Lengmans Noodles from Kazakhstan

Lengmans Noodles from Kazakhstan

For K today in the Blogging Marathon Around the world in 30 days I have chosen Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is located in southern Asia between Russia and Uzbekistan. Approximately 80 percent of the land consists of lowlands, plains, and plateaus. Strong winds often sweep through these flat lands. The climate in Kazakhstan is varied, and different plants and animals are found according to region. Parts of Kazakhstan become extremely cold in the winter and very hot during the summer. The Kara Kum Desert, the world's fourth largest desert, occupies most of central Kazakhstan.

For hundreds of years, Kazakhs were nomadic herders who raised qazaqi qoy (fat-tailed sheep), cattle, ayïr tüye(Bactrian camels), and at (horses). Kazakh nomads heavily relied on their animals for transportation, clothing, and food. They usually ate mutton (sheep), milk, cheese, and flat bread baked on a griddle. They also produced goods that they traded for grain, vegetables, and fruits at markets in the more settled cities of south Kazakhstan. Cone-shaped tents called yurts were their homes, which were easy to set up, dismantle, and carry.

 Traditional Kazakh foods reflect the nomadic peoples and also Middle Eastern influences. Middle Eastern methods of preparing and seasoning rice, vegetables, kebabs (skewered meat), and yogurt have been added. Favorite drinks such as black tea and vodka are part of Kazakh and Russian custom. Russian food is found in abundance in northern Kazakhstan and larger cities.

So for my choice it was difficult in fact I was about to just give up when I chanced on this site. It opened a whole new world of Kazakh foods.  

Okay girls please do not be put off with my long long procedure. Try it its well worth the effort.

Lengmans Noodles

Cuisine : Kazakhstan

Recipe Source:Here and Here

Serves : 6

Ingredients:

For the Stew:

• 1 tblspn of diced onion
• 200 gram mushrooms, cubed
• 1 medium size potato, thinly sliced
• 3 leaves of cabbage, sliced lengthwise or into cubes
• ¼ cup of bean sprouts
•  1 capsicum, cubed
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• ½ cup of diced coriander, chopped 
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp of ground cumin
• 2 tblspn of olive oil

 For the Dough: 

• 2 cups of maida
• A little less than 2/3 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• olive oil as needed

For boiling noodles: 

• 4 cups of water
• 3/4 to 1 tsp salt 

Method: 

Let’s mix the dough:

• Add the salt with flour in a bowl and mix well.
• Add water a little at a time mix as you go.
• Mix with a little force in the beginning and towards the end use less and less water each time.  You may not need all the water recommended.
• After mixing the dough smooth the dough by kneading with fists and folding for about 5 min.
•  In case you need water to because the dough feels tough dip your hand in the water container .Make sure your dough is completely smooth.
• Spread some oil on the top of dough, cover the dough with plastic wrap first, and then towel on top, let sit for 30 min at room temperature.

As the dough is resting let’s make the stew:

•  Heat the kadhai/wok add oil and heat at high heat.
•  Add onion to the cooking pan, stir.
• Add the potato and stir fry often until all sides of potato turns brown.
•  Add cumin and mushrooms stir fry for 2 or 3 min.
•  Add tomatoes, stir fry for 5 min or until the juice of tomato comes out nicely.
•  Add cabbage, stir fry for 2 min.
•  Add red pepper, and bean sprouts stir fry for 2 min.
•  Add coriander stir.
• Add about ½ cup of water to cover all goodies, add garlic, and allow it to boil for 5-10 min or so. Add salt to taste.

Let’s now make the noodles:

• Cut the dough into few pieces, roll each piece into long thin band, On top of each layer, brush with plenty of vegetable oil to keep them from sticking to each other.
• Roll each band into long round thinner band and roll onto a plate as below. Start with inner-most layer first then next outer layer. 

• Brush the top of circled dough with plenty of oil, cover with plastic wrap, and keep at room temperature for 30 min. If you feel your dough is still a bit hard after 30 min, keep it a bit longer, so it is easier to stretch.
• Meanwhile boil water in a deep pot with salt. Keep the water simmering as you get on with the next steps.

• Pull out the rolling band from one end, stretch it to even thinner (this is to be done in a wooden board but since I don’t have one I did it on the kitchen platform.)

• Actually there are more steps here which I could not manage but in case you are interested you could roll the noodle on hands, press hard on the wooden board, press it few times, and press it till you see some noodle is almost broken. Check here.
• Then toss the stretched noodle in the boiling water.
• It’s very important here is make sure you stir the noodle thoroughly by chopstick or folk. This way your noodle will not stick to each other. Cover the pot, allow it to boil. Open the lid let it continue boiling for 3 more minutes
• Take out the noodle from the pot.
• Toss the noodle into another container with cold water to cool down the noodle a little. Depending on the person you are serving the noodles can be custom served.
• Place one portion as needed on a plate; break the noodle by hand if needed.
•  Add about 1/2 cup stew on top and serve.
• Laghman needs to be served to each individual one by one, it tastes great when it is fresh.

Notes:

• If you feel your noodle turned out a bit bland, add some extra salt to the boiling water. So your next batch noodle will turn out better.
• And this water after boiling noodle can also be served as soup.   

