Lagman, traditional Uyghur recipe. Central Asian cuisine

 

Today I’m going to describe how to cook my favorite dish of Central Asia: lagman! These spaghetti with vegetables and meat are a specialty of the Uyghur cuisine, an ethnicity that comes from Western China, from the Xin Jiang region. Many are the Uighurs who live in Kazakhstan, since they are persecuted by the Chinese government for their religion (they are Muslims).

In Kazakhstan, lagman is a specialty served in every restaurant and, as Italian, I could not help but love this dish made of spaghetti from Chinese cuisine: in fact, Lagman comes from the word “la mian”,  pulled spaghetti.

This pasta is similar to Italian bigoli and I tried to cook them at home; even if, honestly, I did not succeed so well as the originals. I therefore describe the method; but if you have little time, you can go to a Chinese store and buy spaghetti that must be round and thick (like udon).

For the seasoning there is no fixed type; the lagman can be in stock or dry; always dressed with more types of vegetables and meat such as beef, chicken, mutton. You can then use the vegetables you like best; although garlic, peppers and tomato sauce should not be missed.

I propose below one of my variants, cooked at home with what I had in the fridge!

Ingredients for spaghetti for 2 people

160 grams of  flour type 00

40 grams of semolina

Half a glass of water

White vinegar

Ingredients for the sauce for 2 people

A chicken breast

Tomato sauce

3 bellpeppers of different colors

4 champignons mushrooms

3 cloves of garlic

1 big potato

1 radicchio from Verona (instead of Italian salad, you can use Chinese cabbage)

Salt and black pepper, half a teaspoon of spicy paprika, 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika, 1 teaspoon of coriander powder, soy sauce, sunflower oil.

Preparation of the pasta                                                                                         Preparation time: 1 hour

Pour the ingredients into a large bowl, mix them with a spoon and work them until a uniform down is obtained.

Cover the dough and refrigerate it for 20 minutes.

Pull out the dough and spread it in a thick veil about 0.5 cm. Cut it vertically into strips about 1.5 cm wide.

Take the strip and work it to form a spaghetti, as it shown in the video here.

Wrap the spiral spaghetti, sprinkle with a drizzle of white vinegar and place all the lagman covered in the refrigerator.

Preparation of the sauce.                                                                                    Preparation time: 40 minutes

In a pan, preferably wok, heat the sunflower oil and add all the spices. Cut the chicken breast into slices and brown it with the spices.

Add the finely chopped garlic with the potatoes cut into small cubes. Mix and after a few minutes pour half a cup of tomato sauce.

Then add the peppers and champignons mushrooms previously washed and cut not too fine, pour half a glass of water, stir and cook for 15 minutes. Finally add some Verona radicchio leaves and two tablespoons of soy sauce. Stir and cook for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and pour the spaghetti lagman inside to cook. Depending on the consistency, 3 minutes are enough to be ready.

Drain, serve the lagman and add plenty of the sauce with the broth created. Enjoy your meal!

For others original recipes from Central Asia, click here.