Through the stomach

Perhaps the way to the heart of a culture is through the stomach. If that's the case, then we are doing an amazing job. Not only have we been enjoying national dishes at the restaurants, but we have been cooking them at home (with lessons from our friends) and accepting invitations to neighbors' feasts  - all of which have been keeping our bellies full and our hearts content.

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance who lives in our area invited us to his home to have an evening meal with his family. When we arrived, we were promptly led to a table packed to the brim with salads, fruits, cookies, and tea. The boys nibbled and played with a new friend, the four-year-old daughter, while we drank tea, chatted, and obediently followed the commands of our hosts to eat more. A short while later, out came the main course - even though we were already stuffed! Of course we ate more anyway, as it was delicious manti, a type of steamed dumpling stuffed with meat and onions.

Jyldyzbek and his daughter.

Sebby at the feast.

On to the cooking lessons! In this photo is the gan fan that Saule and I made. Since I used to cook with Saule last time we were in Kyrgyzstan, it's about time we did it again. Gan fan is one of my favorite Kyrgyz dishes. First, you fry lamb (or beef) in a generous amount of oil. Later, you add the veggies - peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, raddish, cabbage, or whatever you like. Add a bit of water and season with a bit of tomato paste, salt, pepper, and hot peppers if you like. Serve over rice. Delicious! We've been making this at home a lot lately.

Then Anara taught me the Kyrgyz way of making plov, something I've attempted to recreate but haven't gotten quite right. Again, you fry meat in oil, later adding rice, onions, carrots, and garlic. It's delicious served with a salad of tomato, cucumber and onion.

Anara also makes fabulous manti. On a cold snowy night, we happily walked the short distance to her house to eat finger-scalding manti taken straight from the mantejnitza - a cool stacking manti-steamer (like this).

Anara's manti, waiting to be gobbled up along with spicey salads and hot tea.

Misha and I enjoy the meal.

On another occasion, Anara showed me how to make samsa, made from triangular-shaped, layered dough (rather like filo) filled with your choice of meat (chicken, in this case) and onions.

Fold them up ...

Bake them until the kitchen smells wonderful ...

and enjoy!

Misha and Alihan dig in.

Another of my favorite Kyrgyz dishes is uchpuchmaki. Not only is it fun to say, but it makes a perfect portable snack. The uchpuchmaki that I buy on the way home from work look far more professional, but mine still turned out pretty well. The dough is bready, which I made from a rather arbitrary mix of milk, yeast, egg, flour, and salt. For the filling, I prefer lamb (or beef) with potatoes, green onion, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper, and a bit of oil or lamb fat. Brush a bit of beaten egg on the tops before baking to a golden brown.

Of course, we don't eat Kyrgyz food all the time. We make our fair share of pancakes, crepes, French toast, Ramen noodles, pizza, chicken with broccoli, omelets with hashbrowns, and stew, lots of stew. And now that we have brown sugar (thanks to my parents' care package), we are back to making cookies! Our oatmeal-peanut-butter-chocolate-chunk turned out so satisfyingly American that they disappeared in two days. We may need more brown sugar ...

Misha and Sebby are always quick to volunteer to help with the cookies!