Porridge is it? No. Bread? Also no. What is it then? How many times I didn’t flip through the Internet pages in search of a lean recipe, how many didn’t ask my friends, everyone said his own thing - I eat like porridge with lard, but in our family it’s bread. As I understand it, a lot depends on the method of preparation and the cereal that is used. I decided to check all this by taking millet groats.

No, it could have been made from flour, but I have bread. Yeah, that means that if you make a recipe from cereals, then the mamalyga will turn out, but not like bread, but porridge. Let's prepare this business? After all, millet is a well-known helper to the body. It makes no sense to lay out the periodic table here, which may well fit with a grain. Better to cook and see what it is - hominy!

Yes, I left the recipe even here - there were a lot of them. And I also wanted it to be tasty.

Ingredients:

water - 3 glasses

vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.

breading - 1 tablespoon

Cooking time: about an hour

Complexity: have to strain a little, well, average so

Preparation

As always, let's start with cereals. I specially bought a good variety so as not to mess around and get a good taste. But I still looked through the grains. Then they must be rinsed well. First, wash with warm water, then hot. Live and learn, because I always washed cold. Recently I realized that bitterness is washed off with hot water. In a word, we will wash it.


We cook, pouring the cereal with clean cold water, removing the foam, which will simply trample in the first minutes. What do we cook? Better in a pot, because a thin-walled saucepan is not suitable - the bottom is slightly burnt. After all, porridge must be cooked for a long time, so that no moisture remains in it.

While the cereal comes in a saucepan or pot, let's adjust something so that the mamalyga is not just porridge or bread. After all, porridge is made with mushrooms, etc., and seeds are added to bread, etc. I chose garlic.

Having crumbled the garlic, I also cut some onions. Leek, only the green part. Then the taste will be different, and the view is prettier, brighter, or something.

When the cereal thickens as much as possible, add a spoonful of coarse breading into it, and not flour, as in the recipe!

Mix everything well and continue. Here she puffs, boils down, and we will add garlic and onions here.

Actually, whether the mamalyga is ready or not, it will be seen immediately. Just eat it right away! If like bread, then spread the mass on the raft and bake in the oven, or hold it in the air and cut into pieces. And I tried to wrap it in parchment.

1. Millet (about 125 grams) - 1 stack.
2. Water (proportion to millet 1: 3) - 3 stack.
3. Semolina (about 35 grams) - 2 tbsp. l.

How to cook

Being in Moscow for a long time, sometimes there are moments of nostalgia for Nalchik, this is especially evident at this time of the year, when it is cloudy outside, it rains and does not say anything about the fact that it will become warmer. My hometown seems to be a southern paradise, and I want to rush there as quickly as possible to catch the last warm days of a hot Indian summer, walk around the Atazhukinsky Garden not in boots, but in slippers, swim in a clean river and eat khychins and shashliks in a cafe overlooking the mountains, which opens from anywhere in the city and from the window of your home.

But recently I found out that in the capital there is a place where the atmosphere of the native republic is recreated, any guests are welcome (especially from Kabardino-Balkaria) and, importantly, you can try dishes of your favorite Kabardian cuisine: lisuklibzhe, lyagur gazh with pasta, jedlibzhe and lacumas. The Akbash restaurant turned out to be such a corner of Kabardino-Balkaria in Moscow.

At the entrance, visitors to the cafe are greeted by a dancing couple in traditional dress. Previously, only the Circassians of the upper classes could afford to wear white Circassians, so I will assume that we are facing a princely couple.

The entrance to the bar is made in an authentic, cowboy style, similar to the entrance to the saloon of the times of the Wild West, but this does not spoil the picture at all. Despite the fact that earlier a flimsy translucent gate often led to the Adygeyan courtyard, such an improvement, on the contrary, is a plus, given that there were no bars before :)

Above the comfortable sofas, you can see the grape bushes. The grapevine can be found in Kabarda not only in the courtyards, but also on the balconies of five-story buildings in Nalchik, and other regional centers. I remember we also had grapes growing behind the balcony, I even tried to make wine out of it, and it worked)

Quite a cozy place. I was pleased with the ceiling, which depicts a sky with clouds, which visually adds space and brightens the bar room.

The Adyghe flag is embroidered on the pillow.

On the walls there are chasing depicting dancing horsemen and scenes of folk festivities.

The eagle seems to be waiting in the wings to attack the chicken brought to the visitor.

We looked around a bit, now let's start making lacums. This is a very simple dish, akin to pies, but without the filling. Celebrations of the Circassians (wedding, birth of children, etc.), days of mourning and Muslim holidays cannot do without them. However, if desired, any mother will make lakums, no matter what day is on the calendar.

We dilute the yeast in water.

Pour milk there.

We mix.

Add salt and sugar.

Some eggs.

A little bit of sunflower oil.

Well, the main ingredient is flour.

