TAJIKISTAN: THE FOOD

We finally ended the year known as January and February came and went. Supposedly spring will come early (I’m not complaining about that), and it’s a busy time for both of the nonprofits I work with. A couple weeks ago, I spent the entire day volunteering at the Indiana Civic Day, listening to people speak on getting out in their communities and trying to make this a better place economically, environmentally, and educationally. I may complain a lot about my state being on the lower end of every list (except ones like “Who has the highest carbon footprint” and “Who treats their teachers like crap”; we rank pretty high on those), but I’m glad that there are people out there trying to make it better for everyone. And today, I took pictures at our Annual Feijoada and celebrated the projects we have between Indiana, USA and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, all with the goal of changing lives.

Nice and buttery on the inside, the sesame seeds added a nice touch.

But I guess that was the whole point of this blog: to teach people that there are places out there like Tajikistan. Today, I made a pretty complicated dish called Qurutob, or Tajik braised lamb with yogurt sauce and flatbread. This dish has many stages to it and takes forever to make. So, I divided this dish into two days, with some minor modifications. The first thing I did was make the flatbread part, or fatir. In a mixing bowl, I added in my flour, salt, water, and egg to make a basic dough; when it was done, I wrapped it in plastic and and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that, I rolled it out into a big rectangle about a ¼” thick and cut it in two longways. I spread softened butter on top of both pieces. Then I took one piece and rolled it up, placing it on the edge of the other piece and continued rolling them both together. Then I wrapped this cylinder in plastic and put it in the fridge for an hour. When it was time to take my dough out of the fridge and unwrap it, I put this on a baking sheet lined in parchment paper and pressed the dough flat with the palm of my hand. I pricked it with a fork and added my sesame seeds to it before putting it in the oven for 35 minutes or until it was golden. Mine never really got golden, but it was still good, I think. Probably all the butter.

The soft cheese-like flavor with the onions was a pleasant surprise.

I did the other two parts today. First, the qurut, or yogurt part. I spread my plain yogurt out into a 9”x13” baking dish into a thin layer and baked it at 300ºF for about an hour. While that was baking, I started preparing the lamb. In a small bowl, I mixed my spice rub: cumin, ground coriander, and paprika. After applying the rub to the lamb, I sauteed my lamb in olive oil so that all the outsides were seared. I transfered this a baking dish with all the drippings and added in my tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes that I chopped in half). I baked my lamb for about an hour and a half, making sure that it wasn’t drying out.

Of course, lamb is one of my favorite meats.

I took out my qurut (yogurt). I squeezed out any liquid I could through a colander and put it back in the baking dish, adding a bit of salt into it and stirring before putting it back into the oven for another 30 minutes. Finally, I took the qurut and the lamb out of the oven to cool. In the original skillet I seared my lamb, I added a bit more olive oil and sauteed some sliced onions until they were soft and transferred them to the dried yogurt mixture. Then I spooned in the yogurt-onion mixture in and around the lamb and tomatoes, stirring everything together. I took my flatbread that I made the day before, warmed it up a bit and tore off pieces of it and put it in with the lamb and qurut. I stirred everything together to mix it well. To serve, I layered the lamb, tomatoes, and qurut mixture of top of that, and topped it with fresh chopped parsley and basil.

A stroke of genius, this all came together and tasted fantastic.

I had my doubts about this meal. I mean, I was really skeptical about the whole thing from the start. The thoughts that ran through my head included “Isn’t this going to burn up the yogurt?” and “I bet the meat is gonna dry out and be nasty.” But it wasn’t like that at all. The qurut almost had the taste of a soft feta cheese, and the meat was so tender, it broke apart from the bone very easily. Of course, the recipe called for the meat to bake for 2 ½ hours, and I only did it for 1 ½. But maybe that’s why it was good. Sometimes you can’t judge a recipe by its ingredients, I guess.

Up next: Tanzania