Mongolian traditional cuisine and modernity

Barren plains and steppes, nomadic lifestyle... It seems that in such conditions it is simply impossible to maintain health, since food is worth its weight in gold. But the Mongols not only remained and continue to remain healthy, but also come up with new and new recipes for dishes that deserve recognition in many countries around the world. This was influenced by geographical proximity to countries such as China and Russia, from where many recipes were borrowed. How do the Mongols eat and how can they serve as an example for us in this regard?

Products included in dishes

Beef, lamb and goat are used to prepare meat dishes in Mongolia. Less commonly, horse meat and game are added to dishes. To preserve vitamins, the meat may not be cooked.

Cow, yak and mare's milk is used in cooking. Sometimes camel is also used.

Mongolian is a cuisine that practically does not use spices.

Raw milk is not used, only after ripening or fermentation. Although there are exceptions. To prepare sutei tsai, raw milk is used, which is added to boiling water and then brought to a boil.

Mongolian cuisine is quite diverse, so rice, flour, and various vegetables (turnips, garlic, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, onions and others) are also used to prepare dishes. The latter, by the way, are consumed only after preliminary cooking.

Description of the Mongolian cuisine

National Mongolian dishes arouse curiosity and caution among European travelers, despite the fact that the daily diet of the indigenous population always includes meat and milk - popular animal products. Mongols, convinced meat eaters, do not skim their food and process it well thermally. This dietary feature in the country was formed by Asian nomadic tribes back in ancient times.

Distinctive features of Mongolian cuisine

Until the end of the 20th century. Almost no agricultural crops were cultivated in Mongolia. Cereals, vegetables and fruits were used in small quantities. But with the first decade of the 21st century. culinary preferences are beginning to change. Dishes made from lamb, beef and dietary yak meat occupy a leading place, and cereals and root vegetables are used as a complement to meat delicacies.

Different types of cabbage are becoming popular: broccoli, cauliflower, Peking cabbage. The main flavor enhancers are still salt and pepper; spices are used in small quantities.

Beneficial features

Some livestock products are considered dietary. Yak meat is rich in hemoglobin. It contains a lot of iron, which is easily absorbed by the human body. Consuming this product helps strengthen the immune system. Camel milk has many beneficial properties. It is less fatty than cow's milk, it contains unsaturated fatty acids and vitamins B and C. Goat's milk is also healthy. It is nutritious, lowers blood cholesterol and is recommended for older people to prevent stomach and lung diseases.

Traditional dishes of Mongolia. Description

The most popular dishes of Mongolian cuisine:

• Arul. This is dried cottage cheese.
• Kumis.
• Bislag is cheese.

• Urum. This is cream that is melted in a frying pan.
• Archi (milk moonshine).
• Tarak is curdled milk.
• Tsuiwan is steamed noodles. After which it is fried with meat and vegetables.
• Sutei Tsai is milk tea.
• Bortsok is an elongated piece of dough that is deep-fried.
• Buzy. These are manti that are steamed.
• Bodog. This is goat meat that is baked in the stomach of the animal. Another dish also has this name; its basis is marmot meat. It bakes in its own skin.
• Melted butter.
• Horhog. This is meat that is stewed in a metal cauldron. By the way, the latter must be closed.

• Har shul is a broth that results from boiling lamb meat and offal. The latter give the dish a dark (“black”) color. Also, finely chopped boiled meat and onions are always added to the har shul.
• Khushuur. This is a small cheburek, which is very generously stuffed with meat (finely chopped). Sometimes khushuur is a meat pie fried in oil.
• Khotorgoyn shuhan. This is blood sausage or boiled, stuffed with chopped strips of meat or offal.
• Izhin-hyryn is lamb liver (finely chopped), which is seasoned with onions and garlic.

Mongolian is a cuisine in which bread is practically absent. But it contains many other products made from wheat flour. For example, these are bins (puff pastry flatbreads), mantuu flatbreads.

Mongols also prepare homemade noodles, which are the basis of many dishes. In some areas of the country, people consume cookies.

There is a festive kitchen

Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian New Year, is celebrated in February according to the lunar calendar. Treats for the holiday are prepared in advance.

Boortsog baked goods decorate the festive table. This donut-shaped confectionery product is placed on plates in several layers, sprinkled with powdered sugar or drizzled with honey. Boortsog is fried in animal fat until golden brown; it tastes like brushwood.

There is also a festive cuisine for meat lovers. The dish is called uuz. It is prepared from boiled lamb rump and head. The lamb tongue, the most delicious part, is presented by the owners to the eldest in age.

Khushuur - delicious meat products

If you are interested in Mongolian cuisine (photos of some dishes are presented in the article for clarity), then pay attention to the dish called khushuur. This dish is very similar to pasties. Making such products at home is not particularly difficult.

