I am very proud that we received from our ancestors a lot of heritage. One of these is our national food. Kyrgyz cuisine’s national food is called Besh-Barmak. Have you ever tried it? If you taste it the first time you will be in great astonishment, because it is very delicious. Besh – Barmak got its name because it is usually eaten with the hands, using five fingers. The word Besh means “five” and the word Barmak is “finger.” Times are changing society and that’s why we usually now eat Besh-Barmak with a fork.
This food was an honored dish in the past. When guests visited a house, a host usually cooked Besh-Barmak. It supposed to mean that the host is showing big respect for them. When they celebrated holidays they always cooked Besh-Barmak. But people in southern Kyrgyzstan, because of the influence of the Uzbek culture, often cook Plov instead of Besh-Barmak. In northern Kyrgyzstan people cook Besh-Barmak more frequently. Now I want to tell you about how to prepare this dish:
Ingredients
for dough: 0,5 kg flour, 0,5 lt water, 2 eggs, 2 tea spoons of salt, 0,2lt oil; for the sauce: 1-2 kg meat,6 onions.
There are two steps to cook Besh-Barmak. The first step is to prepare the noodles. First of all
find a saucepan, then pour some water into it. The next step is to whip up eggs, afterwards vigorously pour them into some water while stirring and add two tea spoons of
salt. Taste it. Feel free to add some salt and some spices to your liking. At this time add the flour. After mixing the
dough press it with your hands. When it is ready knead the dough on a floured surface. After a few minutes it is ready
for cutting. At last do not cut it too thick or too thin. Put a big saucepan with water on the stove. When it starts boiling, add your homemade noodles. After twenty minutes of boiling take out the noodles, separate them from water. Immediately put them into cold water for a while to prevent them from sticking to each other. Then take them out again and add some oil and stir it thoroughly. Now the noodles are ready.
Now you’re ready for the second step. Initially cut the meat and boil it. During the boiling, peel onions and slice them into pieces. After the meat is done take it from the water. Then mix it with sliced onions and leave them for twenty minutes in order to cool it down. After twenty minutes your Besh-Barmak is almost ready.
For the final step put together all ingredients into one saucepan and mix it. It is ready for eating and it serves six persons.
It’s very important to remember one thing, that you can’t boil meat and noodles together – they have to be cooked separately. The process of boiling noodles takes twenty or twenty five minutes. You need to boil the noodles at a steady medium rate. The meat is usually done in an hour.
In addition if you want to economize your time you can cook meat while you prepare noodles. As noodles does not take much time to cook. Also usually the Kyrgyz serve broth and Besh-Barmak together. Broth is served first. At the same time they have Besh-Barmak on the table. If you don’t want to throw the broth away then have it as the first course.
Bon appetite!
Posted on April 20, 2010
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