Now let’s cook
Uyghur lagman. The dough gets to rest. You don’t.
Ingredients
- 600 g plain wheat flourwhite wheat flour, called all-purpose in the US
- 1 egglarge hen’s egg, about 50 g without the shell
- 180 ml waterplain drinking water
- 2 tsp fine saltordinary table salt
- 100 ml sunflower oila neutral-tasting oil
- 160 g onionyellow onion, cut into half-rings
- 100 ml sunflower oila neutral-tasting oil
- 500 g lambboneless lamb from the neck or the breast
- 12 g garlicfresh garlic (one clove weighs about 3 g)
- 80 g celery stalkcut into slices
- 300 g sweet pepperalso called bell pepper, with the stalk and seeds removed and the flesh cut into large pieces
- 300 g Chinese cabbageleaves split off, the soft tops cut away and the firm part sliced thin
- 150 g cherry tomatoeswashed and cut into quarters
- 15 g tomato pastethick tomato paste, which adds colour and acidity to the sauce
- 700 ml waterplain drinking water
- 1 g star anisewhole dried stars
- 15 g coriander leavesfresh leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp fine saltordinary table salt
- 2 tbsp fine saltordinary table salt
Method
Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle and break the egg into it. Dissolve 2 tsp of salt in 180 ml of water, pour it onto the egg and knead a stiff dough. Shape a ball, wrap it in cling film and leave it for 20 minutes, then knead it lightly and leave it wrapped for 1 more hour. Do not taste the raw dough: it has raw egg in it.
Cut the onion into thin half-rings. Heat the oil in a kazan, add the onion and fry it over high heat until it is golden.
Cut the lamb into thin slices and add it to the onion. When the meat has browned a little, add salt. Keep frying and stir.
Chop the garlic finely and slice the celery stalks. Add both to the meat and stir.
Split the Chinese cabbage into leaves, cut away the soft tops and slice the firm part thinly. Take the stalk and seeds out of the sweet pepper and cut the flesh into large pieces. Add the cabbage and pepper to the kazan and stir.
Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters. Add them to the kazan with the tomato paste and stew until the vegetables are soft.
Pour in 700 ml of water and bring it to the boil. Add 1 g of star anise (about 2 stars), salt and the finely chopped coriander leaves. Lower the heat to medium and simmer under a lid for 7–10 minutes. The thickest part of a piece of meat must reach at least 63 °C. Take the kazan off the heat.
Roll the dough into a sheet 1–1.5 cm thick and cut it into strips. Brush them with oil and cover with cling film. Roll the strips one at a time into long round ropes and lay them in a spiral on an oiled plate, brushing each layer with oil. Cover with cling film and leave for 10 minutes.
Bring water to the boil in a wide pan. Stretch the ropes with your fingers into thin strands about 5 mm thick, join the ends and slap the noodles lightly on the table. Add 2 tbsp of salt to the boiling water and lower the noodles in. When they float, drain them in a colander and toss them with a little oil.
Divide the noodles between plates and put the stewed meat and vegetables with their gravy on top.
Where this dish comes from
Uyghur cuisine of Kazakhstan
Lagman is a Central Asian dish of the Uyghurs and Dungans, popular in Kazakhstan too. Uyghur lagman has a thick gravy and is closer to a main course than to a soup.