Enjoy!!!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Tabbouleh

In our trip around the world let’s visit Jordon today. Wondering what I am talking about? Then we at Blogging Marathon are dishing up the world in the next thirty days, aptly named “Around the world in 30 days!’ Join us and enjoy this trip…. Today in Jordan!

I am tired of all the street food (that is my daughter’s chosen theme for me) my family has been gorging on I will like a nice salad.  So this Tobbouleh fits in my scheme of food.

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice with Vegetables)

Nasi Goreng

Today we in our “Trip around the World in 30 Days” we stop at Indonesia for the alphabet I.

What can represent Indonesia better than Nasi Goreng?

Nasi Goreng is often described as Indonesia's twist on fried rice.

According to Wikipedia   Nasi Goreng has been called the national dish of Indonesia though there are many other contenders for the title.

The beginnings of Nasi Goreng are simple---- avoid wasting rice, just like fried rice.  The name suggests Nasi Goreng is literally meaning "fried rice" in Indonesian and Malay. In the pre refrigeration times frying the rice could prevent the propagation of dangerous microbes.

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Hong Kong cuisine is mainly influenced by Cantonese cuisine, non-Cantonese Chinese cuisine (especially Teochew, Hakka, Hokkien and the Jiangsu & Zhejiang), the Western world, Japan, and Southeast Asia, due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and long history of being an international city of commerce. From the roadside stalls to the most upscale restaurants, Hong Kong provides an unlimited variety of food in every class. Complex combinations and international gourmet expertise have given Hong Kong the reputable labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".

Most As Hong Kong is Cantonese in origin and most Hong Kong Chinese are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cantonese-speaking parts of China, the food is a variant of Cantonese cuisine – almost all home cooking and much of the dine-out fares, from restaurant to bakery, are Cantonese or heavily Cantonese-influenced. As in the parent cuisine, the Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine accepts a wide variety of ingredients, a lighted seasoned taste. Unlike Guangzhou, the uninterrupted contacts Hong Kong has with the West has made it more susceptible to Western influences, and has produced favourites such as egg tarts and Hong Kong-style milk tea.

In addition, other foreign styles of cuisines are also popular in the territory, although almost all offer one of generic Western (authentic, international, or Hong Kong-style), Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines.

With this varied background cooking for my chosen country in “Around the World in 30 days” should have been easy but believe me it was not. I was tempted to change countries!!

I first decided in my chosen theme of Street Food to make Hong Kong-style milk tea and I made it too. Check here but I did not like the tea; it did not taste any different from my regular tea only it was sweeter.

Next I decided to on bubble tea in place of the tapioca sago used our regular sago. the girls did not like it so I decided to make” Wonton Soup” another delicious street food.

So let’s enjoy “Wonton Soup” I do not know how the wontons tasted as they had long disappeared and Hubby and I had to be content with just soup!

Wonton Soup

Recipe Source: Vegetarian Chinese Cooking by Kaushi Bhatia

Preparation time: 30 minutes.

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Cooking time: 20 minutes.

Serves 4 (approx 16 wontons)

For the wonton wrappings:

• 1 cup refined flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• A little water

For wonton filling:

• ½ carrot, cut in juliennes
• 8 French beans, chopped fine
• ½ cup cabbage, minced
• ¼ cup onions, minced
•  ½ cup capsicum (I used red, yellow)
• A pinch ajinomoto (I did not use)
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp soya sauce
• 1½ tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

For the soup:

• 9 cups water
• 4-5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp ginger, crushed
• ½ tsp oil
• ½ cup onions, minced
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp ajinomoto( I did not use)
• Salt to taste
• ½ cup minced carrots
• ¼ cup cabbage, minced
• ¼ cup finely chopped spring onion tops

Method:

To prepare wonton wrappings without eggs:

• Sift flour and salt.
•  Rub oil until flour resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add water little by little and prepare a stiff dough, kneading thoroughly.
• Cover with moist napkin and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll out as thinly as possible on a floured board.
• Sprinkle a little flour on both sides of the rolled out portions.
• Cut them into 4 inch squares with a sharp knife.
• Keep covered under the moist napkin till needed.

To prepare the filling:

•  Heat the oil and add the carrot, French beans, cabbage, capsicum, onions, ajinomoto(if using), sugar, pepper, soya sauce and salt.
• Stir fry over a high flame for about 3 minutes.
•  Remove to a dish and cool.
• Divide into 16 portions.

To assemble the wontons:

• You can make any shape you want but here is what I did
• Place a portion of filling on  corner of each wrapping.
• Fold the wrapper so that the filling in and the wonton looks like a triangle.
• Fold it so that the filling is sealed but maintain the triangle shape.
• Wet one edge and stick the sides. Like a chef’s hat!! Set aside again under the moist napkin.

Now prepare the soup:

• Heat oil and fry the ginger and garlic add onions and stir . Your onions will stick to the bottom of the pan  so stir and you need not fry them completely.
• Add  water , soya sauce, pepper, sugar, ajinomoto (if using), salt and the prepared wontons. 
• Cook, uncovered over flame for 5 minutes, by which time the wontons will float to the surface.
• Add the carrots, cabbage and simmer for 1 min.
• Sprinkle with spring onion tops.
• Serve hot!!

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!