This article presents ten of the most popular dishes peoples of the Caucasus. Each of the peoples, most likely, has its own varieties of these dishes, somewhere even their own names of dishes and recipe features. Therefore, dear readers, if you have something to add, please share your knowledge in the comments.

There are many recipes and varieties of shurpa, as well as names (shorpa, chorpa, shorpo, sorpa, chorba). In simple words Shurpa is a soup with meat and vegetables and herbs.

Khychin is national dish Karachays and Balkars and is a flatbread made from thin dough stuffed, mainly with potatoes, cheese, herbs or meat.

Khinkal

Khinkal is a traditional dish of Caucasian cuisine, pieces of dough (khinkalins) boiled in meat broth, served with broth, boiled meat and sauce.

Haltama - boiled pieces of dough made from corn custard flour, boiled in meat broth, most often with beans. One of the common Ossetian dishes.

Chudu (emphasis on the last letter) is one of the most common dishes of Dagestan. Chudu are closed small pies made of thinly rolled dough, with different fillings. It is very similar to cheburek, only it is fried in a dry frying pan without oil.

Chanakhi - in a word, roast; a dish of Georgian cuisine, which is lamb stewed in a clay pot with vegetables.

Shish kebab is a dish with a worldwide reputation, which is prepared in different parts of the world. In the mountains of the Caucasus, this dish is relevant, since at high altitude the pressure is lower and the water boils at lower temperatures. Under these conditions, cook meat for a very long time. But you can fry deliciously, which, together with the right marinade, makes the Caucasian barbecue one of the most delicious in the world.

Dolma (dalma, dulma, durma, tolma, sarma) - a dish that is stuffed vegetables or leaves (usually grape), cabbage rolls in grape leaves. The filling is usually prepared on the basis of rice, may also contain boiled chopped meat.

Khachapuri is a Georgian cheese flatbread.

Ossetian pie - an Ossetian dish, which is a flatbread stuffed with cottage cheese, cheese, potatoes, meat or greens.

This is delicious.

Caucasian cuisine is bright and unusual. This is, first of all, meat, herbs, cheese and spices, from which very tasty things are obtained.

1. Dagestan

   Previously, lamb was used to prepare the Avar khinkal, now they often take beef.

   Ingredients:

   300 g beef

   5 fresh tomatoes

   salt, pepper, bay leaf

   bulb onions

   1 head of garlic

   1 tsp soda

   vegetable oil

   Adviсe:

   Serve meat, dough, garlic sauce and broth separately.

   The lid must be tightly closed while cooking.

   Recipe:

   Boil large pieces of meat.

   Wheat dough, kneaded on kefir, roll out into a layer 6 millimeters thick, cut into rhombuses or squares and throw into the boiling broth left after the meat. Cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

   As soon as the dough is ready, immediately take it out, not forgetting to pierce each piece with a fork or toothpick.

   For the sauce, mix sour cream or peeled tomatoes stewed in broth with garlic.

2. Chechnya

   Chepalgash

   Chepalgash are thin cakes with cottage cheese. Despite the stereotype about kebabs, the basis of the North Caucasian cuisine is flour products, cereals and cheese, that is, simple, cheap and high-calorie food.

   

   Ingredients:

   100 g wheat flour

   100 g kefir

   0.2 g baking soda

   For filling:

   75 gr cottage cheese

   several bunches of green onions

   20 g butter

   Adviсe:

   Cook in a dry skillet

   Recipe:

   Knead wheat dough on kefir, divide into pieces weighing about 200 grams in the form of balls and roll thinly. In the middle, put a couple of tablespoons of the filling from homemade cottage cheese, green onions, eggs and salt. Connect the edges and pinch, roll out the cake to a thickness of less than a centimeter.

   Fry on both sides in a pan (the first side with a lid, the second without a lid). Dip the finished cakes in hot water, stack on top of each other, thickly smearing each layer with butter.

   Cut the whole hill like a cake into 6 parts. Eat before it gets cold.

3. Ossetia

   In Ossetia, on holidays, pies with meat, beet tops, potatoes, and cabbage are often found. Tsaharajin contains both beets and cheese, it is a very tasty and satisfying pie.

   

   Ingredients:

   2 chicken eggs

   400 g wheat flour

   150 g suluguni cheese

   150 g Ossetian cheese

   80 g beet greens

   30 ml vegetable oil

   5 g sugar

   5 g salt

   10 g dry yeast

   water

   Adviсe:

   After brushing with oil at the end, cover with a towel and let stand for 5 minutes

   Recipe:

   Knead the yeast dough with milk, salt and melted butter. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour.