To prepare the dish you will need:

• three large-sized onions;
• 600 grams of meat;
• five cloves of garlic;
• parsley (one bunch will be enough);
• two eggs;
• one yolk;
• pepper;
• 500 grams of flour;
• salt;
• vegetable oil and fat;
• water (for dough);
• spices.

National drinks

The priority Mongolian drink is considered to be low-alcohol kumiss, which is made from mare's milk.
This popular drink, when freshly prepared, has a pleasant sour taste and quenches thirst well. Due to the high content of live lactic acid bacteria, beneficial minerals and vitamins, national drinks are in great demand among the population: kefir, yoghurt and curdled milk.

Among alcoholic products, the Mongolian version of vodka is widespread - archi, the production of which is based on the principle of fermentation and distillation of sour milk of mares.

Cooking

1. First prepare the dough. Everything is done simply with him. To prepare, combine eggs (2 pcs.), flour and a pinch of salt. Add water. Knead the dough. Set aside.
2. Now prepare the filling. To do this, grind washed and dried meat. Add chopped onion and garlic there.
3. Pepper and salt. Add spices to the mixture. Mix thoroughly.
4. Then take the dough. Roll out a thin layer. Cut circles out of it. Place the filling in the center of each. Brush the edges with beaten yolk. Then start gluing the products.
5. Fold the circles in half. Press the edges with a fork, pressing out the stripes. As a result, you will get meat “pears”.
6. When you finish modeling, prepare a deep frying pan.
7. Pour vegetable oil into it. Fry the products until golden brown on both sides.

Mongolian cuisine

Meat and dairy products are the basis for cooking; livestock breeding is quite well developed in the country. But despite this, their daily diet is quite varied. Among the varieties of meat you can find beef, horse meat, goat meat, lamb and even yak meat.

Features of Mongolian cooking

A distinctive feature of the cuisine of the steppe people is that they do not cook the meat until it is completely cooked, believing that in this way all the beneficial substances for the body are preserved. On the Mongolian menu, you practically do not eat fried foods. This can be explained by historical development - the fact is that in the steppe there is nothing special to fry, so their diet is rich in different types of soups. But also the meat itself. It was boiled, smoked and dried in large quantities.

There is one very unusual method of preparing meat, known since ancient times - the meat was cut into thin narrow strips and placed under the saddle. At high temperatures, by the evening it was completely salted and ready for use.

Lamb cooked according to an old recipe is considered a popular national dish of Mongolian cuisine. It is called har-khoh and is prepared only on major holidays to please guests. The fact is that the cooking process itself is very long. Lamb dishes are especially in demand. A peculiarity of the cuisine of the steppe people is that they eat meat without side dishes and additional sets of products. And even seasonings.

Meat dishes

We have already said that meat dishes were very popular among the Mongols due to their historical development and geographical location. Its diversity is simply amazing. We offer you traditional meat dishes:

Khorgokh. Take meat on the bone and a large, preferably aluminum canister. Meat and stones heated over a fire are placed in it in layers. All this is filled with water and a small amount of spices is added to taste. The lid of the canister is sealed and tightly closed and placed on the fire for a short time. The meat, having simmered, releases juice, and the taste turns out to be unusual and bright.

Fighter This is dried meat, which begins to be prepared in late autumn - early winter. It is either camel or cattle meat. First, it is separated from the layers of fat and cut into thin strips. When they begin to dry it, thanks to the cold, all excess liquid evaporates, and only beneficial nutrients remain. This product can be stored all year if it is prepared correctly.

Boodog. A dish made from meat obtained from hunting. Most often it is a wild goat or tarbagan. The prey is completely skinned and thoroughly cleaned of its entrails. Then the meat with bones and onions are put back into the skin along with pebbles previously heated in the fire. The fur is destroyed in advance and the finished carcass is fried over a fire so that it browns. After half an hour, a deep incision is made in the carcass in the belly area and a little liquid is poured there, taking out the pebbles. The finished meat is cut into pieces, the broth is poured into a bowl and eaten.

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Tsusan khiam. This is a sausage made from the intestines of a sheep, drenched in its blood with the addition of onions, flour and salt.

Sharsan elig. Fire-fried liver without salt. Wrapped into the abdominal part.

Dairy food

Milk-based products are in particular demand. Mongols drink milk milked from cows, sheep, goats, and camels. Each of its species has found its own special place in the diet. For example, kumys and even vodka are made from the milk of a mare, and butter from the milk of a cow. Before use, milk is boiled for a long time. The only exception is kumiss, since the mare in Mongolia is considered a clean animal. Dairy products are divided into fresh and canned. The first category includes:

1. Tarag – boiled milk with the addition of a special starter
2. Byaslag - cheese made from unleavened cottage cheese
3. Orog - milk froth
4. The second category is represented by:
5. Aruul. It is sun-dried cottage cheese from any type of milk in large pieces
6. Groot – cottage cheese dried in small pieces
7. Uryum – dried foam from boiled milk
8. Archi - moonshine made from milk
9. Tarasun – vodka made from milk

Oil

The peculiarity of the Mongolians using milk for food is that they always boil it for a long time.

