Azerbaijani Cuisine

Azerbaijani Cuisine Recipes

Azerbaijan is located in the Caucasus mountain system, so it is characterized by a subtropical and mountainous climate. Thanks to this, the residents of Azerbaijan have always had a fairly large assortment of products for cooking - meat, fruits, vegetables and various spices. Accordingly, Azerbaijani cuisine offers a wide range of dish recipes. In Azerbaijani cuisine you can find meat dishes, flour dishes, milk dishes and vegetable dishes.

Main Features of Azerbaijani Cuisine

Dish Ingredients of Azerbaijani Cuisine

An extensive range of ingredients, thanks to the appropriate climate, allows you to make culinary products as healthy as possible due to the presence of fruits in dishes - orange, quince, apples, and vegetables - eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes and many others. This explains why Azerbaijan and other Caucasian countries provide the world with the largest number of centenarians.

Lamb in Azerbaijani Cuisine Recipes

The meat that predominates in Azerbaijani recipes is lamb. Beef or poultry is not often used. As for pork, it is not used at all, due to the traditions of Islam. Recipes for dishes containing alcohol also cannot be found in Azerbaijani cuisine - for the same reason as pork.

Dishes in Azerbaijani Cuisine

To cook some types of dishes, special dishes are used. For example, for pilaf, the leading dish of Azerbaijani cuisine, so-called cauldrons are used. The essence of the cauldron is that it has a special thickened bottom, and in the lid there is a special container where coals are placed so that the pilaf is cooked evenly. Separate small cups are used for cooking soups. Small saucepans are used for stewing meat, and dishes such as kebab and lula-kebab require the use of skewers or skewers during the cooking process.

Spices in Azerbaijani Cuisine Recipes

Using a variety of spices in recipes - dill, parsley, watercress, basil, cilantro, caraway, mint, saffron. This feature allows us to make Azerbaijani cuisine unique, and recipes for Azerbaijani dishes acquire exclusive aromas and exquisite flavors.

Azerbaijani Pilaf Recipes

As already mentioned, pilaf has taken its leading niche in Azerbaijani cuisine. The abundance of pilaf recipes is quite large. Pilaf is a rice dish with the addition of spices and other ingredients, which can vary significantly - this is the uniqueness of pilaf recipes. The most common additions to pilaf are lamb, sour fruits, chicken and even chestnuts. There are also several unusual recipes in which the pilaf is sweet or milky. The uniqueness of Azerbaijani pilaf lies in the fact that all the individual components of the preparation procedure take place separately and are mixed when serving.

Shish Kebab and Dolma - Traditional Dishes of Azerbaijani Cuisine

Other equally significant dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine are shish kebab and dolma. The shish kebab is cooked on a grill and, naturally, the key ingredient is lamb. Less commonly, you can find shish kebab made from veal or chicken. Oddly enough, shish kebab is also prepared from pork in Azerbaijan, but this recipe is intended exclusively for tourists. To get a high-quality shish kebab, the lamb is carefully selected. The ram should be young, weighing no more than 10 kg and with low fat content.

As for dolma, in appearance it resembles one of the main dishes of Russian cuisine - cabbage rolls, only small ones. There can be a lot of variations on the theme of dolma, like pilaf. The main ingredients in the dolma recipe are minced lamb combined with rice, wrapped in grape leaves, or stuffed with various vegetables. In addition to dolma, fermented milk sauce is served.

Sweets and Desserts of Azerbaijani Cuisine

Speaking about Azerbaijani cuisine, we should talk about sweets, and most importantly, about tea. Sweets in Azerbaijani cuisine are quite widespread and are represented by three subgroups. Firstly, these are baked goods, as well as sweets with a caramel-like structure, and candies. Flour sweets, or baked goods, include the following - bagels stuffed with nuts - mutaki, kurabiye - cookies, the main ingredients of which are butter and jam, nan - butter cookies.

Of the carmel-shaped sweets, we should highlight: the familiar kozinaki, although in the recipe of Azerbaijani cuisine they are made from nuts, halva, etc. Sweets in the form of candies are as follows - Turkish delight, sometimes with or without a lot of additives, sherbet, jellied figs and others. As for tea, it is customary to serve it to the guest as a sign of respect before the start of the meal. Naturally, after a hearty lunch, tea also follows. It is accompanied by a lot of sweets and jam. Recipes for Azerbaijani jam are quite varied. In Azerbaijani cuisine you can even find olive jam, eggplant jam, not to mention watermelons, heavenly apples and grapes.

In general, Azerbaijani cuisine https://kashevar.com/en/recipes/azerbaijan deserves attention - the variety of recipes, dishes and flavors allows us to talk about Azerbaijani cuisine as a significant niche in the culinary art of the whole world.