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Kuurdak
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
The closest thing the Kyrgyz nomads have to a sacred dish: chunks of fresh mutton or horse meat, along with the liver, kidneys, and heart, slow-fried in their own rendered tail-fat with nothing more than onions, salt, and sometimes a single chili. No water, no broth, no spice mixture; the entire dish is built on the meat's own fat and the deep caramelization that comes from cooking in a cast-iron kazan over open fire. Traditionally prepared the day an animal is slaughtered, kuurdak is a way of using up every fresh organ before the rest of the carcass is salt-cured or dried for the long Kyrgyz winter. It's the host's gesture of respect to honored guests at a toi (celebration), served straight from the kazan with hot non-bread and a bowl of fermented mare's milk (kymyz) to cut through the richness. The dish travels across Central Asia under different names, qurdaq in Kazakh, qovurdoq in Uzbek, but the Kyrgyz version, made with the fattiest tail meat from highland sheep, remains the most concentrated and most beloved.
Ingredients
- 1 kgmutton or lamb with fat (cut into 3 cm cubes)
- 100 glamb tail fat or rendered fat (curdyuk)
- 200 glamb liver and kidney (optional, cubed)
- 4 largeyellow onions (thickly sliced)
- 4 clovesgarlic (crushed)
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 chiliwhole dried red chili (optional)
- 2 tspsalt
- 1 handfulfresh dill (chopped, to finish)
- 4 roundsnon bread or flatbread (to serve)
Directions
- 1
Render the tail fat in a heavy cast-iron pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat until crackling and golden; lift out and reserve the cracklings.
- 2
In the rendered fat, sear the mutton cubes in batches until deeply browned on all sides; remove to a plate.
- 3
Lower the heat, add the onions with a pinch of salt, and let them slowly soften and brown in the meat fat for 15 to 20 minutes.
- 4
Return the meat (and offal if using) to the pan with the garlic, cumin, whole chili, and remaining salt.
- 5
Cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 1 hour, stirring once or twice; no water is added, the dish must cook in its own juices.
- 6
Uncover, raise the heat, and let the remaining liquid evaporate; the meat should glaze in the dark fat.
- 7
Stir through the dill and the reserved cracklings; serve hot, scooped onto torn non bread.