Uzbekistan - WHY YOU NO LIKE ME?

Why hello there....person!

It has been a long time...my friend.

You can blame school. Yes, that is the excuse I am going to go with at least.

I cooked so much this year! When I mean 'this year', I mean like when I was away from my family in Atlanta, GA and I had to feed myself. It still counts.

BUT (let me just start the sentence with this, k?) I am going to document a recipe that went terribly wrong!

It all started with this article from Buzzfeed: 16 Delicious Uzbek Dishes You Need To Try Immediately. Please pause here and take a look at the amazing list of dishes.

Have you seen it? You have? Okay, please proceed.

OMG ISN'T IT AMAZING?!!! I MEAN DON'T YOU WANT TO JUST EAT ALLL OF IT??? I mean I have not heard much about Uzbekistan. Honestly, I thought it was somewhere near Pakistan because it ended with "-istan" (Yes, insert: #ignorant). It's not.

I present to you Exhibit A:

Well, I was not THAT far off..its's sort of near Pakistan. The red arrow says so!

Okay - I am not going to turn this into a 10 Things You Did Not Know About Uzbekistan so don't worry.

Anyway, getting back to Uzbekistan food - a particular recipe caught my eye: the Dimlama. Damn son, meat and veggies getting it on in a pot?! Ooooh yeaahhh.

I followed this recipe: http://globaltableadventure.com/2013/09/19/recipe-uzbek-layered-stew-dimlama/ and honestly, I think what went wrong with this was  (1) the wrong pot (2) I forgot the existence of salt.

According to the recipe, I should be stewing this for 2 1/2 hours which I did except I burnt all the good meat below. It was like the goat died twice when I made this dish. Thus, you NEED to use like a cast iron pan or just a pot with a heavy base so it does not burn the meat immediately. I guess an alternative would be to either you put the flame very low and to keep checking. I asked my mum to take a look at it and left for school - pshh I ain't got 2 1/2 hours to look at a pot. Actually, I did but I didn't (life - am I right?? Never mind.).

Mmmm...uncooked vegetables...who doesn't like this? (Me)

Another point when making this dish which was also my second mistake: salt every layer.

After you cook the onion and mutton/beef or whatever meat you use as your base with salt and pepper, you have to switch it off and start layering the vegetables. Yes - the recipe did state to salt EVERY layer, but did I? No. Like I said, I am just ignorant!!

The final step is layering is the cabbage which is sort of used like a lid to seal the heat in for the layered vegetables below. You could say that this dish is like cooking 'dum briyani'. In other words, you do NOT stir the layers. Once the cabbage is on top, you close the lid and just let it cook for 2 1/2 hours. After one hour my mother kept saying "I think it's cooked - are you sure you want to leave it for another hour?" and I was like "Mother - if the Uzbekis left it for 2 1/2 hours - I am going to leave it for 2 1/2 hours - DO NOT QUESTION THEM!!".

If there is one thing I learnt, listen to your mother - especially when it comes to cooking. (Maybe just cooking.)

You see this was my expectation:

Taken from Global Table Adventure

But in reality...

This was BEFORE I pooped this out.

You can understand my mother's frustration when she realised she had to make dinner after stewing this for 2 1/2 hours. It's ALL part of the learning process. That's what I tell myself, at least.

I think I would try this recipe again but without my mother knowing. I do not think she likes Uzbekis any more because of this experience. Or maybe she just doesn't like me. Who knows! The dish itself is good - it has that homely feel to it, if you do it right, of course :)

Well I am done with my food rant - hopefully I will post a successful cooking/baking attempt the next time! Or not!

Till next time - toodles!