires all the properties typical of a real chal.

2. The most common way to prepare chall is as follows. Necessarily fresh camel milk, which maintains a rather high initial temperature (over 37-40C), is filtered through a double-triple layer of gauze, and if it has not cooled down, then it is expected that its temperature will drop to 30C, to a maximum of 32C. during this time, a starter is prepared - chal, which should be from a quarter to a third of the volume of fresh milk intended for obtaining chal. The sourdough-chal is thoroughly mixed and poured onto it, usually into a large clay jug of 6-10 liters, strained and cooled fresh milk, which is again diligently mixed with the sourdough for 10 minutes or even more. After that, the jug covered with gauze is placed in the shade, where the temperature is not less than 25-30 C, or the temperature is maintained in the jug, wrapping it up in the cold season. Within half an hour, a fermented cap of fatter and lighter fractions - agaran - appears on the surface of the future chal. It can be removed and used like sour cream. After that, fermentation of chal continues with continuous maintenance of the temperature at 30°C. After 4 hours, the milk is basically fermented completely, and after 6-8 hours it acquires the specific properties of a full-fledged chal.
In the process of fermentation, especially after the first four hours, the future chal is kneaded all the time (several times a day), preventing large flakes and clot clusters from forming. Most often, kneading coincides with the addition of new portions of fresh camel milk to the fermented primary chal (after the first four to six hours) (since camels are milked 4 times a day, new milk is added at least 4-5 times a day). 10 hours after the formation of chall, the temperature of its further content should be lowered to 20-25°C and maintained at this level for another 8-10 hours. On the second day, chall should already be stored at 5-10C. At this temperature, you can keep chal for up to 3-4 days, but usually in Turkmenistan they try to use chal during the day, otherwise it becomes sharp, unpleasant, tasteless (acidity increases, carbonation decreases).
Periodic removal of agaran, as well as frequent stirring of the chal, give a drink that is homogeneous in consistency, and yet it is possible for the chal to separate into an upper, thicker, fatty part and a lower, more liquid, similar to whey, called turish-chal. This is usually due to temperature fluctuations, long breaks in stirring and other violations of the cooking rules.

3. Since chal as a drink is intended primarily to quench thirst, it is very often prepared with water. Such chal sometimes turns out even more homogeneous than chal without water. In this case, water heated to 30-32 ° C is added to steamed warm camel milk after filtering it in a ratio of 1: 1, this mixture is kneaded, and then the leaven is added, necessarily in the amount of 1/3 of the total volume of the mixture of water and milk.
Further preparation proceeds as described above.

TELEME

Teleme is a young cheese, which is a thick, soft, moist mass that looks like cottage cheese. For the preparation of teleme, a special leaven is needed, called gonzelik or mayalik. The mass obtained after fermentation - mayalik is stored in an earthenware jug for 1 month. To receive teleme 1 tbsp. a spoonful of mayalik is dissolved in 1 bucket of fresh, still warm sheep's milk, which begins to ferment after a few hours. Fermentation can take place in earthenware or leather wineskins. After 16-20 hours, a thick mass is obtained - teleme, which can be eaten by the end of the day.
Mayalik can be prepared in the same way as mayek leaven (see p. 232).

SYKMAN

To get a sykman, or peinir. young teleme cheese is strained in a bag of thin cotton fabric, and 10-12 hours after straining it is placed under a not too heavy press: covered with a board, on which a stone weighing about 5-6 kg is placed (on a teleme bucket). A day later, it turns out sykman, which means "squeezed out" in translation. This is the so-called cold method of teleme processing.

GARFISH

To obtain garfish, the curd mass of teleme is processed in a hot way: they are boiled over low heat until the liquid (whey) evaporates. The result is a different kind of cheese - crispy sweetish garfish.

