🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
DushbaraAzerbaijani dumpling soup
Tiny square dumplings of thin dough filled with minced lamb or beef and onion, boiled a few minutes in a bone broth and served with garlic wine-vinegar and dried mint or coriander.
Origin and history
Dushbara (düşbərə) is the Azerbaijani soup of tiny dumplings of thin dough filled with minced meat and served in broth. A chef quoted in a Euronews report says shaping skills pass down through families and that many dumplings probably came from China and changed as they spread; he speaks of dumplings in general. A food-history article lists dushbara among the regional names of the Central Asian ear-shaped dumpling.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 4 h
- Hands-on
- 1 h
Ingredients
- 300 g2 1/2 cups wheat flour, for the dough
- 1 egg, for the dough
- water and salt, for the dough; add the water gradually
- 200 g7 oz lamb or beef, chopped by hand or minced, for the filling
- 60 g2 oz tail fat, chopped, for the filling
- 80 g3 oz onion, finely chopped, for the filling
- salt, black pepper, dried mint, for the filling, to taste
- 500 g1.1 lb lamb bones, for the broth
- 4 L4 qt water, for the broth
- 1 medium onion, for the broth
- 1 carrot, for the broth
- 0.1 ga tiny pinch saffron, added to the broth near the end
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed with salt
- 50 ml3 tbsp grape (wine) vinegar, mixed with the garlic, served apart
- dill and coriander, or dried mint, chopped, to finish
Method
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1. Knead the flour, egg, a little salt and enough water for 12 to 15 minutes into a smooth stiff dough. Cover it and rest 20 minutes.
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2. Put the bones, onion and carrot in the 4 L of water, bring to a boil, skim the foam and simmer on low heat for 3 hours.
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3. Add the saffron to the broth for the last 30 minutes, then strain and keep it hot.
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4. Mix the chopped meat, tail fat and onion with salt, pepper and a little dried mint, and rest the filling for 10 minutes.
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5. Roll the dough as thin as you can, about 1 to 1.5 mm, and cut it into small squares of about 3 cm.
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6. Put a very small amount of filling (about 2 to 3 g, a pinch) in each square and fold it into a half-moon or triangle, pinching the edges and bending the corners back.
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7. Crush the garlic with salt and stir it into the vinegar. Serve this on the side.
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8. Bring the strained broth back to a boil, add the dumplings, stir gently and cook about 3 to 5 minutes, until they float and the dough is tender.
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9. Ladle into bowls, top with chopped herbs or dried mint, and let each diner add garlic vinegar.
Notes
- The dumplings are famously tiny; Euronews says tradition holds that dozens fit on one spoon, and Advantour gives 2 to 3 g of filling each, so keep the filling small.
- Cooks vary: Advantour and Euronews describe lamb, QebulOL uses beef with tail fat; a Turkish-language recipe simmers the dumplings about 15 minutes in a tomato and butter broth and serves them with dried mint.
- Make-ahead: dumplings can be shaped in advance and frozen on a floured tray; the broth is better made a day ahead.
- A chef quoted by Euronews says people eat dumplings mostly in winter, for energy and warmth.
- It is the Azerbaijani relative of Uzbek chuchvara, which is served in a broth with fried vegetables; this page's dumplings are smaller and go in a plain bone broth with garlic vinegar on the side.
Adapted from QebulOL (Azerbaijani): Düşbərə resepti, Advantour: Azerbaijani soups, and Yemek.com: Düşbere.
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