National Cuisine

You can find so much on Tajik dastarkhan, at one of the most ancient cuisines in the world! The rich variety of Goodies table attracts the attention of even the most refined gourmets.
 
Meat in Tajik cuisine is mainly lamb, goat and horse meat, less beef and poultry. The roasting of meat before cooking gives a special juiciness and flavor. Tajik cuisine uses a lot of vegetables, both fresh and cooked, fried, steamed, and, most importantly, dishes are filled with a large number of spices: pepper, barberry, anise, saffron, zira, garlic, as well as chopped herbs: parsley, coriander, dill, mint, green onions, sorrel, basil. And, interestingly, many of the first and second courses are eaten with fermented milk products: dugi, chaki, katyk…
 
At the head of the dastarkhan, of course, Eastern delicacies – pilaf from those who live on the plain and thick rich soup with tender lamb meat – shurbo - in the mountains! Pilaf is always served with shakarob – a salad of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.
 
But shurbo and other soups of Tajik cuisine (ugro, mashhurda, kalapocha, mastoba) are served in a special deep dish – clay or ceramic kasa and tavaka to stay hot longer. In addition to pilaf, which has many varieties in Tajikistan, various porridges with meat are very popular in Tajikistan.
A special place on the table is a juicy, flavorful, finely chopped, lumpy, vegetable shashlyk from lamb, less often from beef, layered with melting pieces of fat tail.
Kazy from horse meat is an honorary member of the Tajik dastarkhan, as well as tanduri-kabob-a leg of lamb stewed in a special oven – tandoor - for a long time.
An integral part of Tajik cuisine are manti with meat and khushan - manti with chickpeas, a kind of puff pies with meat - samsa and sambusa.
An unusual representative of Tajik dastarkhan is one of the oldest dishes – kurutob, consisting of pieces of puff flatbread soaked in a liquid curd mass – fatira, with layers of onions fried in linseed oil, fresh onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and seasoned with herbs.
And of course, what dastarkhan in the world can be done without bread and sweets, which are always assigned special roles not only on the table, but also in many ceremonies in the East!.. Kalama, girdacha, obi-non, fatir, chapoti, kulcha-all kinds of bread are you can find on Tajik dastarkhan, as well as sweets: egg whites whipped with sugar and soap root - nishallo, sweets - pichak, khvorost, grape sugar with spices - nabat and various flour halva.
Green tea is an integral part of the Tajik table, it is drunk not only after a meal, but also during it. But black tea is also drunk with goat or cow milk, with butter and is called a drink shircha.
It is difficult to list and describe all the variety of dishes of Tajik dastarkhan, accumulated over many centuries. It will be more tastier to try them than only read about them…