   Make a filling of fresh young cheese and chopped strips of beet tops without stalks. For fat content, you can add ghee or sour cream. Salt and pepper.

   Make a cake from the dough a little less than a centimeter thick. Place the filling in the middle. Pull the ends of the dough to the middle, pinch. Turn over, carefully level the surface of the cake, make a steam incision in the middle.

   Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Then brush with oil.

4. Ingushetia

   Birch

   Meat in Ingushetia is usually served with a special sauce. Here is his recipe.

   

   Ingredients:

   meat broth

   a few potatoes

   bunch of greens

   salt pepper

   1 onion

   1 carrot

   butter

   Recipe:

   Boil potatoes in meat broth, mash thoroughly, adding raw eggs in the process.

   Mix with the broth so that the puree dissolves in it.

   Boil for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat, add finely chopped green onion and other herbs to taste.

   Salt, pepper, simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add fried onions and carrots stewed in butter.

5. Adygea

   Goedlibzhe

   In addition to the Adyghe cheese, which everyone knows about, it is worth trying gedlibzhe. This is chicken stewed in sour cream or cream.

   

   Ingredients:

   5 pieces. chicken drumsticks

   2-3 tbsp sour cream

   1 bulb

   1.5 tbsp flour

   salt, paprika, pepper mixture to taste

   Recipe:

   Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry separately until golden brown.

   Put everything together in a saucepan, sprinkle with paprika. Pour some water, salt, simmer for 15 minutes.

   Add sauce of sour cream, flour and water, simmer for about half an hour until tender.

6. Azerbaijan

   Dovga

   Dovga is one of the most popular and favorite dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine. This dish is good because it is excellent both hot and cold.

   

   Ingredients for a 2 liter bottle of homemade matsoni:

   2 sour creams 200 g each

   1 large bunch of cilantro, dill, spinach, tops, mint

   1 small head of garlic

   0.5 st. round rice

   0.5 st. boiled chickpeas

   Adviсe:

   It is better to use homemade matsoni, you can buy it on the market

   During cooking, you need to stir dovga continuously until boiling, otherwise the matsoni will curdle.

   Stir better with a wooden spoon

   Recipe:

   Rinse all the greens well in advance, finely chop, dry. Boil rice separately. Pour the matsoni and sour cream into a saucepan and stir well. Crack 2 eggs into it. Add boiled rice along with water.

   Place the saucepan over high heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil.

   When the matsoni boils, put the greens and finely chopped garlic into the pan, without ceasing to stir.

   Bring to a boil again.

   Add boiled peas. Do not cover with a lid for the first couple of hours.

7. Armenia

   Ishkhan in wine

   Until now, ishkhan, or Sevan trout, is considered the main culinary masterpiece of Armenia. It is gutted with a spoon through the gills, without ripping open the stomach. The tender fish is then stuffed with tarragon and stewed in wine.

   

   Ingredients:

   1kg trout

   1 bunch tarragon

   300 g cherry plum

   1 bulb

   dry white wine

   Recipe:

   Remove the gills from the Sevan trout, take out the insides with a spoon through them. Rinse the cavity thoroughly and stuff with a crushed mixture of cherry plum, pomegranate, onion and tarragon.

   You need to simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes in white wine at the rate of 1 glass per 1 kilogram of the dish, avoiding contact of the fish with the bottom of the pan. To do this, it can be placed on stones or wooden sticks.

8. Georgia

   Chkmeruli

   Very delicious recipe chicken from national cuisine Georgia.

   

   Ingredients:

   500 ml cream

   bunch of cilantro

   bunch of parsley

   a few cloves of garlic

   salt, pepper, suneli hops

   Recipe:

   Cut the chicken along the breast, remove excess fat, tail and wing tips, lightly beat off.

   Rub with salt, pepper and brush with vegetable oil. Put in a hot frying pan under oppression, fry on both sides until golden brown.

   Pour in the sauce of cream, chopped garlic, cilantro, parsley and suneli hops. Close the lid, simmer in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Caucasian kitchen- the concept is rather arbitrary. A large number of peoples live in the region of the Caucasus Mountains, whose cuisine has many common features. Caucasian cuisine is, first of all, meat, vegetables, herbs, spices and red wine. The names of many dishes of Caucasian cuisine are well known even to those who have never been to the Caucasus, since this national food is simply adored in Russia.

