Uzbekistan

For the second week runing we're in Central Asia. This week Uzbekistan, which borders last weeks culinary destination Kyrgyzstan.

First, lets get the interesting fact out of the way. Uzbekistan is one of only two countries that are double landlocked, which is a country that is surrounded by countries that are landlocked (as in do not border an ocean). The only other double landlocked country is Liechtenstein in Europe. That's got to be worth remembering for a pub quiz or maybe as a potential opportunity to impress Alexander Armstrong on Pointless (UK quiz show, circa 2012/13).

The national dish of Uzbekistan is some form of Plov which is a rice dish served with a broiled meat (typically lamb). Seeing as last week we had Beshbarmak (Noodles with broiled lamb) I thought that the Plov would be a bit too similar. So I looked beyond the national dish and came across an excellent recipe blog dedicated to Uzbeki cuisine - The Art of Uzbek Cuisine. It's worth looking at for the various bread recipes alone.

After browsing through numerous pages of recipes I eventually settled on doing a selection of appetizers/snacks. It needs a snappy name, but for now it's known as: Qiyma "Zarafshon", Yupqa and Qovurma varaqi somsa with "Roziya" salati and Qatiqli salat.

 

Scores:

 

H: 8.0

 

K: 9.0 - The best dinner so far. Whilst all three of the main elements tasted very similar (which they would do considering they all had the same filling), the salad and dip really tied the flavours together. I would happily serve any one of them individually for guests as a starter.

 

Total: 17.0

Kyrgyzstan

Located on Central Asia this was/is a country I know very little about. So I had a quick look on the internet (looking at the photos it looks to have some stunning landscapes).

"Kyrgyz" is believed to have derived from the Turkish word for "forty" and is probably a reference to the forty clans of Manas, and the flag has forty rays coming from the sun are a reference to the same forty tribes. Literally translated it means "We are forty". (thanks Wikipedia)

It's also a high scorer in scrabble!

The dish I chose for tonight was the national dish Beshbarmak, which translates as "5 fingers", hopefully becuase of the way it's eaten rather than the ingredients.

 

Scores (out of 10):

H: 5.0.

K: 5.5. A lot nicer than I was expecting as I am not a few of boiled meats or stews. The sweetness of the onion worked really well with the noodle and lamb. If I made this again I think I would add a spicy tomato to it.  

K

 

Yemen

This week I had Yemen selected for me. More interesting than Ireland was my first reaction. I was interested to read that its food is influenced by Indian and Arab cuisine.

 

I opted for the national dish of Saltah, but in the last day or so I changed from a vegetarian version using Okra to a beef based one. Kevin claimed he was not aware, but declared last night how much he had hated Okra when he used it in his Barbados dish, so today I went to the market to get the beef. The Eggplant is sat in the fridge. Any suggestions?

 

The final dish I prepared is

Fasha Saltah with Hulba and Khobz bread (without Tanour or Peel)

I combined 4 recipes into one here, but have kept the ingredients seperate incase you want to mix and match. I served it as a rustic Tear and Share. We are going to use the rest of the dough for homemade pizza on Saturday.


Scores (out of 10):

H: 7.0.

K: 6.0. Nicer that I thought it would be. The bread was very good - overall would make a good sharer starter.

H