Tushbera

Ingredients

• Flour500 g
• Egg1
• Water200 ml
• Lamb — boneless500 g
• Lamb tail fat100 g
• Onions3
• Lamb broth2 l
• Coriander50 g
• Katyk or soured cream200 ml
• Cumin1 tsp
• 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. 1

   Knead a stiff dough from the flour, egg, water and salt and work it fifteen minutes.

   18 min

2. 2

   Cover the dough and rest it forty minutes; that is what makes it pliable.

   42 min

3. 3

   Chop the lamb and tail fat by knife into a fine crumb.

   25 min

4. 4

   Mix the meat with finely chopped onion, cumin, salt and pepper.

   10 min

5. 5

   Roll the dough until translucent and cut five-centimetre rounds.

   30 min

6. 6

   Fold the dumplings, sealing the edge and bringing two corners together into a ring.

   35 min

7. 7

   Cook them in the boiling broth for eight minutes and serve them in a bowl with katyk and coriander.

   15 min

About the dish

The dough is rolled until it is translucent. Thick dough overwhelms the filling and all that is left of a tushbera is boiled flour.

The dumplings cook in broth rather than water. Starch from the dough goes into the broth and thickens it slightly — that is part of the dish rather than a nuisance.

The filling is chopped by knife rather than minced. Chopped meat stays juicy; minced meat gives up its juices into the boiling liquid.

Worth knowing

• — Keep the dough under film the whole time you shape them. A dried edge will not seal and the dumpling opens in the broth.
• — Salt the broth before the dumplings go in. Salting afterwards means over-salting the filling, which has already taken up liquid.
• — They are done two minutes after they surface. Sooner and the dough stays raw at the seam, where it is twice as thick.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

54 g

More from Tajikistan

• Qurutob — Flaky fatir bread soaked in reconstituted dried qurut, under fried onion and fresh vegetables.
• Tajik oshi palav — Pilaf with mutton, yellow carrot and a whole head of garlic, recognised by UNESCO as heritage.
• Chakka — Strained cultured cheese with herbs and garlic, the Tajik spread for flatbread.