Uzbek dish of boiled dough with egg filling. Tukhum-barak
A little about the deck and poker
I often remember my grandmother, with her thin, worn-out arms, a network of veins dotted with bulging veins. Now that she is gone, I am more and more aware and re-evaluate this meek and incredibly modest person. After her, I never met people of this type in my life. Yes, they do not fit into our current reality with its cold prudence and consumerism. Even when visiting her daughter (my mother), she managed to bring a little meat with her in a rag, so as not to burden our family budget with her presence. As far as I can remember, I almost always (as soon as I went to visit my uncle, where my grandmother lived), I found her in the osh-khon (in the kitchen), where she was constantly cooking something.
I remember how I laughed and sincerely wondered why she, sitting on her haunches and placing a wooden block ("kunda") in front of her, was chopping and grinding meat on it with an ancient antediluvian knife with a wide blade ("kordi osh"). After all, for these purposes, people have long invented a meat grinder that will grind any meat in a matter of minutes? But grandma never argued. And she continued to tap methodically and monotonously, making movements that had become a habit.
And even then, already sitting at dinner and praising the amazingly delicious dishes prepared by her wonderful hands, I continued to be amazed at her patience and perseverance, not understanding the most important thing - all the most delicious things are prepared exclusively by hand, and no meat grinder, no most advanced unit can able to replace ordinary human hands. This dawned on me much later, when I was over forty.
And in general, I noticed that almost all dishes of oriental cuisine are cooked exclusively “by hand” and this, of course, is not surprising. Traditions, a special centuries-old way of life and continuity in the transfer of experience to subsequent generations could not but leave a special imprint on the Bukharans in everything, not excluding such an area as cooking. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, this connection with previous generations is most clearly and clearly felt and visible. To do this, it is enough to enter almost any house in the Old Town, where you can still see numerous utensils and handicraft items in the kitchen. And they all find their application in business, and do not lie on shelves like antiques.
I really regret that I began to show interest in this kind of things late. Because now in young families, much of what we inherited from our grandparents has gradually begun to be replaced by objects and units of modern industry. No, I am not for a return to the past and the technological revolution will not stand still. It's clear. It is also clear that with the disappearance of ancient utensils that require personal participation on the part of a person and their replacement with the latest technologies, for the sake of saving time and cheap labor, without a doubt we are losing something more valuable than just “grandmother’s deck” or “grandfather’s poker.”
That is why I rejoice at those small “islands” that have not yet been conquered by scientific and technological progress. And among them, such dishes as lagman, manti, tukhum-barak.
Its literal and direct translation sounds like this: “tukhum” - “egg”, and “barak” - “boiled”. “Just think, a boiled egg,” you will say, and you will be wrong.
Actually, the whole difficulty lies only in ensuring that the “envelopes” of dough, into which the mixture of milk, butter and eggs will need to be poured, are tightly “sealed” and do not burst during cooking. That is, so that the contents do not leak out. There are a number of other subtleties, but that comes later, during the cooking process. In the meantime, let's return to our “barracks”. This word implies a method of cooking and means “cook.” It is found quite often in Bukhara, Karshi and Samarkand cuisine, and is also applied to other dishes. For example, there is such a dish as kadu-barak (“kadu” - “pumpkin”). Pumpkin cooked in dough. Something like dumplings. However, if you come across the phrase “kadu-bichak”, then this is not the same thing. The word "bichak" means "to fry." But this is so for general development. In conclusion, before we begin the actual preparation of this dish, I should only note that tukhum-barak is good both hot and cold.
Personally, for myself, I haven’t finally decided in what form it is best to eat it.
In principle, “the devil is not as terrible as his...“little one”. And therefore - let’s take a risk - maybe something will work out. But first, we will decide on the products
Tukhum-barak
For the dough:
Premium flour - 500 ml;
Egg - 1 pc;
Water - 250 ml;
For the filling:
Eggs - 8 pcs;
Sesame oil - 15 tablespoons;
Milk - 15 tablespoons;
Salt - to taste;
Separately:
Water (salted) - 200 ml;
As always, you should first knead the stiff dough. For these purposes, take a deep bowl, pour a full glass of ordinary (but preferably cooled boiled) water into it, add half a teaspoon of salt, beat in one egg, stir thoroughly until the mixture is homogeneous and then carefully add flour, while kneading the dough in a circular motion. Don't try to add all the flour at once. Leave a little for dust.