FLOUR PRODUCTS

Flour products of the Turkmen cuisine actually repeat the flour products of the Uzbeks and Tajiks, but the assortment is not as diverse as the latter. In addition, they are usually simpler in terms of the composition of the components. However, the technology of their preparation and baking in the tandoor is the same as that of the Uzbeks. Sometimes even more simplified baking is used - in ashes. This is how the national bread Turkmen er churek is baked. The main oil used in flour products is sesame oil. The most common types of simple flatbreads are gatlama (a complete analogy of the Uzbek katlama), pishme (repeating the Uzbek samsa), ekmek (resembling the Uzbek talpik) and chapady (in Uzbek chevati). The last two types of simple thin flatbreads are even more characteristic of Turkmen cuisine than Uzbek cuisine, with its tendency towards less dry and richer dough. That is why the recipe for these types of cakes is given here.
These cakes are baked from unleavened dough, the proportion of ingredients and methods of preparation of which are indicated on p. 194.

CHAPADY (THIN BAKED IN TANDIR)

Knead a stiff dough, stand for 15-20 minutes, cut into pieces of about 100 g each, roll each into thin cakes up to 2 mm thick, prick with a fork and bake in a tandoor, after moistening with water that side of the cake that sticks to the walls of the tandoor.
Remove from the tandoor as soon as the chickpeas dry out, without waiting for browning.

EKMEK (THIN BATTLE FRIED IN BUTTER)

Knead a simple dough in the same proportion and in the same way as for chapada, but cut it into pieces half as small (50-60 g each) and roll them into thin cakes up to 1-2 mm, grease each top with thick agaran, fat katyk or sour cream, stick the greased sides one on top of the other and fry these double cakes until golden brown in a hot cauldron greased (not too heavily) with sesame oil.

The Turkmen national cuisine has much in common with the cuisines of other Central Asian peoples, primarily Uzbek and Karakalpak, which is explained by the similarity of natural conditions and ethnic features.

The main place in the Turkmen cuisine is occupied by meat, dairy and flour dishes. Turkmens prefer mutton to all types of meat, they eat a lot of chicken meat, they do not eat horse meat. Of the meat dishes, the most common are meat soups: chorba, gainatma, broth with flat cakes - dograma pilaf (palov), fried meat: govurma, govurdak, shish kebab. A fairly large place among the consumed meat is occupied by game: partridges, waterfowl, as well as the meat of hares, goitered gazelles, fallow deer. It is mainly used for pilaf. The main methods of heat treatment of Turkmen dishes are boiling and frying, often followed by stewing.

Recipes of Turkmen cuisine. Dishes for the holidays. National New Year's recipes.

Soups:

  • Okroshka "Ashgabatskaya"
  • Meat soup with beans
  • Soup "Dogroma-chorba"
  • Noodle soup with tomato sauce (Jazly Aş)
  • Soup noodles with milk
  • Unash (bean soup with noodles)
  • Shurpa-mash (mung soup)
  • Dogroma-chorba (soup)
  • Nokudly chorba (soup with peas and lamb)
  • Umpach-zashi (flour soup)
  • Kyufta-shurpa (soup with meat sausages)
  • Etli Borek Chorbasy (soup with dumplings)

Main dishes:

  • Gaplama (fish with vegetables)
  • Govurma (fried lamb)
  • Govurlan et (fried lamb with tomatoes)
  • Govurma with squirrel (lamb with dough garnish)
  • Chekdirme (fried lamb with potatoes and tomatoes)
  • Lula kebab stewed with onions
  • Kokmach (langet)
  • Barbecue, steppe
  • Yshtykma (stuffed game)
  • Ogurdzhalinsky pilaf
  • Balikly yanakhly-ash (fish pilaf)
  • Stuffed liver
  • Chekdirme (fried lamb with potatoes and tomatoes)
  • Kaurma (fried meat)

Salads and appetizers:

  • Nokhutli salad
  • Salad "Gulistan"

Dough dishes and desserts:

  • Ishleki (dough product)
  • Balyk berek (Ogurdzhalinsky manti)
  • Atli unash
  • Etli borek (dumplings)
  • Shilekli
  • Gutap (patties with onions)
  • Gatlakly (puff pastry)
  • Chapads (dough donuts)
  • Kulche (shorts)
  • Fitchi (meat pies)
  • Persimmon pies
  • Pishme (cookies)

