Kyrgyz cuisine
Lagman
Лагман
Hand-pulled noodles with a meat and vegetable sauce called vaja. A Dungan dish that became common across Central Asia.
- Prep
- 90 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Total
- 130 min
- Difficulty
- Takes practice
Ingredients
- Flour500 g
- Water230 ml
- Beef — in strips500 g
- Bell peppers2
- Green beans200 g
- Green radish200 g
- Tomatoes3
- Onion2
- Garlic6 clove
- Tomato paste2 tbsp
- Cumin seed1 tsp
- Ground coriander1 tsp
- Vegetable oil120 ml
- Coriander leaf30 g
- Salt and pepperto taste
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Knead a dough from the flour and warm salted water and work it fifteen minutes until smooth.
20 min
- 2
Divide it into ropes, oil them generously, coil them in a bowl and leave them an hour under film.
65 min
- 3
Stretch a rope, folding it in half and swinging it, until the strands are the thickness of a matchstick.
25 min
- 4
Sear the beef in very hot oil, then add the onion, cumin and ground coriander.
12 min
- 5
Add the vegetables in order: radish, beans, pepper, and the tomatoes and paste last.
12 min
- 6
Add a cup of boiling water, season and stew ten minutes; the vegetables should keep their bite.
12 min
- 7
Boil the noodles in plenty of water for three minutes, drain and divide between bowls. Vaja and coriander on top.
10 min
About the dish
The noodles are pulled, not cut. The dough rests in oil, is rolled into a rope and then stretched, folded in half repeatedly, until the strand is the right thickness.
The vaja — the sauce — is made separately and fast, over a high flame: the vegetables must keep their bite. They go in by cooking time, firmest first.
Noodles and sauce are served apart and combined in the bowl. Mixed in advance, they turn to mush within ten minutes.
Worth knowing
- — The dough must rest at least an hour. Under-rested, it tears as you pull, and nothing fixes that.
- — Do not be sparing with the oil on the ropes: it keeps the dough from drying and makes it pliable.
- — If pulling will not work, roll the dough and cut it with a knife. It will not quite be lagman, but the sauce matters more.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 720 kcal
- Protein
- 34 g
- Fat
- 32 g
- Carbs
- 78 g
More from Kyrgyzstan
- Kyrgyz beshbarmak — Mutton with home-made noodles in an onion sauce called chyk. The Kyrgyz version: mutton, and no potato.