After kneading the dough thoroughly and rolling it into a ball, leave it for 10-15 minutes in a bowl, covering it tightly with a plate so that it does not dry out. After the specified time, you will need to knead it again and, adding a little flour to the bottom of the bowl, let it rest for 10 - 15 minutes. And finally, process again for the third time and leave so that after 5-6 minutes you begin to roll out the dough into a regular pancake, like manti.
In the meantime, take out another deep bowl and carefully beat all 8 eggs into it, carefully making sure that there are no spoiled ones among them. Now we take an ordinary kitchen knife in our hands and begin to “chop” the egg mixture with it. Just chop (make methodical progressive movements from top to bottom), tilting the bowl slightly on its side for convenience and gradually rotating it around its axis. Two or three minutes, no more. Do not under any circumstances try to “make things easier” for yourself by using a mixer or electric beater! In this case, you can safely pour the mixture into the sink and start all over again.
If you try to ask me: “Why, in fact, chop, and specifically with a knife?”, then I will simply and frankly have to admit to you: I don’t know. I really don’t know based on what laws one should do exactly this, however, I firmly believe that our ancestors didn’t just invent anything and everything has a reasonable basis. In a separate small bowl, mix regular store-bought milk with sesame oil. Attention! Sesame oil must be refined and diluted with any vegetable oil in a ratio of 1 to 10, respectively. If you can’t get sesame oil, then you’ll have to replace it with vegetable oil. The result, accordingly, should be expected to be a little worse. Don't forget to add a little salt to the mixture.
Finally, while continuing to “chop” the eggs, slowly pour into them a mixture of milk, butter and salt. Continue stirring for some time (1 - 2 minutes), after which you can put the bowl with the mixture aside and rest a little.
Place a cauldron or aluminum pan on the stove, fill three-quarters with water and, while the water is boiling, begin rolling out the dough. In order not to repeat myself, I suggest looking at the recipe about “manti”. The whole procedure proceeds “one to one”, with the exception of the last moment: there we cut into “squares”, and here we should cut into “rectangles”, the length of which is twice the width. Now we prepare a small tray, which we cover with a clean linen or waffle napkin, put our “rectangles” on it in small piles (so as not to stick together) and cover it with another napkin on top so that the workpieces do not become airy.
Pour water, a little salt into a small cup and stir the contents thoroughly. Take the first “rectangle” of dough, lay it out in front of you (you can on a cutting board), dip your finger in salt water and moisten the long edges of the “rectangle” with it. Then we fold it almost(!) in half (not level, but slightly, 2 mm lower) and press the edges of the resulting “envelope” tightly. The appearance is reminiscent of an unsealed mail envelope, the only difference being that it is square rather than rectangular.
And now all we have to do is carefully pour a little of the prepared mixture inside the envelope with a tablespoon, cover the top edge of the dough, press tightly (as if to glue it together) and... lower the “sealed envelope” with the mixture into boiling water. And immediately start the next one.
In general, as you probably already guessed, this dish is also a family dish. That is, it is very difficult to cope here alone. Therefore, you should divide into two (or even better, three) groups: one quickly molds empty envelopes, the other pours the mixture into them, seals them tightly and passes them to the third, whose task is to lower these envelopes into boiling water and monitor so - which of the previous “barracks” that have surfaced to the surface are already ready, so that they can be removed in time and placed on a wide flat dish. The latter must also be lubricated with vegetable oil. If any of the envelopes is not completely sealed tightly, then during cooking the entire mixture may leak out of it, and for this you can safely hit the forehead of the person standing at “post No. 2” with a ladle.
He, of course (if not a fool), can quickly “turn the switch” to “post No. 1”, as a result of which a normal home environment is created in which we are most accustomed to swallowing our “barracks”. The “extreme”, as always, can be very difficult to find, but this only unites and strengthens the team.
Finished tukhum barracks should be laid separately from each other, in a maximum of three layers. Moreover, each layer of “barracks” must be generously lubricated with sesame oil. Having filled one dish, you should take another and so on until all the preparations are finished. They usually cook for 3-4 minutes, no more.
