Azu in Tatar is one of the most popular recipes. Supermarkets even sell ready-made cold cuts for him. To cook a real Tatar basics, and not a distant variation of it, you need to follow a simple but fairly strict recipe. Real basics are made in Tatar style with pickles, a recipe with a photo is simply necessary for such dishes so as not to get confused and not miss anything, because several operations are performed during cooking (cutting, frying, mixing, stewing). One of the secrets to making a delicious azu is using melted butter. It must be of good quality. If you don’t have it, then fry the meat in vegetable oil, and the potatoes in butter.
Ingredients:
- Beef - 500 g,
- Bulb - 1 large,
- Fresh tomatoes - 3 large,
- Meat broth or hot water - half a glass,
- Pickled cucumbers - 2-3 pieces,
- Potato - 500 g,
- Melted butter or vegetable oil - 80 g,
- Salt - 2/3 teaspoon,
- Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon
- Bay leaf - 1 piece,
- Pepper - to taste (I have a mixture of peppers in the grinder)
How to cook aza in Tatar style with pickles
Cooking azu has a few simple rules, thanks to which you will prepare a delicious azu. And it will be really basic, and not a nameless stew with meat.
Rule 1. Meat for azu is first fried and then stewed.
Moreover, you need to fry the meat in a hot frying pan so that not a drop of juice flows out of the meat. You need to fry the meat quickly enough so that only a crispy crust forms. If you do not have ghee, then use vegetable. On the usual creamy meat will burn.
In practice, it looks like this. First, the meat must be cut across the grain. Thin long pieces. You can, of course, take a ready-made chopped azu in the store. But we are not looking for easy ways. Personally, I have dealt with very, very stringy cheap beef. But even from it it is quite possible to cut such neat pieces. This, by the way, is the beauty of dishes like basics, that you don’t have to bother with the choice of meat.
Next, take a frying pan. It is better that it was without a non-stick coating. Because Teflon pans cannot be heated to too high temperatures - the coating deteriorates. Put on high heat. Pour the oil, after a minute we spread the meat. In one layer! That is, we will fry in several steps. It is important that there is not a mountain of meat in the pan, otherwise it will not be able to warm up evenly and will begin to release juice. And for the preparation of azu, this is unacceptable.
The meat immediately starts to sizzle. Let cook for a minute and a half, flip over. If it sticks somewhere, scrape it off. Another minute and a half and that's it.
We spread the meat in a saucepan and a cauldron, where the azu will be prepared. Pour more oil into the pan, lay out the second portion of meat and do with it in the same way as with the first batch.
Rule 2. The onion is fried in the same pan where the meat was fried.
This trick will make the taste of azu more intense. Nothing needs to be washed. Roasts do not need to be scraped off. We cut the onion into four parts and then thinly into quarters of the rings. And put it directly on the same frying pan where the meat was just fried.
Put on medium heat and fry, stirring occasionally. Gradually, the burnt plaque becomes less and less in the pan, it combines with the onion. And now all the fat remaining from the meat is absorbed into the onion. Should get what you see in the photo.
Put the onion into the pot with the meat.
Let's move on to tomatoes. There are no clear rules here. Someone takes a jar of chopped in their own juice, someone breeds additional tomato paste. I prefer fresh tomatoes. To quickly grind them, I use a coarse grater. I cut the tomatoes in half and rub them with a cut on a grater until only the skin remains in the palm of my hand. Literally in three minutes, you get a whole plate of grated tomatoes without skins (the grater simply does not take them).
Add broth or hot water to the pot. Little liquid is needed. Only to completely cover the meat.
Rule 3. Fried meat is stewed with onions, broth and tomatoes until soft.
You need to stew the meat under the lid, on a very slow fire, so that the azu only gurgles slightly. And there are no clear indications of time here, because meat is different for everyone. Young beef can be stewed until tender for half an hour. My meat was stewed for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Rule 4. Potatoes are fried in melted butter.
Slicing potatoes can be arbitrary. I like straws most of all, in the form of meat.
If you don't have ghee, just use butter. Gram 80, no less. Potatoes are great for absorbing it. Her taste will be amazing. Crispy, bright crust. You do not need to fry the potatoes until soft. Blushed - and enough. Be sure to stir it several times during the frying process.
The potatoes are laid out in a saucepan with already completely stewed meat, pickles are added. And here, too, there is a rule.
Rule 5. Cucumbers should be pickled, not pickled.
Yes, I understand that not everyone has the opportunity to harvest pickles for the winter - after all, they must be stored in the cellar or in the refrigerator. And if you take pickled ones, then this is not fatal. But according to the rules, salty ones are needed.
You can cut them again, however you like. I cut them finely-finely so that they are perceived as a flavor additive, without dominating the dish.
Next, we add tomato paste, pepper the dish and salt. Yes, we salt only at the very end. Why? Because pickles come in different degrees of salting. And by salting meat and potatoes before you put them all together, you run the risk of getting too salty azu. And this is definitely not included in our plans.
I ended up adding 2/3 teaspoons of salt. I mixed everything and put it under the lid for exactly 10 minutes. Plate heating is minimal. During this time, all the ingredients will have time to combine into a single composition, but the potatoes will not have time to fall apart.
So let's recap:
1. Meat for azu is first fried over high heat until a crust forms, and then stewed until soft.
2. Onions are fried in the same pan where the meat was cooked in order to “pick up” the remnants of the aroma and taste of the meat.
3. The time of stewing meat depends on its quality. On average, it takes from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.
4. The potatoes are fried in ghee (can be replaced with butter).
5. Cucumbers should be pickled, not pickled.
I hope now you will cope with the preparation of azu in Tatar perfectly well.
Bon appetit!
