Soyutma Lamb

                                                                               Receta en Español

Lamb is a food largement consumed in Azerbaijan, today I present to you 'Soyutma Lamb'.

Soyutma means slow cooked, it is the key on this dish, it is a piece of lamb cooked very slowly to obtain a different texture and taste.

Ingredients (For two people):

•   1 leg of lamb.
•   2 medium sized potatoes.
•   1 medium sized onion.
•   Some saffron strands.
•   Pepper.
•   Some fresh mint.
•   Salt.

   

Method:

1-  Wash the meat. Then add salt and pepper to the meat.

Put in a casserole, cover with water and set fire on a medium heat until water boils.

2-  Once it reaches boiling point, you can observe some foam on the surface, get rid of this foam ant put fire on a low heat.

3-  Now add the whole onion.

4-  Now let it cook for 3 hours at low heat. After the 3 hours, add peeled whole potatoes, make some cuts to the potatoes, this way they can cook faster.

Add salt, pepper, mint and some saffron strands, cook until potatoes are done.

5-  Now you can serve it, put a potato for each people , the dish should be accompanied by some yogurt with garlic (tipical from Azerbaijan).

Where to find the ingredients:

I found the mint near Madrid mosque, at arab shops at Antonio Calvo street.

My comments to the recipe

This boiled lamb is very tasty, because it is cooked very slowly , all the spices match very well with the lamb as well as the fresh yogurt.



Azerbaijan

Südlü Plov (rice cooked in milk)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Plov is how people from Azerbaijan call the pilaf. This is a popular dish , there are more than 70 variations of plov.

Today I will present you an original plov, it is rice cooked in milk (südlü means milk), besides, it has dried fruits like dates, dried apricots and raisins. All of them are used in several dishes.

This dish has saffron too , an ingredient very common in Azerbaijan.

Ingredients (Two people):

•   1 cup basmati rice.
•   1 cup and a half whole milk.
•   75 grams butter.
•   50 grams raisin.
•   10 dates.
•    5 dried apricots.
•    Some saffron strands.
•    2 tablespoon sugar.
•    Salt.

Method:

1-  Put some saffron strands into a cup filled with a little quantity of boiling water (you can boil this water in the microwave if you want), cover the cup and let stand for 15 minutes to allow saffron to infuse.

2-  Wash rice and dried fruits.

3-  Mix in a casserole the rice, milk, butter, salt, sugar and water with saffron. Cook at low heat.

4-  Cook until you see 2/3 of the milk has been absorbed, then add the dates and dried fruits.

In this moment cover with a cloth and then the lid, let it cook at low heat.

It cooks very fast, better than giving to you a time of cooking, you should check from time to time and see if it has absorbed all the milk, then you must turn off the heat and let it stand some minutes still covered.

This is the result:

My comments to the Recipe:

¡This is a delicious rice!, it has a special softness thanks to the milk and butter, then the sweet and sour of the dried fruits. It is a luxurious rice, in accordance with the wealth of this country.



Azerbaijan

Barbados

Postdlf from w [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Addicted04 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Recipes from Barbados that I cooked:

Pudding and Souse

Tamarind Balls

Rhum Punch

 

Barbados

Tamarind Balls

                                                                               Receta en Español

This is one of the most popular desserts in Barbados, it is very easy to prepare and it has the 'sweet and sour' taste, a popular flavour in most of the dishes made in Barbados!.

Ingredients:

•   100 grams tamarind pulp.
•   150 grams white sugar.
•   1 table spoon flour.
•    Pepper.
•    Salt.
•    Brown Sugar.

Method:

1-  It is better if you buy tamarind pulp, if you have the fruit itself you should get rid of the skin and seeds.

Mix all the ingredients (except the brown sugar) in a bowl.

Tamarind pulp is acid and sticky , to mix well sugar with the pulp , it is better to use a food processor, it should be well mixed to soften the acidity of the tamarind.

2-  Take little by little some dough and make little balls. Put some brown sugar in a plate ,make the balls roll over the sugar, this is how they should be:

My comments to the Recipe:

It is very easy, but bear in mind that you should mix well , use a thin sugar to mix with the pulp, after that, the brown sugar to wrap the ball can be as thick as you want.



Barbados