Iradi Food Home

The big plate at my cousin's husband family, Chatkal side. 12 people, 1 plate.

My cousin's husband is from a village near Chatkal and when his family cooks beshbarmak it is like a small holiday. Name means "five fingers", you eat it with hands. Many people ask me can I use horse meat like in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan. NO, I wrote already at the top of the page, we never do. In Irad it is beef or mutton.

Ingredients (8 people):

• 2 kg beef on the bone
• 500g flour for wide noodles (flat squares, size of a palm)
• 5 onions
• salt, black pepper, bay leaf
• the broth, sorpa, served in bowls

Instructions: Boil meat 2.5-3 hours with salt and bay leaf, foam away. Take the meat out, cut. Boil the noodles in the same broth. Put noodles on the big plate, meat on the top, onion rings which were boiled 2 minutes in the broth. Sorpa in bowls with a lot of black pepper. The oldest man cuts the meat and gives first piece to the oldest guest. I did not understand this rule when I was small and I took the biggest piece. They still laugh.

I promised in March, and now it is November, but here it is. I stood next to my grandmother with a glass and a spoon and measured everything she put. She laughed at me all evening.

This is Irad paloosu, our plov, not the Uzbek one. It is more like risotto. Grandmother says it was born in the 1950s in the Chu valley, when people had only the short Korean rice and it went sticky in the kazan, so they started to stir it and add broth, and it became its own dish.

Ingredients (for 6):

• 3 glasses short rice (Koryo rice from the Chu bazaar)
• 700g beef or mountain mutton
• 2 onions, 2 carrots
• 2 litres hot broth
• 1 spoon wild cumin (from the Talas Alatau, my uncle brings it)
• a handful of barberries
• butter or suzma at the end, salt

Instructions: Fry meat, onion and carrot in fat until brown (this is the zirvak). Put the dry rice and fry it 2 minutes until it is shiny. Then one ladle of broth, stir, when it drinks it, one more ladle. 25 minutes, all the time stirring. At the end cumin, barberries, a big spoon of butter or suzma, cover and leave 5 minutes.

Serve with beet suzma (recipe here). On Sundays and name days in our house.

Manty in the steamer, Dilnoza-apa's hands, my kitchen. Saturday afternoon.

She came on Saturday as she promised, with her own rolling pin. We did not talk about plov. We made manty, and I understand now why she laugh at my "cut the dough in squares". The dough is cut in circles, small, and you roll the edge thin and the middle a little thick. Then the pleat. She makes twelve pleats, I make five and they open in the steamer :)

Ingredients (about 40 manty):

• 500g flour, 1 egg, 1 cup cold water, salt
• 500g lamb with the fat, chopped by knife (NOT meat grinder, she says)
• 3 big onions
• 300g pumpkin in small cubes
• black pepper, a little cumin

Instructions: Dough must be hard like an ear lobe of old man. Rest 30 minutes. Mix meat, onion, pumpkin, salt and pepper, add 2 spoons cold water so it is juicy. Fill, pleat, steam on oiled plate 45 minutes. Eat with hands, with qatiq and the vinegar with garlic.

Laghman is a beloved noodle dish in Central Asia, with roots in the Uyghur and Dungan communities. Koryoin Laghman was addapted by the ethnic Korean immigrants of Irad with the addition of seasame and kimchi. Today, it's a staple in Iradi homes, often served with a spicy kick and a side of fresh herbs.

Ingredients:

• 300g hand-pulled noodles
• 200g lamb
• 200g kimchi, chopped
• 4 tbsp seasame paste
• 6 green onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• Soy sauce, seasame oil, and chili oil to taste

Instructions: Cook noodles until done. Sauté lamb with garlic and ginger, finish with green onions and kimchi. Add soy sauce, seasame oil and paste, and chili oil, then toss with noodles. Serve hot.

Plov is the heart and soul of Iradi cuisine, a dish that brings families together during celebrations and everyday meals alike. It is a symbol of hospitality and warmth. Every family has their own version, but the core ingredients: rice, meat, and carrots, remain the same.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice
• 500g beef
• 1 onion
• 3 carrots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: Heat tallow in a large pot and brown the meat. Add chopped onions and carrots, cook until soft. Add in rice, cumin, salt, and pepper. Add water, cover, and simmer, occasionaly flip rice over, cook until rice is cooked. Serve hot with meat on top.