National drinks:

  • Green tea "gok tea"
  • Local wine varieties: Dashgala, Yasman-Salyk, Kopetdag
  • Local mineral water "Berzengi"


In modern Turkmen cuisine, purely meat dishes are increasingly giving way to combined meat and cereal, meat and dough and meat and vegetable dishes, common among other peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, i.e. plov, mantams, beshbarmak, etc. True, Turkmens have their own names for these dishes, and often they are different. This leads to the fact that it is often thought that we are talking about completely different dishes. So, for example, pilafs in Turkmenistan are called ash, manti-berek, beshbarmak, among the majority of Turkmens - gulak, among the Tekins - squirrel, and among the northern Yomuds - kurtuk. Already from this example, it can be seen that Turkmen cuisine combines dishes typical of both Uzbek-Tajik and Kazakh-Kyrgyz cuisine. Only a minor part of the Turkmen second courses is distinguished by original technological methods and a combination of products not used by neighboring peoples. These dishes include meat-cereal and meat-dough ogurjvli-ash, yshtykma, etli unash, gatykli unash.

Onions are very popular in Turkmen cuisine. It is eaten raw, served with dinner and consumed as a condiment. Black pepper (gara gurch) is common as a seasoning for dishes, and among the inhabitants of oases - pomegranate (nar) and grape leaves.

Fish is widely used in Turkmen cuisine: sturgeon, beluga, herring. Pilaf is cooked with fish. The presence of fish national dishes among the Turkmens, created by the Caspian Yomu-Dami-Ogurdzhalins, sharply distinguishes the Turkmen cuisine from other Central Asian cuisines. At the same time, it is important to emphasize not only that the product itself is unusual, rare in the conditions of Central Asia, but also that its preparation technology is special. The Ogurjaly Turkmens adapted fish to the traditional Central Asian technology (for example, to frying on a spit or in overheated meat, in cauldrons), as well as to traditional Asian plant products - sesame, rice, apricots, raisins, pomegranate juice, which, from the point of view of Europeans, absolutely incompatible with fish. The result is a whimsical mix that, thanks to the carefully considered proportions of the main products and the skillful combination of spices and fats, gives new, pleasant and unexpected taste effects. The main condition for the preparation of Turkmen fish dishes is the presence of completely fresh, best of all freshly caught fish: only with such fish can the sweet-sour range of spices be organically combined; in this case, the question of the type of fish is already more or less of secondary importance. Ogurdzhalins themselves use mainly sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, as well as sea and river pike perch, catfish, mullet, carp and kutum.

In addition to meat and fish dishes, a large place in the Turkmen cuisine is occupied by various types of cereals made from rice, millet, and mung bean.

Turkmen cuisine is characterized by a variety of flour products. Chorek baked at bakeries and rural bakeries is in great demand everywhere. Various cakes made from sour dough, pies (gutap) with various fillings, meat pie - etli nan are widespread. Dumplings are prepared from unleavened dough - borek and noodles - unash, seasoned with sour milk.

At any time of the year, Turkmens in in large numbers drink green tea - gok tea. In the west, black tea is common - gara tea, which is drunk mainly in autumn and winter. Each tea drinker is served a separate porcelain teapot with a bowl.

For a very long time it was thought that Turkmen cuisine, as such, does not exist at all, the food of the numerous tribes inhabiting the country was painfully different, and the dishes common to all were unusually similar to the traditional diet of the peoples inhabiting neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

But thanks to inquisitive and not lazy people who have done a great job of collecting information, systematizing the description of the subject, today we have the opportunity to get acquainted with one of the most original culinary traditions of the East.

Turkmen cuisine- this is a continuation of the glorious history of a vast country. So, for example, the nomadic past left a very noticeable mark in Turkmen cuisine - the basis of the diet is meat: lamb, goitered gazelles, non-working camels, wild birds, chicken. Beef meat is consumed much less frequently, simply because this product appeared on the table much later, Turkmens do not eat horse meat at all.

