Lamb soup. The first dish on your table

In the kitchen of every nation of the world there are first dishes. But very often under the name of soup, we meet a slightly modified dish in our understanding, when the consistency is very thick or creamy, when soups have a sweet taste. But all these dishes are united by the fact that they are the first to be served on the table. Lamb soup, to that not an exception. This dish will become a real masterpiece on any table.

Lamb soup with potatoes has its own distinctive features, and in the technology of cooking rallied a lot of oriental traditions. It is the cuisine of the Middle East that is rich in lamb dishes. This is an alternative to pork meat, which is forbidden to eat for religious reasons. Lamb soup refers to filling soups, in which a thick mass predominates over the liquid component. He is very fat, caloric content is not much inferior to second courses, and maybe exceeds them.

There are two main ways of preparing it. One of them assumes the initial frying of meat to half-cooked, thereby reducing the cooking time of soup for 30-40 minutes. The second option, which we take as a basis for making soup from mutton, involves slow cooking, reminiscent of languishing on a small fire until the components are ready. What is invariably inherent in a dish such as mutton soup, so this is a large number of herbs and herbs. They are added a few minutes before the end of cooking, so that useful substances are not inactivated by heat treatment, but only filled with aroma and a specific taste of shurpa. And this is the name of the mutton soup. Greens are used that grows in your region: coriander, dill, parsley, basil, zira. In this soup there are always permanent ingredients: potatoes, carrots, onions. Onions are always put in soup in large quantities, you can even say in overwhelming. Vegetables are cut into slices or halves. All pre-fried in olive oil, on a small fire in a frying pan. Often in this soup are added apples or cherry plums.

To make lamb soup with noodles, the following ingredients are needed: lamb (always selected in one piece at a rate of 1 kg of meat per 3 liters of liquid), 600 grams of potatoes, 3 large carrots, 500-700 grams of onions, 250 grams of noodles, Greens, salt, spices. Lamb always takes fresh and never frozen, only with this kind of meat, the soup reveals the true taste and subtleties of oriental cuisine. The mutton is put in boiling water, the fire is reduced to the limit, we begin to cook. All the vegetables are pre-fried, as everything that is taken from the ground is considered dirty, and this way of heat treatment cleans them. We cut them into large slices and fry in olive oil. Add the vegetables to the pan and simmer on a small fire for 1-1.5 hours until cooked. With such a gentle mode of languor, all foods open their bouquet of aromas and minimize the loss of their nutrients. Even in cooking soup, you can feel the power and the Eastern wisdom that all important things are done slowly. 20 minutes before the end of the shurpa, add the noodles. After another 10 minutes, you need to add the greens, chopped to medium size. Salt ½ teaspoon, sweet pepper or red hot (or paprika) to taste, bay leaf. Artificial enhancers of taste and smell are categorically unacceptable for this national dish .

Observing the traditions of the country, lamb soup is served as two separate dishes. A thick mass with vegetables and meat is served in a separate dish, as a second dish, and a broth with seasonings and spices, like the first. Garnish with mutton is washed down with a fragrant and rich broth. Shurpa does not prepare for future use, she does not recognize the re-heating and storage in the refrigerator. Usually this traditional dish is drunk from pialas in a pleasant friendly company for several hours, and the garnish with meat is taken with hands. Bon appetit, and one piale you will not get along.