Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The forgotten recipes of Azerbaijani cuisine are about to be revived at a Baku food festival that promises an authentic culinary fare through the subtle flavors that originated in the country centuries ago.

The fest entitled "Forgotten Recipes" will be organized by the Administration of the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve on September 1-3.

The three-day festival will offer guests a wide selection of dishes just in the historical center of Baku, Icherisheher. Don't miss a chance to taste ancient dishes of the Azerbaijani people.

The Azerbaijani cuisine belongs to one of the most interesting cuisines in the world thanks to its originality and diversity. Some of its dishes were included in the menu of international cuisines and loved by every tourist visiting the country. The national cooks have preserved old cooking methods, flavour and traditions and modified them taking into account up-to-date techniques.

Nine out of eleven climate zones are present in Azerbaijan. This hugely contributed to the fertility of the land, which in its turn results in the diversity of national cuisine. There is no lack of ingredients in the cuisine of the Azerbaijani people, as the country’s mountain and subtropical climate gives everything needed to cook delicious and healthy food.

The majority of national dishes are mutton, beef, poultry, minced meat and surely fish. Pilaf with fragrant saffron, juicy kebab flavored with sumac, over 200 varieties of dolma, buglama and levengi – fish dishes, , shekerbura and pakhlava - sweets , a table overladen with fresh fruits and vegetables and fruit juices – all these are various and original Azerbaijani food.

Some Azerbaijani dishes are cooked in special utensils: piti soup is prepared in clay pots, pilaf - in special boilers with a thick bottom (kazan), kebab is planked on special skewers. More than 2,000 recopies are known in the national cuisine.

Azerbaijan offers a number of varieties of kebab – barbeque. Tava kebab, mangal kebab, tandir kebab, saj kebab, lyulya kebab, basdirma kebab – are just few of them.

Flour dishes take a special place among the national cuisine, which help to diversify the winter menu. Dushbere, gyurza, gutab, surhulu and khingal are the most delicious and far-famed flour dishes of Azerbaijan.

Rich and diverse fish resources of the Caspian Sea, the rivers Kura and Araz allowed to include a variety of fish dishes in the Azerbaijani cuisine. Various dishes are prepared from sturgeon, carp, salmon, kutum and other fish.

Such seasoning as lemon, olives, food acids, abgora, narsharab, cherry plums, elbukhara, gora, kizil-akhta, kuraga (dried apricots), lavashana, sumac and others are widely used to enhance the food taste and smell.

Sweets in Azerbaijan also have their own specific features. It is impossible to imagine a festive table without pakhlava, shorgogal, shekerbura, kyulcha, tikhma. There are over 30 varieties of sweets: each area has its special kind.

Tea table takes a special place in Azerbaijani families. Tea has become an integral part of customs and traditions.

There is a lot to say about the delicious Azerbaijani cuisine. But, as the saying goes, it's better to see once than hear a hundred times.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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