Dishes in general are characterized by elegance of taste, satiety and a special ritual of cooking and eating with an obligatory abundance of herbs, spices, and delicious drinks. traditional dishes peoples inhabiting the Caucasian region.

Nature has generously endowed this region with fertile arable land, a lot of sun, noble mountains with an abundance of fragrant herbs, fragrant gardens and vineyards.. Therefore, Caucasian cuisine is a real national treasure, unlike others, because it combines the secrets of various dishes.

All dishes are very appetizing, juicy, satisfying, with their own unique flavors and original recipes. This is a well-known barbecue, delicious pilaf, satsivi, shurpa, dolma, khinkali, kebabs, khachapuri - the list is endless. And of course, one cannot ignore the unimaginable an abundance of various sauces, seasonings and famous aromatic wines. Magical unique recipes are given to us by peoples who are well versed in food and know how to cook it. Colorful culinary ideas are loved and in demand far beyond the Caucasus.

In this review, we have selected five famous Caucasian dishes and collected their classic recipes.

In order to start cooking a real and tasty barbecue, you must first choose the right meat. What kind of meat should you buy? Someone loves only lamb, others do not eat pork, and still others eat any meat. For a good barbecue, pork is great, not very fatty, only fresh and not frozen. What part of the pork to take for the best result? Take your neck.
Ingredients for pickling - based on 3-4 kilograms. The main secret of barbecue marinating is not what ingredients to put there, but in what order.

Ingredients:

• Salt (about 4-5 tsp)
• Coarsely ground black pepper
• Coriander - aka cilantro. 15-20 peas. They need to be crushed in a mortar, first lightly fried. If the coriander is already ground: a little more than half a teaspoon
• Basil - as much as ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon
• Thyme - aka Thyme per kilogram - one, two pinches

• Zira. A very specific seasoning, a little less than half a teaspoon will suffice. Zira, very specific in taste, so be careful in its quantity
• Bay leaf, a couple of pieces
• Red pepper, paprika. Ground, sweet. You can have a teaspoon without a "slide". It will give a little desired flavor and beautiful colour when hot. Want to add spice? One clove of crushed garlic, add hot, capsicum, but be careful, the taste of meat can be greatly interrupted, everything is needed in moderation
• Onion - 5-6 bulbs
• Sunflower oil - 5-6 tablespoons

Mix everything, add half a lemon. The meat should be marinated for several hours, after which the barbecue should be fried on the grill.

Ossetians have been baking their traditional pies with various fillings for thousands of years. The shape of the pies is usually round, about 30-35 cm in diameter.

The name of the pies can be different, depending on the type of filling :

• Ualibakh, ch (b) iri, habizdzhyn (single) - cheese pies
• Kartofjin - pies with potatoes and cheese
• Tsakharajyn - pies with chopped beet leaves and cheese
• Kabuskajin - pies with shredded cabbage and cheese
• Fidjin - pies with minced meat (usually beef)
• Davondzhyn - pies with chopped wild garlic leaves and cheese
• Nashjin - pies with chopped pumpkin and cheese (buy and without)
• Kh(b)adurjyn - pies with beans

In different regions of Ossetia, there may be other variations of the filling.

Ingredients:

For test:

• Wheat flour - 500 g
• Sugar - 50 g
• Salt - 60 g
• Yeast (preferably live) - 50 g
• Water - 1.5 l

For filling:

• Beef (brisket) - 450 g
• Bulb onions - 2 medium onions
• Garlic - 3-5 cloves

Cooking:

• Make a dough- mix one and a half liters warm water, yeast, salt and sugar. Let it brew for 10-12 minutes
• Mix flour and broth so that the dough is sufficiently elastic and not too hard. At the end, add a little sunflower oil so that the dough does not stick to your hands.
• Pass meat through a meat grinder, do the same with garlic and onions. Add salt and pepper to taste
• Lay out the dough on the table, roll out a little and put the filling in the middle. Then close the top with the edges of the dough. Then roll out to a thickness of two and a half centimeters. Place the pie in a cast iron skillet or baking dish (approximately 32 cm in diameter). Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 300 degrees. When serving, brush the pie with a little butter.

To cook real khinkali, you need to follow a few rules. Firstly, it is advisable not to scroll the meat through a meat grinder, but to finely chop it: minced meat will give more natural juice when cooked, and this is the most valuable part of the dish. In addition, the minced meat should not be dry, you need to add a little water to it and mix thoroughly. It is difficult to knead the dough for khinkali by hand, as it should turn out to be dense and elastic, so if you have a dough mixer, it is better to use it.

