Shirin somsa (Sweet samusa)

"Shirin somsa" is a special samsa which is usually made for Navruz celebrations or any other special occasions. It is high in calorie and very nutritious. I like it's naturally sweetness and that they can be made without any sugar. You can use different dried fruits, but usually black raisins, dried figs, 2-3 kinds of nuts are used for the filling. I also like to add dates, as it gives extra taste and helps to join all the ingredients with it's stickiness. As for as nuts, I usually use almonds and walnuts.
Ingredients:
For dough:
200 grams of butter or margarine
200 ml of sour cream
1 tsp of baking soda
Pinch of vanilla
Plain flour as needed
For filling:
100 grams of walnuts
100 grams of black raisins
100 grams of almonds
100 grams of dried figs
100 grams of dates
4 tbsp of honey or 50 grams of sugar (optional)
First of all, prepare dough and refrigerate for an hour. Chop chilled butter with 1 cup of flour until it will resemble bread crumbs. Add in sour cream, vanilla and baking powder and mix well. Start adding plain flour until you will form soft, but not sticky dough. Wrap and refrigerate.
Chop all of the dried fruits and nuts. Add in honey and mix well.

Take out dough from fridge and divide in two. Roll each piece and cut equally.

I like to make "Shirin somsa"s small, but you can make them bigger if you want.
Roll each piece and put 1.5-2 tsp of filling and pinch the edges.

Roll and shape all of your samsas and bake in preheated oven, until nice golden in color. Sprinkle powdered sugar while samsas are hot.
Serve with a nice hot cup of tea and enjoy!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Yog'da qaynagan baliq (Fish "boiled" in oil)

In Uzbekistan fish dishes are more popular in regions which are situated in the basins of rivers Amu Darya, Syr Darya and also around many reservoirs. For example, only in Khorezm region more than 35 species of fish are known, where as you can guess a lot of different ways of coking fish. One of my favorite recipe is deep fried fish. I love the crunchy skin and the soft meat which is juicy and just yummy!
For this yummy dish, it's better to choose smaller fish, that can be fried whole. You will also need deep pan for frying. Fresh fish is preferable.
Ingredients:
1 fish for one person
Freshly ground pepper
10-15 tbsp of lemon juice
Salt to taste
Plain flour, just for coating fish
About 2 liters of oil for deep frying
Finely clean fish and wash all over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut along 3-4 times.

Put fish in deep bowl and pour lemon juice evenly over it. Cover and let it stand for 1 hour.
Finely heat the oil in deep pan. Put fish on cotton towel and finely rub to get rid of any liquid. Roll the fish over flour to cover all over evenly. Now carefully deep in to the oil and fry until fish is nicely cooked.
Serve with fresh vegetables and enjoy!
Yoqimli ishtaha!

Tugmacha somsa (Button samusa)

"Tugmacha somsa" can be made of any "somsa"s dough. If you like it to be soft, make it from dough as in recipe of "Gushtli somsa", if you like crunchy stuff, then make it as in recipe "Parmuda somsa". Filling also can be different, with meat, poultry, pumpkin and so on. But usually it is made of fresh lamb, especially oily parts of it.
Ingredients:
Choose any dough you like and use that recipe, but after rolling it in long log, slice out smaller/thiner pieces to make "somsa"a small as buttons.
300 grams of meat
4 medium sized onions
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander
Salt to taste
egg yolk for brushing
sesame seeds for sprinkling
Chop meat along other ingredients. If you like your "somsa"s be more juicy and tasty use some lamb's tail fat. Just cut it in very small cubes and add in to the filling.
When you finished slicing out the dough in small parts, turn them on their flat side, slightly press with fingers to give them round look, put 1 tsp of filling and pinch the edges well. Usually "Tugmacha somsa" is round in shape.

You can see how small are "somsa"s in picture.
After you done pinching all of "somsa"s, brush them with egg yolk and sprinkle with your favorite seeds. Bake in preheated oven until "somsa"s are golden in color.
Serve and enjoy them! Children just love "Tugmacha somsa"s!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Nuhot sho'rva (Soup with yellow peas)

"Nuhot sho'rva" is made from yellow peas. Vegetarians can cook it without meat, as it is good source of protein. Use fresh meat, preferable meat with some bones, it will give special flavor and helps this soup to be thicker. I like it to make this soup thick, but if you like making it thinner then add not 140 grams but 100 grams of peas.
Ingredients:
60 gr of vegetable oil or 50 gr of lamb's tail fat
350 gr of meat
2 onions, peeled and sliced
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 small capsicum, seeded and cubed
1 turnip peeled and cubed (optional)
2 medium sized tomatoes, cubed well
140 grams of peas, washed well
1.5 liters of water
Salt to taste
1 tbsp of coriander
1 tsp of cumin seeds
Fresh coriander chopped
Heat oil well and brown meat on a high heat. Put in onions,spices and fry until onions are transparent and add in carrot and capsicum. Fry constantly stirring until carrots are half done. Add in tomato and turnip. Fry until oil starts to separate out. Add in peas and immediately add in water. Bring to boil, scoop out little foam and lower the heat. Half cover the lid and simmer until peas are soft. At the end add in salt. Serve in individual bowls sprinkling some coriander.
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Tovuq dolma (Stuffed whole chicken)

