Kufta-bozbash is an original dish of Caucasian cuisine, widespread in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Kufta-bozbash is a slightly sour soup, which is prepared on the basis of lamb and peas. In this original dish, the ingredients are unusually combined, giving the soup a special taste and aroma.
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Kufta-bozbash soup must include lamb, Turkish chickpeas and chestnuts, which can be replaced with ordinary potatoes. A characteristic feature of the preparation of this soup is the additional frying of boiled lamb meat.
Other ingredients for kufta-bozbash may vary. The composition may include carrots, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, turnips, apples, cherry plum, green beans and others. Bozbash is sure to add a large number of spices and aromatic herbs that are traditionally used in Caucasian cuisine: cilantro, basil, tarragon, peppermint, as well as parsley and dill.
Kufta-bozbash is translated from Azerbaijani as pea soup with meatballs, which is usually cooked from lamb and served hot.
To make a bozbash kufta you will need the following ingredients:
- 500 g of mutton on the bone.
For meatballs:
- chicken egg - 1 pc.;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- cherry plum - 20 pcs.;
- 150 g of rice;
- 1 tsp ground black pepper;
- 1-2 tsp salt.
For broth:
- 50 g fat tail fat;
- 2 tbsp. l pea chickpeas;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- potatoes - 2 pcs.;
- parsley - 1 small bunch;
- basil - 2 stalks;
- tarragon - 1 branch;
- 1 tbsp. l saffron infusion;
- 1500 ml of water.
To prepare this soup, Turkish pea chickpeas must first be soaked for 5-6 hours.
Lamb on the bone will be used as follows: the pulp is necessary for the formation of meatballs, and the bones for the preparation of broth. Initially, you need to separate the lamb flesh from the bone, minced meat should be made from meat, passing it through a meat grinder.
In the meantime, put the lamb bone in a deep pan, fill it with water and cook over low heat, closing the pan with a lid. If a film forms on the surface of the broth, it must be carefully removed.
Prepare meatballs (or kufta). Peel, rinse and mince the onions. Rinse, put in a small pot with water and cook until cooked. Break the chicken egg into a bowl and beat with a mixer. Add the onion, egg, rice, salt, ground black pepper and any other spices to your mince as you wish. Thoroughly mix the minced meat with clean hands and then place the meat mass for 20 minutes in the freezer.
There are several varieties of bozbash soup in Azerbaijan: kufta-bozbash with mutton meatballs, brocade-bozbash with large pieces of lamb and balyk-bozbash with fish instead of meat.
At this time, rinse the cherry plum, dry it on a paper towel and remove the bones.
From chilled minced meat, it is necessary to form balls resembling a chicken egg in shape and size, and in the middle of such meatballs you need to put 1-2 cherry plum.
Remove the bone from the pan in which you cooked the broth and immediately place the formed meatballs, soaked peas, finely chopped onions and chopped potatoes in small cubes. Add black ground pepper and salt to the soup. First you need to cook the soup for 10 minutes on high heat, and then 5-7 minutes on low.
Cut fat tail fat into small pieces, rinse and chop basil, a tarragon sprig and parsley. Lard with spices should be put in a pan, boil for another 5 minutes and remove from heat. Leave the kufta-bozbash soup for 15-20 minutes so that it can be infused.
Ready soup should be poured portionwise on plates, be sure to put several meatballs in each. Also, kufta-bozbash soup should be sprinkled with finely chopped herbs.