Also popular: rice, ghee from camel milk, fermented milk products, cereals, gourds, sesame oil, flour products. Many vegetables, herbs and spices entered the national diet quite recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, but immediately took a strong place in national cuisine.

hallmark Turkmen cuisine there has always been an extraordinary satiety of dishes and the relative simplicity of their preparation, which, however, does not mean “primitive taste”.

So in Turkmen cuisine, more than in the cuisines of other countries of Central Asia, many dishes are prepared from the same meat and differ only in the way it is cooked. Meat is boiled, fried here, often followed by stewing, and dried is common.

« Govurma"- the most common way of cooking meat, which consists in intensive overcooking of small pieces of meat on their own fat in a" ghazan "(a hemispherical cauldron common in all countries of the East). The meat prepared in this way is consumed hot, cold or canned, for subsequent use in meat soups, which are abundant in local cuisine.

Soups here they cook mainly in meat broth (“chorba”) and add various ingredients to them: peas (“gaynatma”, “dograma”), tomatoes (“gara-chorba”), flour (“umpach-zashi”), beans and noodles (“unash”), mung bean (“shurpa-mash”), dumplings (“etli-borek-chorbasy”), milk and noodles (“suitli-unash”), rice and vegetables (“mastava”).

One of the favorite dishes of Turkmens is plov ("ash"), although it differs significantly from the traditional one that we all know. Instead of meat, game is often used here, in the Caspian regions even fish, carrots are partially or completely replaced with apricots, rice is often boiled separately and then all components are mixed, sesame oil is used instead of fat tail fat.

Pilaf is served with a sauce of sour plums and pomegranate juice.

The Caspian regions of Turkmenistan are famous for fish and dishes from it. Various types of fish are used for cooking, but the Caspian beluga is especially valued. Traditional pilaf (“ash”), shish kebab (“balyk-shara”) are prepared from it, it is fried, stewed in pots, soups are cooked from it, and complex dishes are also prepared using many ingredients (“cheme”, “balyk- berek”, “balykly-yanakhly-ash”).

Also, one of the characteristic features of Turkmen cuisine is the widespread use of milk and dairy products. The most commonly used are sheep and camel milk, from which various kinds of lactic acid products are made by fermentation, followed by straining, churning and drying. Vivid examples of this can be: "aragan", "gurt", "chal", "teleme", "sykman", "sargan". Milk is also used to prepare various cereals or milk soups.

A variety of flour products are also very loved by Turkmens. " Churek"- a national flatbread, baked both in a handicraft way and at state bakeries, various kinds of sourdough flatbreads are also popular, which are baked at home in vegetable oil or lard.

There are many different types of pies, one of the most popular are “gutap”, for which various fillings and “etli-nan” meat pie are used. Dumplings - "borek" or noodles - "unash" are prepared from unleavened dough.

Sweets of Turkmenistan very similar to the typical products of the entire region: “halva”, “baklava”, “sherbet”, “nabat”, “bekmesam”, for the preparation of which sugar or fruit juices are used. Sweet pastries are represented by kulche shortcakes, pishme cookies, and chapada donuts.

Turkmens, like all the peoples of Central Asia, are very fond of tea, and in the northern and western regions of the country they prefer black tea, and in the eastern - green "gok tea". Very often, especially in winter, this drink is brewed not with water, but with milk, with the addition of butter or fat, which makes it incredibly satisfying and turns it into a kind of soup.

They are very popular among the population local wine varieties: "Dashgala", "Yasman-Salyk", "Kopetdag".

The local mineral water has earned a good reputation " Berzengi».

Due to the diversity of the peoples inhabiting or inhabiting the region, the cuisine of the Turkmens is very diverse, it amazes the imagination with its unusualness, excellent taste, and often the way of cooking products. It is difficult to say whether you will become a fan of her or not, but you must definitely try it cooked with love!

