Top 5 winter dishes

No matter where you work, in which district of Baku you live, whether you’ve got a car: you will still be troubled by Baku Nord in the cold time of the year. There is no place where one could hide from the northern wind, the wind is an inevitable evil.

People want to warm up and the personnel of the cafes, bars, clubs and restaurant, understand that pretty well. Therefore, highlighted aesthetic photos of hot cocktails appear on the entertainment web-sites in fall. For example, this fall friday.az told us, what Baku-based public places can offer a frozen traveler.

Winter is not over yet. Moreover, there is March ahead, and we all know from own experience that until the winter is not finally banished by Novruz holiday, we shall all wrap up in blankets at night and pull our caps to the eyebrows in the daytime.

So, are the hot cocktails at glam restaurants and coffee shops all that Baku can offer as a salvation from cold? Fortunately, the warm-up dishes, that are traditionally cooked and eaten in winter, hold an important place in Azerbaijani cuisine. It is hearty, tasty, and, what’s essential in the times of crisis, it is cheap. One just needs to ‘know the place.’

Shanson

Piti – AZN5

Finely sliced ​​lamb, chickpeas, chestnuts, seasonings and spices. It is cooked in a clay pot, in the oven, at a low temperature. The proper way to eat piti – first to pour out the broth from the pot, crumple bread and then eat it; then proceed with the meat. This dish has two secrets of success – young tender meat and the cooking method itself: lamb becomes very soft when stewed long in the over. Saffron and chestnuts are responsible for the dish flavor, it is due to them that it does not seem too lardy. It is served with sumac (barberry), dried mint and onion.

Əriştə (Arishta)

Arishta – AZN2,5

Arishta – is actually an Azerbaijani analogue of the Italian pasta or the Russian noodles. Arishta-pilaf can be cooked from it. But in the same-name place they prefer Arishta – a soup with noodles and beans, on meat broth with meatballs. Arishta is sprinkled with dried mint, actually like all Azerbaijani dished that are cooked with meat broth. Dried cherry plum is added in the beginning of the cooking process in order to slightly acidify it.

Xəzər

Kyufta-bozbash – AZN4

‘Bozbash’ literally means ‘grey head’. Another type of the same dishes is parcha-bozbash: meat is cut in large chunks. Kyufta – this is a big meatballs made of mutton (or mixed with beef) meat. Dried cherry plum should be put inside each meatball. Rice and onions are added to the minced meat. Peas for bozbash are soaked in water for the night. Then it will be coked together with the meat. As for spices, pepper and saffron (or turmeric, which is a traditional and more affordable substitute to saffron) are added to bozbash. When the dish is almost ready it is sprinkled with dried mint or fresh herbs.

Anadolu

Dyushbara – AZN3,1

According to the Russian-language Internet resources, dyushbara are the Azerbaijani dumplings. In fact, these dishes have similar form, both are made of dough and meat, but that’s where the similarities end. Dyushbara is made of minced fatty lamb with onion, they should be very small and cooked in meat broth. The so-called ‘daughter-in-law’s dyushbyarya’ – a reference size dyushbara: one spoon should contain at least 10 pieces on average. The name suggests that when cooking it for the mother-in-law and the husband, the daughter-in-law should demonstrate that she has an idea of ​​culinary standards. Dyushbara is served with vinegar and garlic.

Araz

Khash – AZN5

Khash sets apart in this list of dishes and here’s the reason why: first of all, this is a morning dish. It is eaten only early in the morning and only with vodka. Including, as a hangover remedy. Secondly, it is extremely masculine dish, and no wonder: the tacky and fatty thick broth is a real test for the stomach. Khash is cooked from beef feet, tail, stomach – the parts, that are, in general, unsuitable, at the first glance. It is hard to imagine a more folksy food – more hearty and terra-a-terre food. It is said that even the great Genghis Khan loved Khash and he wouldn’t even listen to those, who hinted that such food was unsuitable for his high position.

Perhaps the most pleasant feature of this dish is that khash unites the neighboring countries, because it is eaten everywhere in the Caucasus. Arguments about its original belonging to a certain national cuisine does not make any sense, because it has been cooked for centuries in every country in the Caucasus, where cows have legs and tails.