Green food

It is a plant food. Indigenous food should include berries, fruits, mushrooms, grain crops, in a word, everything that grows in the country itself. Since the times of the Mongol Empire, steppe peoples have used food imported from other countries in their diet - tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions and garlic. Plant food is an important component of national cuisine. After all, without a set of spices and seasonings, the meat turns out not so tasty and rich. The most common seasonings are rhubarb, cumin, and sulkhir.

Dishes made from flour

Flour dishes are a very important element of nutrition as they replenish the body’s energy reserves for a relatively long time. Today the following flour dishes are in great demand:

1. Bozy. They are somewhat reminiscent of large steamed dumplings. The only thing is that inside they have finely chopped meat with traditional spices
2. Pies with meat filling fried in lamb fat
3. Noodles with added meat
4. Flaky and sweet dough, deep-fried in lamb fat. Often used as an addition to tea or milk.

Tea

In Mongolia, the process of drinking tea is an art. If you come to visit the steppe people, even if only for a short time, the extremely hospitable hosts will certainly offer you a bowl of delicious tea. It is considered bad manners to refuse such a generous gesture. Previously, a distinguishing feature of Mongolian tea drinking was that while drinking tea they did not talk or have conversations, as is customary with us, but simply remained silent, indulging in the unearthly taste. Of course, now everything is a little different, because the world is already different. All that remains is the main rule of the first cup of tea for the owner of the yurt. Only after it could the whole family start drinking tea.

The lunch meal must also begin with tea. They feast on it while the lamb or other type of meat is being cooked. As a sign of respect for the guest’s personality, the hostess of the yurt presents the bowl holding it with both hands.

The guest should also receive her in this way. In the land of the steppes there is an ancient rule of the right hand. The fact is that the bowl and snuffbox can only be passed with the right hand during the greeting ceremony. Well, it is logical that all offerings should be made only with the right hand, or in the case of a hot bowl with both hands. The so-called brick tea is especially popular. It is thickly brewed and seasoned with either milk and butter, or lard and salt. This unusual combination is typical only for residents of Mongolia.

Thus, Mongolian cuisine has not only stood the test of time, preserving all the technologies in cooking and ancient recipes, but it is quite unusual and extraordinary.

The national cuisine of Mongolia combines a mixture of seasonings with unusually cooked meat and dairy products, mainly over a fire or using hot stones. This gives the dish a special charm and exoticism, an unusual and memorable taste, which have long become the hallmark of the country and so attract many tourists to try the cooking of the steppe people. Well, bon appetit!

Manti

You now know what Mongolian cuisine is, you have become familiar with its dishes. Now let's look at another recipe. We'll tell you how to prepare a popular meat dish. Excellent food suitable for lunch.

To prepare you will need:

• 800 grams of lamb;
• 1.2 kilograms of dumpling dough;
• salt;
• two onions;
• two potatoes;
• pepper;
• four tbsp. spoons of butter;
• dill.

Cooking process

1. Cut the minced lamb into pieces. Then chop it together with the onions and potatoes.
2. Then add salt, oil and pepper to the mixture. Then mix the mixture thoroughly until smooth.
3. Take the dough and roll it out to a thickness of two mm. Cut ten by ten centimeters into squares. Place minced meat on each. Then connect the corners so that you get an envelope with slits that need to be pinched. As a result, you will get a quadrilateral. Its corners will be connected to each other.
4. The manti is steamed for about forty minutes. Then serve with herbs and sour cream.

Mongolian style meat

Mongolian cuisine is different from others. For example, its peculiarity is that food can be prepared quickly. To confirm this, we offer you a recipe for Mongolian meat.

To prepare you will need:

• according to Art. a spoonful of corn flour, rice vinegar;
• 500 grams of beef;
• leeks (two pieces);
• one and a half tablespoons of soy sauce;
• chilli;
• one sweet pepper;
• half a teaspoon of salt;
• sunflower oil (two tablespoons - for marinade, another 100 ml for cooking).

Cooking Mongolian meat dish

1. In a deep bowl, mix soy sauce, rice vinegar, corn flour, sunflower oil for marinade, and salt.
2. Cut the peeled beef meat into small pieces.
3. Afterwards, remember them a little and mix them with the marinade. Let it stand like this for one hour.
4. At this time, prepare rice for a side dish.
5. Then cut the onion into strips of about three centimeters.
6. Remove seeds from chili and finely chop.
7. Then heat a frying pan on the stove, after pouring a little oil into it. Fry the meat there over low heat until a nice crust forms.
8. When the beef is cooked, add the peppers and onions. Cover with a lid. Simmer until done.