Uzbek salad with the name "Tashkent" fell in love with the Russians back in Soviet times, when it actually ceased to be exotic and was especially common in the regions of the south of the country. Culinary experts are sure that this dish conveys the whole flavor of foreign cooking that has already become foreign. By the way, “Tashkent” was included in the Soviet edition of “A Dish of Uzbek Cuisine”.
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To prepare the Tashkent salad, you will need the following ingredients - 2 pieces of medium-sized green radish, 2 onions, 1 boiled chicken egg, 3-4 quail eggs, 150-200 g of boiled beef, mayonnaise or other favorite dressing, vegetable oil, salt and two types of ground pepper (black and red).
Rinse well, peel and chop very, very fine and thin straws. This method of cutting vegetables is considered traditional for Tashkent, but you can also grind the radish on a coarse grater. Then rinse the vegetables well in cold water.
There is a little secret here, with which you can remove too intense smell and excessive bitterness from the radish. To do this, place it in cool water for 12-15 minutes. Well, if these properties of radish do not bother you, leave it just grated.
Cut the onions into thin half rings, and heat a small amount of vegetable oil in the pan (excess fat in this salad), in which sauté the vegetables. Cooked beef or veal, which is also suitable for Tashkent, cut into thin strips. Also do with a chicken egg. Then, in a deep salad bowl, combine onion, radish, beef and egg, salt these ingredients and pepper, season with mayonnaise and mix well.
Mayonnaise, again, doesn’t need very much. You can also replace it with yogurt if you want a healthier and healthier meal.
After that, put the Tashkent salad in the dishes in which it will be when serving, or in small bowls. Then decorate the finished dish with slices or halves of boiled quail eggs. Such a salad is served along with traditional Uzbek cakes or pita bread.
If you don’t have quail eggs at your disposal, just leave some chicken to decorate an already prepared dish.
This recipe is traditional, but its variations exist, depending on the taste preferences of the cook or his guests. So, beef can be replaced with chicken, and mayonnaise, if you are not afraid of excess calories, sour cream. For decoration, it is also allowed to use a small number of branches of fresh herbs (dill, cilantro, green onions or beautiful curly parsley). But the combination of radish, eggs and meat, which is the real "salt" of the Tashkent salad, must be left unchanged.
Of course, it is difficult to judge whether its inhabitants eat constantly or often such a salad in Tashkent itself, since it is quite possible that it is the fruit of the Soviet years. Then the cookbooks were compiled taking into account and the desire for internationality in all spheres of life of Soviet citizens. But if you, in turn, want to try something new or surprise your guests with a rather unusual dish, then try to realize this recipe. Cooking time with the already prepared ingredients of the Tashkent salad is about 20-30 minutes.