In conclusion, I would like to express my admiration for those who decided to prepare this dish, despite the relative complexity and labor-intensiveness of its individual stages. Just for one determination - to bring the matter to its logical conclusion - I can safely enroll you as a candidate for the title of “professional lover of oriental cuisine”, with the award of the “Order of the Young Lamb”, III degree.
And you eat pilaf at home with meat, not eggs! - this is how they sometimes reproach careless students in Uzbekistan. Like, you have complete wealth at home, there is meat on the table, why don’t you study properly?
In general, academic issues are, of course, very important! But let's talk about why a dish in which meat is replaced with chicken, and chicken, say, with eggs, is considered the worst? I think this is unfair!
And the injustice of this popular opinion is most clearly visible in one very simple dish called tukhum-barak. Nowadays, only low-income people prepare such food, and even then, it is so rare that it has almost been lost. Meanwhile, for people who have already eaten their fill of shish kebab, pilaf and all sorts of different stuffed geese, this dish will seem both original and very tasty - I assure you! Such is the nature of simple peasant food that after all sorts of restaurant perversions, a dish prepared from the most ordinary but high-quality ingredients suddenly sparkles with new colors and you think: this is the real thing!
Look what a tukhum-barak looks like - leaves with eggs, if translated literally. Well, there are dumplings! There are only two differences - the shape is not a crescent, but a square, and the filling is not potatoes with onions, not cottage cheese, not cherries, but ordinary eggs.
You say, what’s so complicated about this? Boil eggs, chop them into pieces, add rice, onions, and make dumplings - it’s a well-known thing, who hasn’t eaten such pies? But the whole point is that the tukhum barracks are filled not with boiled eggs, but with raw eggs!
See how it's done: As usual, a thin sheet of dough is rolled out with a long rolling pin. The dough is rolled onto a rolling pin, and then laid out in layers, as if like an accordion.
And then it is cut into ribbons, the ribbons are laid out on the table, and the ribbons are cut into identical rectangles. If all this seems like unnecessary complications to you, then take it and cut the dough in the way that seems easier to you. Only I assure you: what the people invented is the simplest!
After the dough is cut, wet the two sides of the rectangle with water and glue the envelopes together. The corners of the envelopes are folded and glued - after all, if the liquid minced meat leaks, then the weakest point of our dumplings will be the corners!
What about minced meat? Do you think these are just loose eggs? No, everything is a little more complicated, but much tastier! For each egg add a tablespoon of good vegetable oil and a tablespoon of milk. Of course, the mixture should be salted and peppered to taste.
You can also add whatever greens you want to the eggs - from spinach to green onions. Of course, I understand everything - we live well now and almost everyone sticks out their fingers and says, “Well, I’ll add not just anything, but basil, sage and even rosemary of any kind!” And he will be wrong! The simplest greens, like green onions, would be most appropriate here - after all, the dish comes from very culinaryly unsophisticated places, and it is prepared by simple people, not ostentatious ones! So I took plain green onions and added a little turmeric, and I haven’t looked back!
Now look more carefully, and don’t yawn while cooking!
Bring the prepared envelopes to the stove. The filling goes here. Let salted water boil in a saucepan.
Pour the filling into small envelopes, seal the envelope, moisten its edge with the egg mixture and immediately into boiling water! And so one by one, quickly, quickly, just have time! It will not work to seal them in advance and store them until they are cooked at the same time - the filling will leak. And in boiling water - well, let it try to flow, from the boiling water the protein will immediately brew and the seams will turn out stronger than the middle.
- Ahah! - lovers of Italian cuisine will exclaim. - Some dumplings will be overcooked, others will not be cooked enough and we won’t have any al dente!
Well, even if it’s not al dente, even if in someone’s opinion one or two are overcooked, but if we judge from the point of view of simple people who have preserved this recipe for us, it’s just cooked as it should be!
To prevent the dumplings from sticking together and become even tastier, pour melted butter on them on a plate, with bread crumbs fried until golden brown and serve immediately, rather, while everything is still hot and showers the eaters with clouds of steam and the delicious smell of simple, folk, real food!
