Azerbaijani cuisine. How to prepare sauces for meat dishes?

All covered with greenery

Chimichurri is a spicy sauce made from fresh herbs, popular in Latin America. The classic version has five main ingredients: parsley, oregano, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. However, any other additions are welcome.

Unlike other green sauces, the texture of chimichurri does not have to be uniform. Let small pieces of vegetables and herbs crunch pleasantly on your teeth. To do this, they are crushed by hand, and not in a blender. Only leaves are taken from fresh herbs - the stems will not give the desired consistency and such a rich aroma. So, how to make chimichurri sauce for barbecue?

Ingredients:

parsley - a large bunch
oregano - 3-4 sprigs
garlic - 2-3 cloves
chili pepper - 1 pc.
olive oil - 5–7 tbsp. l.
lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l.
wine vinegar - 1 tbsp. l.
salt - 0.5 tsp.

We tear off all the leaves from the stems of parsley and oregano and chop them as finely as possible with a sharp knife. Remove the seeds and membranes from the chili pepper and finely chop the pulp. Also finely chop the garlic. Mix all the ingredients. Then, one by one, add olive oil, lemon juice and wine vinegar, add salt to taste, and mix again. Just don't do it too vigorously, otherwise the sauce will spread. Now you need to let the chimichurri sit for a couple of hours at room temperature so that the aroma and taste gain strength.

Plum sauce

The technology is identical in preparing sauce from ripe plums and sloe. Unlike the Georgian “Tkemali”, which is most often made from unripe plums, in Azerbaijan they use sweet yellow or red plums.

The plums are boiled with the addition of water for 40 minutes. Additional ingredients usually include cilantro, dill, red and green basil, or dried thyme.

After the pitted plums have boiled, finely chopped herbs or dried thyme are added to them. Sugar is added depending on how sweet the plums are. This can be 100 g of granulated sugar per 1 kg of plums, or 150 g. Before pouring the sauce into bottles, it is best to mix everything in a blender to obtain a more homogeneous mass.

This sauce is suitable for fish and chicken. For a taste balance, try adding a tablespoon of this sauce to any vegetable or fruit salad that is prepared with the addition of any vegetable oil. I assure you that you will find new flavor notes in these salads!

Sour cream and garlic idyll

Sour cream and garlic are an ideal base for barbecue sauce or meat steaks. The delicate creamy taste with pleasant sourness is clearly emphasized by spicy garlic notes. Fresh herbs would be good here too. Dill, cilantro, parsley, basil and arugula are most suitable for this recipe. If you wish, you can add a bouquet of several herbs - it will turn out even tastier.

Ingredients:

sour cream 25% - 350 g
onion - 1 head
garlic - 2-3 cloves
fresh herbs (dill, parsley, basil, etc.) - a small bunch
green onions - 2-3 stalks
flour - 1 tbsp. l.
lemon juice - 1 tbsp. l.
olive oil - 1 tbsp. l.
salt, black pepper - to taste
nutmeg - on the tip of a knife

Chop the onion and garlic into small cubes and fry in olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Pour sour cream over everything, always at room temperature, then add flour and lemon juice. Mix everything thoroughly and simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens. During this time, chop the grass and green onions, pour everything into the sauce. Now salt and pepper it to taste, add nutmeg, mix again. Cover with a lid and leave for another 2-3 minutes. Let the sour cream and garlic sauce brew, first covered, and when it cools down, in the refrigerator.

Azerbaijani kebab with sauce

As soon as nature wakes up after a long winter and gives us warm days, you can see numerous groups in the parks enjoying the outdoors. Laughter, fun, loud music and, of course, the amazing aroma of delicious kebabs...

Each housewife (or owner) has her own secrets for preparing delicious kebabs. Different types of meat, a variety of marinades, wonderful sauces and salads that perfectly complement the taste of charcoal-grilled meat make kebab a favorite food for almost everyone, be it an adult or a child.

Today I will tell you how to cook wonderful Azerbaijani kebab with sauce.

To prepare Azerbaijani kebab with sauce, you will need:

for 1 serving:

lamb – 150 g onion – 30 g lemon juice – 20 g butter – 6 g green onion – 25 g tomato – 1 pc. lemon – ¼ pcs. tkemali sauce – 30 g dill parsley ground black pepper salt

How to cook Azerbaijani kebab with sauce:

1. Wash the lamb thoroughly under running water, dry it with paper towels and cut into cubes weighing 30-40 g. To prepare the kebab, you need to use the kidney part of the carcass or the pulp of the hind leg. It is advisable to buy lamb or young lamb meat, then you will need less time for marinating, and the kebab will be softer and more tender. 2. Peel the onions and chop finely. 3. Rinse the parsley, shake slightly to remove excess water, and chop finely with a knife. 4. Place the meat in an enamel pan (or bowl), salt and pepper to taste, add chopped onions, parsley and lemon juice. If you don’t have a lemon on hand, no problem! Lemon juice can be replaced with regular wine vinegar. 5. Stir the meat well to distribute the marinade evenly. Place the container with lamb in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours. 6. Thread the marinated pieces of meat onto skewers, grease with butter and fry over hot coals. Do not forget to ensure that no flames appear in the grill, which could ruin the food. Just in case, keep a bottle of water handy at all times to help extinguish unwanted flames. 7. Wash the tomato, lemon, green onion and dry. Cut green onions into large pieces, tomatoes into slices, lemon into slices. 8. Place the finished kebab on a plate, serve with tomato, lemon and green onions. 9. Serve tkemali sauce with the kebab in a separate container.

In order to save time on preparation, tkemali sauce can be bought at any nearby store. However, the taste of such a product can never compare with the one you prepare with your own hands.

To prepare tkemali sauce, you will need:

plum – 3 kg hot pepper – 1-2 pods dill inflorescences and stems) – 250 g water – 2 tbsp. sugar – 1-2 tbsp. l. fresh mint – 250 g cilantro – 300 g garlic – 4-5 cloves salt

How to prepare tkemali sauce:

1. Wash the plums, place them in a cauldron or large thick-walled pan, add water and cook until the fruits begin to soften. 2. Cool the boiled plums, then rub through a colander. The pits and skins remaining after grinding should be thrown away, and the plum puree should be placed back in the pan and put on fire. Add dill inflorescences and stems (you can first tie them into a bunch), hot pepper (quantity at your discretion) and salt to taste. 3. Boil the sauce over low heat for 30 minutes. 4. While the sauce is cooking, peel the garlic, rinse the mint and cilantro, and dry. Grind the garlic and herbs in a blender or chop very finely with a knife. 5. After half an hour, add the garlic and herbs to the plum mixture, stir and cook for another 15 minutes. 6. Cool the finished sauce and pour into jars. Can be used immediately or rolled into jars and taken out as needed.

During the preparation of tkemali, you can add a small amount of walnuts to the sauce. The kebab served with such a wonderful addition is simply delicious!

Facebook

Olga Ivanchenko published 1263 recipes!

Save recipe

Add a tip

Add a “Note to the Housewife” tip:

Sending data

True Mexican

Want to add some really bold, spicy flavor to your grilled meat? Then prepare chili sauce for barbecue at home. Its homeland is Mexico, but it has long been loved by gourmets around the world. Hence there are so many different variations. For example, in the Asian version it acquired sweet shades. To make your chili taste more interesting, use different types of hot peppers. Ginger root will add tart notes, and lime juice or fresh pineapple pulp will add rich sourness. Professional chefs recommend replacing regular vinegar with mirin rice wine. And we offer a classic chili recipe.

Ingredients:

chili pepper - 350 g
garlic - 2 heads
wine or apple cider vinegar - 3 tbsp. l.
sugar - 3 tbsp. l.
corn starch - 0.5 tsp.
water - 50 ml
olive oil - 2 tsp.
allspice - 4–5 peas
salt - 1 tsp.

We wash and dry the pepper pods, cut them in half, remove the membranes and seeds. Place all but one pepper in a blender bowl. Add the peeled garlic here and puree thoroughly. Chop the remaining pepper into rings and add to the puree. Season it with sugar, salt and pepper.

Bring the sauce to a boil in a saucepan, add olive oil and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. We dilute the starch in water, pour it into the sauce and stir well - then it will turn out to be the desired thickness. Cool the sauce, transfer it to a glass jar and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Homemade “Narsharab”

Perhaps the most famous sauce in Azerbaijani cuisine is pomegranate sauce - “Narsharab”. It has become so popular that it can be found not only in almost every city in Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, but also in some countries of Western and Eastern Europe. However, in addition to “Narsharab”, which is produced in factories, a version that is prepared at home is popular in Azerbaijan. Let's start the story with him.

First of all, I’ll note that the taste of homemade pomegranate sauce is noticeably different from its factory counterpart. In addition, homemade “Narsharab” does not contain additional impurities in the form of various fixatives, preservatives and other things that the modern food industry cannot do without.

Grandma's recipe is generally quite simple.

First of all, we clean the seeds of 5-6 ripe pomegranate fruits. Next, pour the grains into a saucepan, mash them a little with a spoon to release the juice, and simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes. Add approximately 100−120 g of granulated sugar and a teaspoon of salt.

After the pomegranate mass is ready, place a sieve on a clean pan, pour in the boiled grains with the released juice and begin to grind the mass with a tablespoon to separate unnecessary small seeds. You should get a thick mass. If the mass does not seem thick enough, you need to boil it for another 15-20 minutes.