The more folds on the tail, the more solid khinkali are considered: ideally, there should be 19 folds, but often there are about 10. The number does not affect the taste, but speaks of the professionalism of the cook.

You need to eat khinkali with your hands: take the tail, turn it over, bite a small hole and first drink the juice, and then bite off.

Ingredients:

Ground meat:

• Veal - 1 kg
• Onion - 200 gr
• Chili peppers - 10–12 gr
• Salt - 10–15 gr
• Black pepper - 3-4 gr
• Fresh cilantro - 5 gr
• Water - 100 gr

Dough:

• Flour - 2 kg
• Water - 650 ml
• Sunflower oil - 20–30 gr
• Salt - 20 gr

Cooking:

Dough. Pour flour, salt into a deep container and start kneading, gradually adding water and sunflower oil. After the mass becomes homogeneous and elastic, blind it into a lump, cover with cling film and leave for 20 minutes.

Ground meat. Finely chop the meat. Cut the onion into small cubes, finely chop the chili and chop the cilantro. In a deep bowl, mix the meat, onion, chili, cilantro, mint, salt and pepper. Add water and mix thoroughly (the consistency should be liquid, but homogeneous).

Roll out the dough into a sausage with a diameter of about four centimeters and cut it into pieces of three to four centimeters. Blind each piece into a ball, and then, sprinkling with flour, roll into a thin cake three millimeters thick. You need to roll out the same ball at least ten times to make the dough more elastic.

Put about 50 gr. minced meat in the middle of a thin cake and, lifting up the edges of the dough, roll them in a circle with an accordion: with one hand, pinch the dough and collect the folds with the other. Press the resulting tail and cut off the excess top with a knife. Slightly pull out the khinkali so that after cooking the juice from the meat inside remains at the bottom.

Salted in a saucepan swirl boiling water with a spoon funnel, lower the khinkali into its center, scroll once (so that the khinkali probably do not stick together) and leave to cook for seven to nine minutes.

(kebab in Persian "fried meat") - an oblong cutlet fried on a skewer.

Traditional kebab made from lamb and onion. At the same time, lamb should be quite fatty, and a lot of onions will be required. Unlike cutlets, neither eggs nor bread are put into the kebab. Only spices are added to meat with onions: pepper, basil, cilantro, garlic.

For cooking kebab lamb must be passed through a meat grinder and kneaded with hands for a very long time, throwing it on the table with force. The stuffing should become viscous so that it sticks to the skewers and does not fall apart on the grill. It is very important to knead the minced meat well - it also depends on how tender the meat will be.

In order for minced meat made without bread and eggs not to fall apart during frying, it must first be beaten off, that is, the whole mass of minced meat should be hit hard on the table for 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Lamb - 1 kg
• Onion - 4 pcs
• Fat tail fat - 100 gr
• Basil - 1 tsp

Cooking method:

• Peel the onion, grind together with half the fat in a meat grinder
• Wash the lamb, cut into pieces and also chop in a meat grinder. Add a mixture of onions and lard, once again pass everything together through a meat grinder
• Season the minced meat with spices and basil. Knead for 7-8 minutes. Then how to beat off, cover cling film and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Shape the minced meat into sausages 12-14 cm long, strung on skewers. Roast on coals or in a hot frying pan, constantly turning over, 20 minutes. Plum sauce goes very well with lula kebabs.

Khachapuri

Adjarian khachapuri recipe

Ingredients:

• flour - 500 gr
• salt - 1/4 tsp
• warm milk - 1 tbsp.
• sugar - 1 tsp
• chicken egg - 8 pcs.
• vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
• dry yeast - 1 sachet
• grated cheese (Adyghe or Suluguni) - 250-350 gr
• butter - 100 gr

Cooking:

• Dough. Pour milk into a bowl, add salt, sugar, 1 egg, flour and yeast and mix well. Knead until you get a smooth and elastic dough
• Lubricate the pan with oil, transfer the dough into it and roll it in oil, then cover with foil and put in a warm place for an hour. After an hour, we crush the dough and put it back in heat for half an hour
• After half an hour, we punch down the dough and divide it into 6 equal parts according to the number of future khachapuri. With hands spitting the dough to make soft oval cakes, we tighten the edges of these cakes so that the dough is thinner in the middle. Put grated cheese in the middle, wrap the edges and we form boats. Beat 1 egg and brush the edges with it

• We send khachapuri to the oven preheated to 200 ° C for 25-30 minutes. Then we take out khachapuri and drive an egg into the middle of each. We keep khachapuri with an egg in the oven, so that the protein is baked, and the yolk remains liquid (do not miss this moment !!!), and we get it. Serve khachapuri hot, putting a piece of butter on top of each

Bon Appetit everyone!!!