First, add a little, stir ..

Then another ...

And add until the dough turns out.

Now hands are in play.

We leave the dough for a few hours to rise.

Time has passed, the lacum dough is ready, you can heat the pan with sunflower oil.

Roll out the dough on the table.

We make these rectangles.

And deep-fry.

Five minutes and you're done.

Next in line is the jedlibge - chicken with sauce. First, we cook the chicken: we cook it while the sauce is being prepared.

Cut off the excess parts from the chicken carcass.

And put it in boiling water.

Add salt.

Finely chopped onions are lightly fried in vegetable oil.

Then add salt and flour to it.

And some broth from the pot in which the chicken was boiled.

Stir.

The chicken has already been cooked, we take it out and cut it into pieces.

At this time, add sour cream (preferably homemade) to the sauce, but heavy cream is also possible.

Stir and cover. In a few minutes the shyps (Kabardian sauce) will be ready.

Add chicken to the sauce and now everything is for sure.

On a plate and to the table! You will lick your fingers :) It is advisable to eat the sauce with pasta. What is Kabardian pasta, I will tell you further.

Now I will show you how to make a dish called lisuklibzhe. This is finely chopped meat with sauce.

Cut the lamb meat into small pieces.

The dish consists of these ingredients. In general, the simplicity of preparation and the minimum of products necessary for cooking is a feature of the Adygeyan cuisine, what is its advantage. You can cook any Kabardian dish, no matter how far you are from home.

Pour oil into the cauldron ...

And we throw in the chopped lamb.

After it is a little fried, add water there ...

After a while, coarsely chopped onions.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cover with a lid and wait until fully cooked.

The dish is ready, you can safely try it) Preferably with pasta.

And now let's talk about the second bread of the Circassians, although why about the second, about the first! The pasta is made from millet, and is a steeply cooked, lean frozen porridge, with which all the salty dishes of the Adyghe cuisine are eaten. Millet, it is the same millet, is even mentioned in the Nart epic, in the episode when the evil monster Emynezh stole millet from the sledges, donated by the god of fertility Thagolej. By the way, the fact of robbery can be seen in the cartoon "Son of Stone".

Millet is first washed under water.

Then the millet is sent to boiling water, and from time to time is stirred so that there are no lumps.

When the millet is sufficiently boiled, add a little semolina to it.

We wait a little more, mix and remove from heat.

We spread the mass in a deep bowl.

Spread butter on top so that a rough crust does not form. The pasta will be ready in an hour.

The last dish in our today's story is lyagur gazha, which in translation from Kabardian means fried dried meat.
For this dish, we take the lamb sirloin, but I will add that dried meat can also be cooked from beef.

We cook the meat in this way, then it will be cut into strips.

Pepper and salt.

Step-by-step recipe for Kabardian "pasta" with chicken with photo.

• National cuisine: Caucasian kitchen
• Type of dish: Second courses
• Complexity of the recipe: A simple recipe
• Cooking technology: Cooking

• Preparation time: 15 min
• Cooking time: 45 minutes
• Servings: 3 servings
• Calorie count: 238 kcal
• Occasion: Lunch

Kabardian or Caucasian pasta with chicken. This pasta has nothing to do with the Italian pasta that everyone is familiar with. The common pronunciation is "pasta". In fact, Caucasian pasta is a cool millet porridge, somewhat similar to hominy.

This pasta is served as a cold side dish for poultry in a creamy sauce, or for smoked meat. Pasta is also served in the Caucasus as bread with smoked cheese.

Ingredients for 3 servings

• Water 600 ml
• Millet groats 200 g
• Chicken breast 300 g
• Bulb onions 2 pcs.
• Corn flour 1 tbsp. l.
• Ground sweet paprika 10 g
• Salt with herbs 20 g
• Garlic 1 head

Step by step

1. For the preparation of "pasta" we need; millet, water, cornmeal and salt. For cooking meat; onions, garlic, meat, sour cream, water, salt, paprika.
2. Rinse millet well with cold water. Cover with water and cook.
3. When the water boils, add corn flour and salt, then cook, stirring continuously, when the porridge begins to move away from the walls, it is ready. The porridge should be very "cool".
4. Lubricate the form with butter and spread the hot porridge. We tamp well. Let it cool at room temperature.
5. Peel the onion and garlic. Cut the onion into half rings.
6. Cut the chicken into small cubes. I used chicken breast, but you can use any part of the chicken.
7. Fry onion and garlic with spices and a little vegetable oil.
8. Then add the chopped chicken fillet. Simmer for 5-7 minutes.
9. Then pour in water, then cook with the lid closed.
10. 5 minutes before the meat is ready, add sour cream or cream, let it boil. If the sauce looks runny, you can add a little flour.
11. We take out the paste from the mold, then cut it with a knife with moistened water. Cold paste cut better.
12. Serve the pasta with the chicken.