This article presents the ten 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 features of recipes. Therefore, dear readers, if you have anything to add, please share your knowledge in the comments.

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

Khychin is a national dish of the Karachais and Balkars and is a flat cake made of thin dough stuffed mainly with potatoes, cheese, herbs or meat.

Khinkal

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

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

Chudu (accent on the last letter) is one of the most common dishes in Dagestan. Miracle - these 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 pan without oil.

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

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

Dolma (dalma, dulma, durma, tolma, sarma) is a dish consisting of stuffed vegetables or leaves (usually grape leaves), stuffed cabbage rolls in grape leaves. The filling is usually made with rice and may also contain boiled chopped meat.

Khachapuri is a Georgian flatbread with cheese.

Ossetian pie is an Ossetian dish, which is a flat cake stuffed with cottage cheese, cheese, potatoes, meat or herbs.

This is delicious.

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

1. Dagestan

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

   Ingredients:

   300 g of beef

   5 fresh tomatoes

   salt, pepper, bay leaf

   onion

   1 head of garlic

   1 tsp soda

   vegetable oil

   Advice:

   Serve meat, dough, garlic sauce and broth separately

   The lid must be tightly closed when cooking the dough

   Recipe:

   Cook large cuts of meat.

   Roll the wheat dough kneaded with kefir into a layer 6 millimeters thick, cut into diamonds 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, take it out as soon as possible, remembering 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 barbecue, 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 of kefir

   0.2 g baking soda

   For filling:

   75 gr cottage cheese

   a few bunches of green onions

   20 g butter

   Advice:

   Cook in a dry skillet

   Recipe:

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

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

   Cut the entire slide, like a cake, into 6 pieces. Eat before it gets cold.

3. Ossetia

   In Ossetia, pies with meat, beet tops, potatoes, cabbage are often found on holidays. Tsakharajin also contains beets and cheese; this 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 tops

   30 ml vegetable oil

   5 g sugar

   5 g salt

   10 g dry yeast

   water

   Advice:

   After finishing with oil, cover with a towel and let stand for 5 minutes

   Recipe:

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

   Fill with fresh young cheese and chopped beet greens without the stalks. For fat content, you can add ghee or sour cream. Season with salt and pepper.

   Make a flat cake out of the dough just under a centimeter thick. Place the filling in the middle. Pull the ends of the dough into the middle, pinch. Turn over, gently level the surface of the cake, make a cut in the middle for steam.

   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

   a bunch of greens

   salt pepper

   1 onion

   1 carrot

   butter

   Recipe:

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

   Mix in the broth until the puree dissolves in it.

   Cook for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat, add finely chopped green onions and other greens to taste.

   Season with salt and pepper, simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add sautéed onions and carrots sautéed in butter.

5. Adygea

   Gedliebger

   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 onion

   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 in some water, salt, simmer for 15 minutes.

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

6. Azerbaijan

   Dovga

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

   

   Ingredients for a 2-liter cylinder of homemade yogurt:

   2 sour cream 200 g each

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

   1 small head of garlic

   0.5 tbsp. round rice

   0.5 tbsp. boiled chickpeas

   Advice:

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

   Stir the dovga during cooking continuously until boiling, otherwise the yogurt will curdle

   Stir with a wooden spoon.

   Recipe:

   Rinse all the greens well in advance, chop finely, dry. Boil the rice separately. Pour the yogurt and sour cream into a saucepan and stir well. Beat 2 eggs in there. Add boiled rice together with water.

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

   When the yogurt boils, put the herbs and finely chopped garlic in a saucepan, without ceasing to interfere.

   Bring it to a boil again.

   Add boiled peas. Do not put a lid on 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 abdomen. Then the tender fish is stuffed with tarragon and stewed in wine.

   

   Ingredients:

   1kg trout

   1 bunch of tarragon

   300 g cherry plum

   1 onion

   dry white wine

   Recipe:

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

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

8. Georgia

   Chkmeruli

   Highly delicious recipe chicken from national cuisine Georgia.

   

   Ingredients:

   500 ml cream

   bunch of cilantro

   a 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, beat off slightly.

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

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

Caucasian kitchen - the concept is rather conventional. The region of the Caucasus Mountains is home to a large number of peoples, whose cuisine has many common features. Caucasian cuisine is primarily 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 they simply adore this national food in Russia.

Dishes are generally characterized by the elegance of taste, satiety and a special ritual of cooking and eating with the obligatory abundance of herbs, spices, and delicious drinks are united by the collective name traditional dishes peoples inhabiting the Caucasian area.

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

All dishes are very appetizing, juicy, hearty, with their own unique flavor and original recipes. This is a well-known barbecue, delicious pilaf, satsivi, shurpa, dolma, khinkali, kebabs, khachapuri - the list can be continued indefinitely. And of course, one cannot help but pay attention to the unimaginable an abundance of various sauces, spices 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 delicious kebab, you must first choose the right meat. What kind of meat should I buy? Someone only loves lamb, others do not eat pork, and still others eat any meat. Pork is perfect for a good barbecue, not very fatty, only fresh and not frozen. How much pork to take for the best result? Take your neck.
Ingredients for pickling - at the rate of 3-4 kilograms. The main secret of marinating a kebab is not what ingredients to put there, but in what sequence.

