Episode 2: Sharing Traditions

Uzbek Cuisine with Damira Inatullaeva

 

What we ate:

I attended a cooking class at Damira’s home in Borough Park Brooklyn, through the League of Kitchens. During the five-hour class, we made —

• Mashhurda — comforting soup with carrots inions, mung beans, rice, dried apricots, dill, and cilantro.
• Pumpkin Hanum — steamed dumplings filled with butternut squash, onion, and cumin, and served with a tomato and onion sauce.
• Pumpkin Sambusa — Flaky triangular pies filled with butternut squash, onion, and cumin, then brushed with egg yolk and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
• Radish Salad — thinly sliced radish mixed with labneh, garlic, dill, and cilantro.
• Halvatar — smooth and creamy cinnamon scented custard made from just flour, oil, and sugar. A classic Uzbek holiday dessert.

 

Damira’s Recommendation for Uzbek Food in New York City:

📍Gulchatay — 1915 Avenue U, Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay)

 

More NYC Uzbek Spots to check out:

📍Uma’s — 92-07 Rockaway Beach Blvd, Queens (Rockaway Beach)

📍Nargis Cafe — 1655 Sheepshead Bay Rd, Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay)

📍Shashlik House — 3 locations in Brooklyn (Borough Park, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay)

📍Taam Tov — 41 W 47th St, Manhattan (Midtown)

📍Farida — 32 Cedar St, Manhattan (Financial District)

📍Tashkent Supermarket — 713 Brighton Beach Ave, Brooklyn (Brighton Beach)

📍Chaikhana Sem Sorok — 63-52 Booth St, Queens (Rego Park)

📍Taste of Samarkand — 62-16 Woodhaven Blvd, Queens (Rego Park)

📍Kashkar Cafe — 1141 Brighton Beach Ave, Brooklyn (Brighton Beach)

Uzbek Recipes to Try:

Mashhurda (Mung Bean and Vegetable Soup) - serves 6 Recipe courtesy of Damira Inatullaeva and the League of Kitchens “Mashhurda is translation from our language: food with mung beans. In this food, we have everything that our body needs. We have protein from mung beans, carrot, onion, and greens enrich our food with vitamins.”

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup mung beans
• ¼ cup Sunflower or other natural oil
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, cut in ¼ inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 ½ cups cold water
• ⅓ cup Turkish baldo rice or other short-grain rice
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 cups fresh dill, plus ¼ cup chopped for garnish
• 2 cups fresh cilantro, plus ¼ cup chopped for garnish
• ¾ cup Turkish dried apricots
• Labneh or Greek yogurt for serving
• Ground black pepper, for garnish

 

Cooking Instructions

1. Bring a kettle with 6 cups of water to a boil
2. Cover the ming beans with water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer for about 6 minutes – this helps to remove any small particles and dirt. Drain.
3. Pour the oil into a large soup pot and turn the heat to high for about 1 minute. Add the onions and cook for about 1 minute. 
4. Add the carrots, tomato sauce, and 1 teaspoon of the salt and cook for about 2 minutes.
5. Add the mung beans and the cold water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the mung beans begin to break apart, about 20 minutes. 
6. Add the boiling water and bring the soup back to a boil. 
7. Stir in the rice, bay leaves, dill, and cilantro. Cook, with the lid ajar, stirring occasionally, until the mung beans and rice are soft, about 20 more minutes. 
8. Stir in the apricots and the remaining 2 teaspoons salt and cook for 1 minute. 
9. Ladle into bowls and mound a large pinch of the mixed herbs in the middle of the soup. Top with a dollop of labne and a sprinkle of ground black pepper. 

 

Pumpkin Sambusa (Baked Savory Pies) - serves 8

Recipe courtesy of Damira Inatullaeva and the League of Kitchens

“On all events, we have sambusas on the table. You can order them in restaurants. You can buy them on the street. Or you can make them at home. The recipes of the dough can be different. And this is the recipe of my mother-in-law.”

 

In Uzbekistan, making sambusas is often a communal activity.