Description
Tukhum-barak- a dish of national Tajik cuisine, which consists of envelopes made of dough in water with egg and milk filling. If we draw analogies, then most of all they resemble the dumplings we are familiar with, although they are prepared somewhat unusually. Instead of regular flatbreads, we will roll out rectangles and replace the minced meat with liquid filling. If you are worried about the safety of such dumplings during cooking, then you shouldn’t, because the egg mixture in boiling water will immediately become an excellent adhesive material.
A detailed recipe for preparing this Tajik dish with a photo is presented below and provides visual instructions. Thanks to this, you can easily cope with preparing this difficult dish even for the first time. As for the filling, in addition to the base of eggs and milk, you can safely add a wide variety of herbs and even spices, but without fanaticism.
You shouldn’t overwhelm the real taste of this dish even with your favorite dried herbs. Let's start cooking the Tajik-style tukhum-barak dish at home.
-
Ingredients -
(100 ml) -
(270 g) -
(1 tsp) -
(5 pieces.) -
(5 pieces.) -
(5 pieces.) -
(taste) -
(taste) -
(5 pieces.) -
(5 pieces.) -
(4 tbsp.)
(2-3 slices)
Cooking steps First of all, let's knead a simple dense dough for tukhum-barak. To do this, mix one chicken egg, prepared warm water and salt to taste in a bowl. Next, gradually sift the wheat flour into the egg mixture and knead the appropriate dough. Once it has settled, roll out the dough into a very thin layer using a suitable long rolling pin.
Now we need to roll this layer into several layers as shown in the photo, having first sprinkled it with flour.
We cut the resulting long strip of dough in several rows into identical rectangles with a very sharp knife: this way we will get dough ribbons that are absolutely identical in size.
Carefully unroll the strips of dough and place them on top of each other. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into rectangles again:.
their width should be twice their height Then we immediately glue them together in the same way as the photo below demonstrates.
We bend the bottom corners of the envelope so that the filling does not leak out of them during cooking.
Place the prepared dough forms next to them on a dry, clean towel. Break the remaining eggs into a deep bowl, add odorless vegetable oil and milk at room temperature. Mix the ingredients thoroughly, salt and pepper them to taste. Wash and chop all the greens chosen for the dish finely enough and add to the milk-egg mixture. For convenience, immediately put a pan of salted water on the fire, bring it to a boil, leave a bowl with the filling and the envelopes next to the stove. Now we begin to fill the dough with filling.
We moisten the edges of the dough with the same filling, glue it tightly, bend the corners and place it in the pan. Cook the dumplings until done.
As for the presentation, everything is simple. Grind the pulp of white bread in a blender until crumbly and fry until golden brown in a frying pan. Place the finished envelopes with filling on a plate, immediately fill them with melted butter and sprinkle with prepared crumbs. Tukhum-barak according to the Tajik recipe is ready.
Bon appetit!
Tukhum-barak in translation means boiled egg, and in appearance it reminds some of envelopes with filling, some of dumplings or dumplings, and some of ravioli. The peculiarity of the dish is that the eggs used as a filling are not boiled, but raw!
I have wanted to cook tukhum-barak since I received the book “Markhamat” from its author, Golib Saidov, in one of the competitions three years ago. Every time I made dumplings, I thought, shouldn’t I make a few Uzbek “egg dumplings” at the same time as a test?... Finally, I got around to it. I’ll say right away that it turned out to be easier for me to make a hundred ordinary dumplings than to make several tukhum barracks!
They seemed to turn out quite well, but due to the lack of real sesame oil, I did not fully experience the fullness of the classic taste. Sesame oil is added to other vegetable oil in a ratio of 1 to 10. I used one type of oil - cottonseed oil, but you can use almost any oil.
Tukhum-barak is served both hot and cold, i.e. cooled down Just like the author of the book, I was undecided which way I liked best.
To prepare tukhum-barak, prepare the ingredients according to the list.
Knead a stiff dough from flour, water (or milk) and eggs.
To make the filling, you need to break the eggs into a bowl and mix them in a special way. Fearing that I wouldn’t succeed, I didn’t take all the eggs at once, but a couple.