Ingredients:

• Salt (about 4-5 tsp)
• Coarsely ground black pepper
• Coriander is cilantro. 15-20 peas. They need to be crushed in a mortar, first lightly fried. If the coriander is already ground: slightly 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 be enough. Zira, very specific in taste, so be careful about 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 slightly desired flavor and beautiful colour when frying. Want to add spice? One clove of crushed garlic, add hot, chilli pepper, but attention, the taste of the meat can be greatly interrupted, everything is necessary in moderation
• Onions - 5-6 onions
• Sunflower oil - 5-6 tablespoons

Mix everything, add half a lemon. The meat should be marinated for several hours, after which the kebab 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 :

• Walibah, h (b) iri, khabizjyn (singular) - pies with cheese
• Kartofdzhyn - pies with potatoes and cheese
• Tsakharajyn - pies with chopped beet leaves and cheese
• Kabuskadzhin - pies with chopped cabbage and cheese
• Fydjyn - pies with minced meat (usually beef)
• Davondzhyn - pies with chopped wild garlic leaves and cheese
• Nashjin - pies with chopped pumpkin and cheese (buys and without)
• X (b) adurdzhyn - pies with beans

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

Ingredients:

For the test:

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

For filling:

• Beef (brisket) - 450 g
• Onion - 2 medium onions
• Garlic - 3-5 teeth

Preparation:

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

To make real khinkali, you need to follow a few rules. Firstly, it is advisable not to roll the meat through a meat grinder, but finely chop it: minced meat will give more natural juice when cooking, 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 stir thoroughly. Kneading the dough for khinkali by hand is difficult, since it should turn out to be dense and elastic, so if there is a kneader, 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 it by the tail, turn it over, bite through a small hole and first drink the juice, and then bite off.

Ingredients:

Minced meat:

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

Dough:

• Flour - 2 Kg
• Water - 650 ml
• Sunflower oil - 20-30 gr
• Salt - 20 g

Preparation:

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

Minced meat. Finely chop the meat. Chop the onions into small cubes, finely chop the chili and chop the cilantro. In a deep bowl, combine the meat, onions, 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, sprinkle with flour, roll it into a thin cake three millimeters thick. Roll 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 tortilla and, lifting the edges of the dough up, roll them in a circle with an accordion: clamp the dough with one hand, and collect the folds with the other. Press the resulting tail and cut off the excess top with a knife. Pull out the khinkali slightly so that after cooking the juice from the meat inside remains below.

In a salted pan twist boiling water with a spoon with a funnel, lower the khinkali into its center, scroll once (so that the khinkali do not stick to each other for sure) and leave to cook for seven to nine minutes.

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

Traditional lula kebab made from lamb and onions... In this case, the lamb should be quite fat, and a lot of onions will be required. Unlike cutlets, no eggs or bread are placed in kebabs. Only spices are added to meat with onions: pepper, basil, cilantro, garlic.

For cooking lula kebab lamb must be passed through a meat grinder and rubbed with hands for a very long time, throwing it on the table with force. The minced meat should become viscous so that it stays on 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.

So that the minced meat made without bread and eggs does not fall apart during frying, it must first be beaten off, that is, with force to hit the entire mass of minced meat on the table for 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Lamb - 1 kg
• Bulb onions - 4 pieces
• Fat tail fat - 100 gr
• Basil - 1 tsp

Cooking method:

• Peel the onion, chop together with half the bacon in a meat grinder
• Wash the lamb, cut into pieces and also grind in a meat grinder. Add a mixture of onion and bacon, once again pass everything together through a meat grinder
• Season the minced meat with spices and basil. Stir for 7-8 minutes. Then beat back properly, cover cling film and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Sculpt sausages from minced meat 12-14 cm long, string on skewers. Fry over charcoal or a hot frying pan, turning constantly for 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

Preparation:

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

• We send the khachapuri into an oven preheated to 200 ° C for 25-30 minutes. Then we take out the 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 stays liquid (don't miss this moment !!!), and get it out. 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 herbs have become part of our diet. And any housewife can pamper a 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 of different recipesin which the dough and filling are not repeated. Among the variety of cooking techniques, you will definitely find one that will suit your liking.

What is oriental cuisine without baked goods? Dough dishes made 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, various types of meat and fish. Almost every recipe contains a lot of herbs and herbs. There is always a lot of filling, it is juicy and very tasty.
Khychin, Ossetian pies, khachapuri with hundreds of different fillings - this is not the whole list of dough products for which the Caucasian cuisine is famous. Recipes have been passed down from generation to generation for millennia, each family has its own secret ingredient that makes baked goods unique. The serving of the 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 skillful housewife from an inexperienced one. The better and thinner the dough is rolled, the more praise a woman deserves.
The amount of filling in the pies speaks of the generosity and hospitality of the owners. You will not find baked goods without filling in any house. Onions, cheese, mushrooms, lamb - everything that the owners of the house are rich in is served with tortillas.

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

Baking of the Caucasus is not only flat 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 you may hear for the first time. It is enough to look into our section, and your feet will carry you to the stove, try to make pies according to new recipes.

Cuisine of the peoples of the Caucasus or the national Caucasian cuisine Is a collective concept that combines Abkhazian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian Lezgin, Ossetian, Chechen cuisine. Of course, each of them has its own dishes, but most of them are similar, such as kebabs. This dish is small 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 very diverse.

The commonality of the previously listed Caucasian cuisines is that in each of them you will find appetizers, salads, first courses in the form of thick soups, second hot dishes, desserts, pastries, and preparations for the winter. A similar pattern can be traced in the food products used. For example, meat is the basis of many dishes. The most popular is lamb, followed by goat and beef, as well as poultry. Pork is practically not used due to the religious factor. The thing is that many Caucasians adhere to Islam, which imposes a ban (haram) 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 cooking. 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 tortillas.

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

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

If you are interested in the national Caucasian cuisine, then we suggest you get to know it better. You don't have to go to an expensive restaurant or look for a suitable cafe for this. You can join Caucasian cuisine 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 true oriental cuisine!