Usually this kind of dolma is made from whole chicken, stuffing just the empty space, but as usually, I like to make more generous filling, so I decided to debone a chicken. I involve my husband to this process, as I couldn't do it as well as he can. We bought fresh chicken from the market and as soon as we get home he started to deboning it:)
Meantime I prepared ingredients for stuffing. Our "Tovuq dolma" turned out to be so delicious! It was moist, juicy and mouthwatering tasty! I was telling my husband from now on we have to try different recipes for stuffing a chicken, I have lots of them!
Ingredients:
Whole fresh chicken 1.5 kg (or even bigger)
1 medium sized zucchini
1 egg
3/4 cup of rice
4-5 tbsp of clarified butter
Salt to taste
1 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of coriander
half a tsp of cumin seeds
1 big onion
2 potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of mayonnaise
1 tbsp of mustard
1 tbsp of sour cream
Wash rice carefully and put in a boiling water. Stir immediately and cook until rice is done and soft, but don't overcook. Stir occasionally as it tends to stick to the bottom of a pan. When all the water evaporated and rice is done,add in salt and butter and stir well.Set aside.
Debone a chicken and put all the meat part (that's exactly two breast and some few meat out of the thights) in food processor. Grind chicken meat together with rice, egg and zucchini. Grind well until all the ingredients are finely blended. I am posting some pictures of how to debone a chicken, but if you couldn't understand, then, go to you tube and search videos on deboning a chicken, find one that you like and try to do that!
First of all break the middle bone:

Carefully cut out the spine bone with a sharp knife:




There it is:









Now carefully cut out breast bone, don't cut up the skin!


Carefully cut out chicken breast for filling.
Spread the leg in two parts and take out upper bone.

We got it, deboned chicken!

Stuff chicken with filling.

Sew the bottom and tie legs crosswise.


Sew up the top and tie wings.


Mix well mayonnaise, mustard and sour cream all together and rub it evenly all over the chicken.
Peel onion and potatoes and slice up thick circles. Chop up garlic. layer vegetables evenly in your baking dish and put chicken on top.

Pour 200 ml of water on the sides.
Bake in preheated oven until chicken is nicely golden in color about 1.5-2 hours. (Depends on the size of a chicken) Occasionally pour up the juicy water from the sides of the chicken on to the top of it with a spoon. That will make chicken moist and juicy.

Serve with fresh salad and enjoy!
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

Moshli somsa (Samusa with mungbeans)

"Moshli somsa" is perfect for vegetarians as it is very good source of protein. But it is not recommended for those who suffer from high blood pressure (maybe you can eat only 1 if you have it).
For this type of somsa, you have to prepare 3 days ahead, so that your mungbeans will soak well and will double in size. Don't forget to change the water everyday.

Ingredients:
1,3 cup mungbeans
3 onions, peeled and sliced
50 gr of butter
Salt to taste
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
0.5 tsp of ground pepper
5-6 tbsp of milk

For dough:
200 gr of water
1 tsp of salt
150 gr of butter or margarine
1 cup of whole wheat flour
Plain flour as needed
First prepare dough. Mix water, salt and add in 1 cup of wheat flour, mix with a spoon. Start adding plain flour until you form medium hard dough. Cover and let it rest for 20 min. Then roll it up as thinly as you can and grease all of the surface with melted butter or margarine, let it stand for 10 min and start rolling it around itself forming a log. Now cover the dough and put in to the fridge for 1 hour. Prepare filling while dough is chilling in the fridge.
Take 1,3 cup of mungbeans and wash well. Layer evenly in dish and pour enough water to cover them.

Leave for the next day. Next day, drain well and pour fresh water to cover mungbeans. Repeat the next day. On the third day, mungbeans are ready to use.

Drain and wash mungbeans well, clean from hard seeds and set aside.
Melt butter in a pan and fry sliced onions until golden and transparent, add in spices and salt at the end.
Grind mungbeans and fried onions together, add in 5-6 tbsp of milk while grinding, as texture will be thick.

Now take the dough and cut the log in equal pieces, turn on to the flat side and roll each piece one by one. Put 1 tbsp of filling and pinch the edges well.

Brush all "somsa"s with egg yolk, sprinkle some seeds or pepper and bake in preheated oven until nice golden color. Serve as hot and enjoy!

Ho'l norin ("Norin" soup)

Ingredients:
"Norin"
Bouillon under air dried meat
Thinly sliced onions

“Norin” also can be served with bouillon under meat. It is served with sliced raw onions and slices of “Qazi”. Just serve some “Norin” in individual bowls and pour over meat bouillon.