Then I prepared a portion of milk and vegetable oil proportional to two eggs. I just mixed them together, adding a pinch of salt.
Combine the egg mixture and milk-butter mixture while stirring, i.e. Chop with a knife until smooth.
Roll out oblong ribbons from the dough in any convenient way and cut into rectangles of such a size that when folded in half you get squares or something close to this shape.
Place a pot of water on the stove. It is more convenient if it has a wide bottom. Turn it on and, closer to boiling, begin to form a tukhum-barak.
Grease the two edges of the rectangular piece of dough and press them together. You need to mold it tightly so that the liquid filling does not leak out. Then take the dough “envelope” either in your fist, or press the bottom part against the table, holding the sides with your hand. Pour in a portion of the egg filling (I use 2-3 tablespoons per envelope). Seal the edges and place in boiling water.
Immediately begin forming and cooking the next tukhum barak for a serving or several servings. The cooking time for the last envelope should be at least three minutes. Someone will think that all tukhum baraki will be cooked differently, but this is how this thing is prepared... It is unrealistic to prepare several pieces at once and then cook them, because the filling will simply begin to flow out of the preparations.
Place the finished tukhum baraki on a dish in no more than three layers or on portion plates. To prevent them from sticking together and for even greater deliciousness, grease with sesame oil or butter.
Tukhum barracks is ready.
Bon appetit!
One of the ancient and original Uzbek dishes. Today you can try it at Khorezm e, Bukhara, Khiva, in other regions it is less common and is practically not prepared in catering outlets.
They say once upon a time tukhum-barak was " secret weapon» khan and prepared before the ruler decided to visit his harem.
The literal direct translation of the name of this dish is: “ tukhum»- egg, « barracks»- cook.
“Well, what could be simpler than a boiled egg?” - you will say and hit the sky with your finger, because in Uzbek cuisine It is not that simple. Actually, the name of the dish simply means the method of preparing it - boiling, and the dish itself is envelopes filled with eggs, a little like dumplings. Again I see your bewilderment, but have patience, everything is really not that simple.
The trick is that the envelopes are filled not with a boiled egg, as you might have thought, but with a raw one. The task is also complicated by the fact that the envelopes are made in large volumes, and it is impossible to store already filled ones, because they will leak. Imagine the professionalism of the “osh-poz” and the speed of his work, when he must prepare, boil and serve a dish, the appearance of which will not have any flaws. Pure circus, and you say: “boiled egg”!
Surely you already want it tukhum-barak try. Be sure that you will really like it, after endless “fast foods”, smoked, fried and pickled delicacies, simple unpretentious food may seem like the most delicious delicacy in the world.
Tukhum - barracks.
For the test:
500g of premium flour, 1 egg, 250g of boiled cold water.
For filling:
6-8 eggs, 150 g milk, 150 g sesame oil, salt, pepper.
Dissolve an egg in 250 grams of cold water, half a teaspoon of salt and gradually add flour, kneading a stiff dough, like dumplings. Then roll it into a ball and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Break the eggs into a bowl and start beating them. In the classic recipe, for some reason, they are chopped with a knife, gradually rotating the bowl, you can try this if it works.
In a separate bowl, mix milk with sesame oil, while sesame oil should be diluted with regular vegetable oil in a ratio of 1 to 10.
Add the butter and milk into the beaten eggs in a thin stream, add some salt, pepper and beat for some time.
Place a pan of water on the fire and add some salt after boiling.
Let's return to the test. Roll it out into a large layer 1.5-2mm thick. Then we cut it along its entire length into ribbons 4 cm wide, and then we divide these ribbons into rectangles with a side length of 8 cm.
Here we need salted cold water. Gently wet the two sides of the rectangle with water with your finger and glue them together, pressing tightly. We make the preparations and set them aside on a towel. The rest of the action is transferred closer to the boiling pan.
Pour the filling into the envelope with a tablespoon, quickly glue the remaining edge and lower it into boiling water. The egg sets in boiling water instantly, sealing the edges tightly, cook for 3-4 minutes. Place on a large plate, pouring melted butter on top to prevent sticking.
In spring and summer, various greens are added to the filling, from spinach to green onions, depending on your taste.
Well, praise be to those who were not afraid of difficulties, and now to the table!
