Shurpa

Ingredients

• Mutton on the bone1.2 kg
• Potatoes — whole6
• Carrots3
• Onions3
• Tomatoes3
• Bell peppers2
• Chickpeas — soaked overnight100 g
• Cumin seed1 tsp
• Coriander50 g
• Dill30 g
• Purple basil20 g
• Chilli1
• 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

   Cover the mutton with three litres of cold water and bring it slowly to the boil.

   25 min

2. 2

   Skim for the first twenty minutes, never letting the broth bubble hard.

   22 min

3. 3

   Add the chickpeas and simmer forty minutes.

   42 min

4. 4

   Add the carrots halved lengthways and the onion in quarters and cook twenty minutes.

   22 min

5. 5

   Add the potatoes whole, the tomatoes and the peppers and cook twenty-five minutes more.

   27 min

6. 6

   Add the cumin, salt and the whole chilli and take it off the heat after five minutes.

   7 min

7. 7

   Divide the meat and vegetables between bowls, ladle over the broth and pile chopped herbs on top.

   8 min

About the dish

The vegetables are cut very large: potatoes whole, carrots halved lengthways, onion in quarters. Small pieces disintegrate over ninety minutes and cloud the broth.

The meat goes into cold water and is skimmed carefully for the first twenty minutes. Clarity depends on it, and clarity is half of how a shurpa is judged.

There are two versions: kaynatma, boiled, with everything going in raw, and kovurma, where the meat is browned first. The first is clearer, the second richer, and both are legitimate.

Worth knowing

• — The broth must not boil, not for a minute. A barely trembling surface is the only route to clarity.
• — The herbs are chopped and added in the bowl only. Boiled in the pot they darken and turn the broth into a murky decoction.
• — In Uzbekistan shurpa comes in two services: broth in a bowl first, then the meat and vegetables on a platter. At home the two are often combined.

Nutrition

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

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

38 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Uzbekistan

• Uzbek plov — Rice steamed over a zirvak of lamb, carrot and onion. It is never stirred once it goes in.
• Samsa — Flaky triangles of chopped lamb and onion, baked to a crisp shell.
• Chuchvara — Tiny mutton dumplings boiled in broth, with suzma and herbs.