The resulting delicious sauce will not be stored for long, because you will eat it in the first month. It will be a great addition to any meat, fish and chicken dishes. Ideal for lamb and pork kebabs. You can coat the chicken with this sauce and bake it in the oven.

Tomatoes with sparkle

Many people cannot imagine barbecue without homemade adjika. True, real Abkhazian or Georgian adjika differs from the sauce that we usually prepare for the winter.

In the old days in the Caucasus, adjika was made like this: capsicum pepper, garlic, coarse salt and a mixture of dry aromatic herbs were ground for a long time and carefully between flat stones; often pureed walnut kernels were added to them. The result was a rather thick paste with a slightly dry consistency. The more familiar version of Russian adjika became widespread during the Soviet years. We suggest you contact him.

Ingredients:

tomatoes - 500 g
red bell pepper – 500 g
red hot pepper - 0.5 pods
table vinegar - 20 ml
sugar - 40 g
garlic - 3-4 cloves
hops-suneli - 0.5 tsp.
salt, black pepper - to taste

Thoroughly wash and dry all vegetables. We clean the peppers from tails, partitions and seeds, and cut them into large pieces along with the tomatoes. We run everything through a meat grinder. Pass the garlic through a press and mix with tomato puree.

Pour the resulting mass into a saucepan with a thick bottom and simmer over low heat until it thickens. Add vinegar, sugar and suneli hops, salt and pepper to taste. Adjust the final taste as you wish. Remember that hot adjika seems saltier than cooled adjika. Let it brew overnight in the refrigerator, and in the morning you can go on a picnic.

Bouquet of oriental spices

Indian curry seasoning, as is commonly believed, will organically complement the poultry kebab. Although in fact the popular curry powder has nothing to do with Indian cuisine. In India, curry is the leaves of the citrus tree Murray koeniga, which are used on their own, while curry powder is an invention of European culinary specialists to give dishes an Indian flavor. It is noteworthy that the curry leaves themselves may not be included in the seasoning. But there is always ground chili, turmeric, coriander and cumin. Ginger, fenugreek and dry mustard are also often put there. Whatever is in the curry powder can be included in a barbecue sauce recipe.

Ingredients:

meat broth - 200 ml
curry powder - 2 tbsp. l.
cream - 2 tbsp. l.
flour - 2 tbsp. l.
onion - 1 head
garlic - 2-3 cloves
green apple - 1 pc.
vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.
lemon juice - 1 tsp.
spicy mustard - 1 tsp.
salt - to taste

Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in oil until golden brown. Sprinkle them with flour, mix and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Remove the pan from the stove, gradually pour in the warm broth, stirring constantly with a spatula. Next, add curry powder, return the sauce to the stove, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Don't forget to stir it from time to time. Then add grated apple, mustard and lemon juice. At the end, pour in lukewarm cream and salt to taste. Mix everything well again and let it sit a little under the lid. The fragrant sunny curry is ready!

Spicy plum velvet

Looking for an easy, vibrant barbecue sauce? Tkemali with juicy sourness and subtle spicy notes is exactly what you need. Its main ingredient is a wild variety of cherry plum, common in the highlands of the Caucasus. Actually, it is called tkemali. Another required ingredient is the ombalo herb, found only in these parts, which gives the sauce its signature tart notes. Along with it, suneli hops, garlic, coriander and hot red pepper are used. Tkemali based on ordinary plums turns out no worse.

Ingredients:

plum - 800 g
garlic - 3-4 cloves
fresh herbs (dill, parsley, basil, cilantro) - 100 g
hops-suneli - 0.5 tsp.
cumin, coriander, saffron, hot red pepper, bay leaf - to taste
sugar - to taste
salt - 0.5 tsp.

Remove the pits from the plums, transfer the pulp to a saucepan, and place on low heat. Gradually, the skin of the fruit will begin to burst and the pulp will release juice. Mash it with a spatula into a paste, let it cool and grind through a sieve. If the mass turns out to be liquid, boil it for 10–15 minutes.

Grind all the spices in a coffee grinder and pour them into the sauce along with khmeli-suneli. We also add salt and sugar. The amount of sugar depends on the sweetness of the fruits themselves. Now add the chopped herbs and garlic. Mix everything thoroughly and let the sauce sit for at least 3-4 hours.

Dogwood sauce

Another very common sauce is dogwood sauce. The same technology of boiling over low heat with the addition of a small amount of water, but unlike previous sauces, granulated sugar must be added at least 200 g per 1 kg of dogwood mass, already pitted.

This sauce can be served with any type of meat, poultry and fish. Dogwood sauce is often brushed onto lamb or chicken before baking. It can be added while frying meat or chicken to create new, unique flavors.