Famous Caucasian pastries

Caucasian cuisine is no less diverse than the Caucasus itself. Adjika, kebabs, vegetable dishes with spices and spices are firmly included in our diet. Yes, and any hostess can pamper the family with traditional oriental pastries.

Khachapuri is a real masterpiece of Georgian cuisine. You can cook them in different ways: there are a huge number different recipes in which the dough and filling are not repeated. In the variety of cooking techniques, you are sure to find one that will be to your liking.

What is oriental cuisine without baking? Dishes prepared according to the recipes of Caucasian culinary specialists are very popular all over the world.

Caucasian pastries can be sweet and salty, with honey, fruits, vegetables, different types of meat and fish. Almost every recipe has a lot of spices and herbs. There are always a lot of toppings, it is juicy and very tasty.
Khychin, Ossetian pies, khachapuri with a hundred different fillings - this is not the whole list of dough products that the cuisine of the Caucasus is famous for. Recipes have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, each family has its own secret ingredient that makes baking unique. The serving of pies is also unique - 3 pies are brought to the table as a tribute to water, sun and earth.

By the quality of the dough, it is easy to distinguish a skilled housewife from an inexperienced one. The better and thinner the dough is rolled out, the more praise a woman deserves.
The amount of filling in pies speaks of the generosity and hospitality of the owners. In no house you will find pastries without filling. Onions, cheese, mushrooms, lamb - everything that the owners of the house are rich in is served with flatbread.

It’s not enough just to mix all the ingredients; for a successful result, you need to put your soul into the dish and cook it with love.

Pastries of the Caucasus are not only cakes and pies. In this section of our virtual cookbook you will find not only traditional Caucasian dough products, but also many original recipes, the existence of which, perhaps, you will hear for the first time. It is enough to look into our section, and your feet will carry you to the stove, try to cook pies according to new recipes.

Cuisine of the peoples of the Caucasus or national Caucasian cuisine- this is a prefabricated concept that combines the cuisine of Abkhazian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian Lezgin, Ossetian, Chechen. Of course, each of them has its own dishes, but most of them are similar, such as barbecue. This dish is medium-sized pieces of pork or lamb, marinated and then fried on the grill. The principle of cooking is the same, the same marinades differ. They are the most varied.

The commonality of the previously listed Caucasian cuisines lies in the fact that in each of them you will find snacks, salads, first courses in the form of thick soups, second hot dishes, desserts, pastries, preparations for the winter. A similar pattern can be traced in the food products used. So, for example, the basis of many dishes is meat. The most popular is lamb, followed by goat and beef, as well as poultry meat. Pork is practically not used, due to the religious factor. The thing is that many Caucasians adhere to Islam, which just imposes a haram ban on the consumption of pig meat. In addition, milk and dairy products are widely used. Sour milk and drinks based on it, as well as all kinds of cheeses, are quite popular. By the way, cheese making for the Caucasian peoples is an integral part of their traditional cuisine. Also on the traditional Caucasian table you will see a wide variety of greens, as well as local seasonal vegetables. Another similar feature is the use of wheat flour for baking cakes.

The peoples of the Caucasus jealously protect their traditions. So, for example, going to the Caucasus, you will see the tandoor more than once - a traditional brazier oven, in which a wide variety of dishes are made. Such a device has served faithfully for more than one hundred years, and will serve no less!

Speaking about the cuisine of the peoples of the Caucasus, we would like to note that every year it is gaining more and more popularity on a global scale. Today, millions of people are familiar with the following names: kharcho, pilaf, lobio, satsivi, khachapuri, kebab and many others. And this is not surprising, because these dishes are not only unusual and spicy in an oriental way, but also very tasty!

If you are interested in the national Caucasian cuisine, then we suggest getting to know it better. To do this, you do not have to go to an expensive restaurant, or look for a suitable cafe. join caucasian cuisine you can do it without leaving your own home. It is enough just to use those recipes with photos that are given here! We hope that the dishes prepared by you will turn out in the best traditions of real oriental cuisine!