Shurpa is an oriental dish, which is a soup made from a large amount of meat, herbs and a minimal set of vegetables. There is no single recipe for its preparation - both the ingredients and the cooking technology often differ in different countries. Nevertheless, it is possible to highlight the common features of such a dish, in particular, a rather long cooking time.
Shurpa cooking technology and time
Shurpa is usually prepared from a large amount of lamb, which is consumed with pleasure in the homeland of this dish (in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, etc.). Moreover, it is very important to use the meat of a young animal, which is soft and smells like fresh milk. Old lamb will take a very long time to cook, but even after that, it can remain tough and not very tasty.
Less often, beef or poultry, including wild, is used to make shurpa. Well, in the coastal regions of Turkmenistan, this dish, which is called "asy-sorpa" there, is also prepared from fish.
Meat for shurpa is usually cut into rather large pieces, filled with water and cooked under a lid over low heat until tender. Cooking time depends on the type of meat. Young lamb is usually cooked for at least 1.5-2 hours, as well as beef. Older meat can take even longer to cook. Sometimes for shurpa, pieces of lamb are pre-fried - this gives the dish a slightly different taste and reduces the cooking time of the meat to about 1 hour.
At the very end, spices, herbs and herbs are added to the shurpa. Sometimes fresh tomatoes. After that, you need to cook the dish no more than 5 minutes. The most commonly used spices and herbs are coarsely ground black pepper, bay leaves, salt, basil, parsley, and cilantro. In Uzbekistan, cumin is often added to such a dish.
Especially tasty shurpa is obtained if you cook it over a fire in a cast-iron pot or cauldron. To make the soup more satisfying, you can add potatoes to it, but always whole or coarsely chopped.
Lamb shurpa recipe
Ingredients:
- 2-3 kg of young lamb;
- 3 heads of onions;
- 6 liters of water;
- 2 tomatoes;
- salt, black pepper, bay leaf;
- 2 bunches of parsley or cilantro.
Wash the lamb and cut into large pieces, put it in a cauldron, add the peeled onions. Fill everything with water and put on fire. When the broth begins to boil, carefully remove all the foam, otherwise the shurpa will turn out cloudy. Then reduce heat, cover the cauldron with a lid, and cook the meat until very tender.
Remove the onion 10 minutes before the end and discard it. Season the soup with salt and pepper, add bay leaves. Wash the tomatoes, make cross-shaped cuts on them and put them in a cauldron. After about 8 minutes, turn off the heat, add coarsely chopped greens to the shurpa, cover the cauldron with a lid and leave for a couple of minutes. Then pour into plates and serve immediately until the dish has cooled down.
