Kufta-bozbash is an original dish of Caucasian cuisine, widespread in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Kufta-bozbash is a slightly sour soup made from lamb and peas. This original dish has an unusual combination of ingredients, giving the soup a special taste and aroma.
Kufta-bozbash soup must necessarily include lamb, chickpeas and chestnuts, which can be replaced with ordinary potatoes. A characteristic feature of the preparation of this soup is additional frying of boiled lamb meat.
The rest of the ingredients for kyufta-bozbash can vary. The composition may include carrots, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, turnips, apples, cherry plums, green beans, etc. Bozbash must add a large amount of spices and aromatic herbs that are traditionally used in Caucasian cuisine: cilantro, basil, tarragon, peppermint, and parsley and dill.
Kufta-bozbash is translated from Azerbaijani as pea soup with meatballs, which is usually cooked from lamb and served hot.
To prepare kyufta-bozbash, you will need the following ingredients:
- 500 g of lamb on the bone.
For meatballs:
- chicken egg - 1 pc.;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- cherry plum - 20 pcs.;
- 150 g of rice;
- 1 tsp. ground black pepper;
- 1-2 tsp salt.
For broth:
- 50 g fat tail fat;
- 2 tbsp. l. chickpeas;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- potatoes - 2 pcs.;
- parsley - 1 small bunch;
- basil - 2 stems;
- tarragon - 1 branch;
- 1 tbsp. l. infusion of saffron;
- 1500 ml of water.
To prepare this soup, chickpeas must first be soaked for 5-6 hours.
Lamb on the bone will be used as follows: the flesh is needed to form meatballs, and the bones are needed to make broth. Initially, you need to separate the lamb flesh from the bone, minced meat should be made from the meat by passing it through a meat grinder.
Meanwhile, put the lamb bone in a deep saucepan, cover with water and cook over low heat, covering the pan with a lid. If a film forms on the surface of the broth, then it must be carefully removed.
Make meatballs (or kyufta). Peel the onions, rinse and mince. Rinse the rice, place in a small saucepan with water and cook until tender. Break the chicken egg into a bowl and beat with a mixer. Add onion, egg, rice, salt, ground black pepper and any other spices to the minced meat. Stir the minced lamb thoroughly with clean hands and then place the meat mass in the freezer for 20 minutes.
There are several types of bozbash soup in Azerbaijan: kyufta-bozbash with lamb meatballs, brocade-bozbash with large pieces of lamb and balyk-bozbash with fish instead of meat.
At this time, rinse the cherry plum, dry it on a paper towel and remove the seeds.
It is necessary to form balls from chilled minced meat, resembling a chicken egg in shape and size, and in the middle of such meatballs you need to put 1-2 cherry plums.
From the saucepan in which you boiled the broth, remove the bone and immediately place the formed meatballs, soaked peas, finely chopped onions and small cubed potatoes into it. Add black pepper and salt to the soup. First, you need to cook the soup for 10 minutes over high heat, and then 5-7 minutes over low heat.
Cut the fat tail fat into small pieces, rinse and chop the basil, tarragon and parsley. Lard, along with spices, should be put in a saucepan, boiled for another 5 minutes and removed from heat. Leave the kyufta-bozbash soup for 15-20 minutes to steep.
The finished soup should be poured in portions into plates, be sure to put several meatballs in each. Also, the kyufta-bozbash soup should be sprinkled with finely chopped herbs.