The national cuisine of Turkmenistan is as unusual and interesting as the whole history of the Turkmen people. There was even an opinion that Turkmen cuisine does not exist. There were significant differences between the culinary tastes of the numerous tribes that inhabited the country. The tribes of nomads were engaged in cattle breeding and lived in desert areas, farmers settled in oases and floodplains of large rivers, the inhabitants of the Caspian coast preferred fishing. Therefore, different habitats have affected the heterogeneity and diversity of the Turkmen cuisine in general. But, despite this, enthusiasts and culinary connoisseurs managed to combine and systematize one of the most original and, undoubtedly, delicious cuisines of the East.

The hallmark of the national cuisine of Turkmenistan, as in many Central Asian countries, is pilaf, or in Turkmen - “ash”. There are dozens of ways to prepare it, but the main ingredients have always been rice and meat (most often lamb or poultry), to which vegetables, onions, peppers, dried fruits, and seasonings are added. No less delicious meat dishes that you should try in this country:

  • "Govurma" - fried lamb;
  • "govurlan-et" - lamb with tomatoes";
  • "chekdirme" - fried lamb, with potatoes and tomatoes;
  • "kokmach" - dried dried meat;
  • "garyn" original sausages;
  • "Börek" - Turkmen manti;
  • "ishlekli" - round pies, with meat and onions;
  • "Heygenek" - an omelette with meat;
  • "kebap" - various types of Turkmen shish kebab.

Turkmen cuisine is rich in first courses. Basically - these are soups on meat broth. Be sure to try:

  • "gara-chorba" - soup with tomatoes;
  • dograma - pea soup;
  • Umpach-zashi - flour soup;
  • "unash" - soup with noodles and beans;
  • « etli-borek-chorbasy"- soup with dumplings;
  • Suiteli-unash - milk soup with noodles;
  • “nohudly-chorba” - pea soup with lamb;
  • mastava is rice soup with vegetables.

This is what really distinguishes the national cuisine of Turkmenistan from other Central Asian cuisines - this is the presence of national fish dishes. Residents of the Caspian coast (Turkmen-Ogurdzhalins), fry fish on a spit, boiling oil, cook in special boilers ... while adding rice, apricots, raisins, sesame, pomegranate juice to dishes. Sturgeons are used to prepare an amazing shish kebab - “balyk-shara”. Fish fried and stewed in pots - “balyk gavurdak”, will not leave anyone indifferent. Add fish even to pilaf, instead of meat. There are very complex dishes, with a large number of components - " balyk-berek", "cheme", "gaplama", "balikly yakhama" and others. It is worth noting that only fresh fish is used for cooking. Particularly popular dishes from sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, catfish, mullet, pike perch, kutum, carp.

One more characteristic feature Turkmen cuisine is considered to be the widespread use of milk and sour-milk products. Camel milk, which has a sweet taste and is rich in vitamin C, is used to make yogurt, ghee and butter. From the remaining whey, a refreshing drink "airan" is obtained. Curd mass is made from sheep's milk - "teleme", cheese - "sakman", similar to unsalted cheese and cheese - "peynir". In the course and cow's milk. They make curdled milk from it - "gatyk", special cottage cheese - "suzme", cheese - "gurt" and butter. In general, there are a lot of Turkmen dairy products - garfish, karagurt, agaran, chal, sykman…

Did not ignore the national cuisine of Turkmenistan, lovers of sweets. Be sure to try the special, Turkmen "halva" made from the root of a lily plant - "cheresh"; sweet shortbreads - "kulche"; fried donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar - “pishme”; Turkmen donuts - "chapads". Famous Turkmen melons, local fruits, watermelons deserve special attention.

The favorite drink of Turkmens is tea. In the western regions and in the north of the country, black tea is preferred, and in the east, green (“gok-tea”). In winter, tea, most often, is brewed not with water, but with milk, adding butter and mutton fat to it. Also, Berzengi mineral water and various fruit juices are popular. Quite good local wines are Kopetdag, Yasman-Salyk and Dashgala. From strong drinks - vodka "Serdar" and cognac "President".
Welcome to hospitable Turkmenistan and bon appetit to all!