“They gather together — children, grandchildren, and other family members. It is old tradition. Many, many years ago, when we have no gas and water in our home, some of the family members, they prepared firewood for cooking. Others brought water from the wells. Then, all together, they folded dumplings, or made sambusas. And during this process, the elder family members, they shared stories from their life…And it was like education in the kitchen.”

Dough

• 1 extra large egg  
• 1 ½ teaspoons table salt 
• ¾ cup water 
• ¼ teaspoon sunflower or other neutral oil 
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed for kneading and dusting 

Filling 

• 1 pound butternut squash, peeled, cut in 1/4-inch cubes (3.5 cups) 
• 1 ½ yellow onions, chopped 
• 1 teaspoon table salt 
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 1 ½ tablespoons sunflower or other neutral oil 
• 2 teaspoons cumin seed 
• 1 pinch (or more) of cayenne pepper

Sambusa

• 1 extra large egg yolk
• Splash of water
• 3 tablespoons sunflower or other neutral oil 
• Sesame seeds, for sprinkling

 

Special equipment:​ a 3-foot long 1-inch diameter wooden dowel. If you can’t find this, a regular rolling pin will work.

 

To make the dough:

1. Put the egg in a medium bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water and add to the egg. Whisk in the oil. 
2. Pour into the flour and mix with your hands, kneading and pinching and using your knuckles to knead. Add a few drops of water if the dough is too dry, or sprinkle with a little more flour if it’s too sticky. You want it to come together, lifting the flour from the bowl, so it’s smooth and not sticky. 
3. Cut the dough in half and form into 2 balls. Cover and let rest for 3 hours. 

 

To make the filling:

1. Mix the squash, onions, salt, pepper, and oil in a large bowl. 
2. Crush the cumin seeds in your hands and stir into the squash, along with the cayenne pepper.

 

To make the sambusas:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Whisk the egg yolk and water together. 
2. Sprinkle one of the dough rounds with flour and press into it with your knuckles. Give a half turn and press again. Repeat for two more turns. The round will be about ⅓ inch thick and 8 inches in diameter. 
3. Sprinkle with a little more flour and start to roll it out, turning a quarter turn after a few rolls. Roll lightly, not pressing down on the dough, and move your hands back and forth on the dowel to get the disc even. 
4. If using a 3-foot dowel: Roll the bottom few inches of the dough over the dowel and roll upwards, keeping the dough around the dowel. Continue to roll the dough, turning quarter turns, until it’s a 20-inch round. Watch a video of Damira rolling out her dough. This process creates a phyllo-like dough with many delicate layers. It will be thin and somewhat transparent, but sturdy. NOTE: If you do not have a 3-foot dowel, simply roll the dough into a 20-inch round.
5. Pour the oil on the dough and spread with your hands to cover.
6. Roll it up into a 1 ½ inch thick log, then fold in half. Cut at the fold to make 2 logs. Cut each log into 4 pieces.
7. Stand each piece on its end and push it into itself. Sprinkle dough with some flour and roll out to about a 6-inch round.
8. Fill each round with about 2 tablespoons of the filling.
9. Fold the dough into a triangle:​ Hold the dough at 10 and 2 o’clock and bring the edges together to meet at the center of the filling. Squeeze to seal. Then take the dough at 6 o’clock and bring to the center. Squeeze to seal. Turn it over and tuck in the corners to make a neat triangle.
10. Put the ​sambusa​ seam side down on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
11. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. 

 

League of Kitchens

Damira is one of the many amazing cooking instructors with the League of Kitchens. This amazing company recruits immigrant women in New York City to teach cooking classes from the comfort of their own home. Learn their family recipes through in-person or online classes.

 

Episode Credits

Hosted, Produced, and Edited by Diane Bezucha

Additional Editing by Christina Mitchell

Music Supervision by Rachel Helman

Original Music by Richard Tunstall

Additional Music

• “Coronea” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Marisala, (2017)
• "Cast in Wicker" by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Aeronaut, (2018)
• “Filing Away” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Crab Shack, (2016)