Azerbaijani

CUISINE

– Azerbaijani cuisine refers tothe cooking styles and disheswith origins in the nation ofAzerbaijan and prepared byAzerbaijani people around theworld. Throughout thecenturies, Azerbaijani cuisinehas been influenced by thefoods of different cultures,though at the same time, itremained distinctive andunique. Many foods that areindigenous to the country cannow be seen in the cuisines ofother cultures. For theAzerbaijanis, food is animportant part of thecountry's culture and is deeplyrooted in the history,traditions and values of thenation.

Azerbaijani cuisine has a number of light snacks and side dishes to open or accompany the main meals: a plate of aromatic green leaves called goy, pieces of chorek (bread), choban (a tomato and cucumber salad), and sometimes white cheese or qatik (sour yoghurt).Cold snacks are generally served separately from drinks.

Light snacks of Azerbaijani cuisine.

Main dishes• Dolma the traditional recipe calls for minced

lamb mixed with rice and flavoured with mint, fennel and cinnamon, and wrapped in vine leaves (yarpaq dolması) or cabbage leaves (kələm dolması). There are also sour sweet cabbage dolma (turş şirin kələmdolması) and fish dolma (balıq dolması).

• Badımcan Dolması tomato, sweet pepper and aubergine stuffed with minced lamb mixed with chickpeas.

• Dushbara small dumplings stuffed with minced lamb and herbs, served in broth.

• Lavangi a casserole of chicken stuffed with walnuts and herbs. A speciality of the Talyshregion in southern Azerbaijan, but very difficult to find common in restaurants.

• Lyulya kabab A mixture of mutton, herbs and spices squeezed around a skewer and barbecued, often served with lavash (thin sheets of unleavened bread).

• Qutab a sort of pancake turnover stuffed with minced lamb, cheese or spinach.

• Tika kabab chunks of lamb marinated in a mixture of onion, vinegar and pomegranate juice, impaled on a large skewer and grilled on the barbecue. In Russian, called шашлык, from Turkic shishlyk (literally, "for skewer").

• Qovurma Pieces of mutton or lamb on the bone (blade chops) stewed with onions, tomatoes, and saffron. There is also sabzi qovurma, a lamb stew with herbs.

• Sogan dolmasi The term dolma covers a variety of stuffed vegetable dishes, widespread in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Onion dolma are a tasty winter alternative to stuffed aubergines, tomatoes and peppers.

Soups • Piti The national soup of Azerbaijan made from pieces of mutton on the bone cooked with vegetables in a broth; prepared and served in individual crocks.

• Kufta bozbash a pea soup with lamb meatballs and boiled potatoes. The meatballs in kufta bozbash are large, hearty and made of minced lamb and rice, sometimes with a zesty dried plum inside.

• Sulu khingal Lamb soup with noodles.

• Toyuq shorbasi Chicken soup

• Dovga a yoghurt based soup (matsoni) with sorrel, spinach, rice, dried peas, and small meatballs made from ground mutton; served hot or cold depending on the season. Ovduk a cold soup based on a matsoni–water mixture poured over sliced cucumbers, chopped boiled meat, quarters of hard-boiled egg, and greens (dill, coriander, basil, sometimes also mint and tarragon).

• Dogramach same as ovdukh, but without the meat. Bolva Made with sour milk.

Types of Plov

• Plov being prepared in a qazan

• Plov is one of the most widespread dishes in Azerbaijan, with more than 40 different recipes.[2] Plovs have different names depending on the main ingredients accompanying rice

• Azerbaijani plov consists of three distinct components, served simultaneously but on separate platters: rice (warm, never hot), gara, fried meat, dried fruits, eggs, or fish prepared as an accompaniment to rice, and aromatic herbs. Rice is not mixed with the other components even when eating plov.

Desserts

• Pakhlava

Typical Azeri desserts are sticky, syrup-saturated pastries such as pakhlava and halva. The latter, a layer of chopped nuts sandwiched between mats of thread-like fried dough, is a speciality of Shakiin North-West Azerbaijan. Other traditional pastries include shakarbura (crescent-shaped and filled with nuts), peshmak (tube-shaped candy made out of rice, flour and sugar) and girmapadam (pastry filled with chopped nuts).

Sweets are generally bought from a pastry shop and eaten at home or on special occasions such as weddings and wakes. The usual conclusion to a restaurant meal is a plate of fresh fruit that is in season, such as plums, cherries, apricots or grapes.

• DrinksBlack tea is Azerbaijan's national drink• SherbetsAn Azerbaijani sherbet is a sweet cold drink made of fruit juice mixed or boiled with sugar, often perfumed with rose water. Sherbets (not to be confused with sorbet ices) are of Iranian origin and they may differ greatly in consistency, from very thick and jam-like (as in Tajik cuisine) to very light and liquid, as in Azerbaijan.Sherbets are typically prepared in the following natural flavors

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