Chechen cuisine - Meat

Zhizhig-galnash - meat ravioli (serves 4)

Mutton or beef - 1 kg to 2 kg

Dough: corn or wheat flour - 700 g

Garlic gravy: garlic - 100 g, meat stock - 300 g, salt, pepper

Put fat mutton or beef to boil in salted water. When ready, cut meat into cubes of 50g to 60g each.

Dough:
(a) use wheat flour to make unleavened dough. Roll out till 1 cm thick, cut into long stripes. Cut stripes into diamond-shaped pieces of 4 cm by 4 cm each. Roll out thin.
(b) Add boiling water to corn flour. Batter shall be thick! Make oval-shaped ravioli. Put to boil in meat stock. Serve, when ready, with meat cubes on top of ravioli. In a separate bowl, serve garlic ground with salt and soaked in small quantity of fat meat stock or broth. Meat stock is served as side dish. Meat and ravioli are to be dipped in garlic gravy and washed down with meat stock.

Dalnash (serves 2)

Dough: wheat flour - 300 g, yogurt - 200 g, salt - 6 g, baking soda - 0.7 g

Filling: tripe - 400 g, beef fat - 50 g, onion - 50 g, salt - 6 g

ground pepper - 0.05 g, butter - 50 g

Blend wheat flour with yogurt, salt and baking soda. Batter should not be thick.

To make filling, chop finely boiled tripe, fat and onion. Put all to brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut dough into 2 big circles. Place filling in center of each. Press to seal and roll out until they are 8 mm to 10 mm thick. Bake in ungreased griddle or on hot stove. When ready, brush with hot water for softness and to remove burnt flour. Brush with butter and cut into 4, 6 or 8 triangles. Butter may be served in separate bowl.

Home-made sausage (serves 1)

Mutton or beef (pulp) - 130 g, Lamb gut - 70 g, Onion - 60 g

Beef fat - 50 g, Rice - 15 g, Salt - 5 g

black pepper - 1 g

Dough: corn or wheat flour - 160 g, water - 90 g

Garlic gravy: garlic - 25 g, meat stock - 30 g, salt - 3 g

ground black pepper - 0.05 g

Filling: chop meat and fat finely with knife, or pass both through meat mincer with big openings in grate. Wash rice in hot water, add salt, pepper, mix thoroughly with meat.

Let lamb gut soak for 30 to 40 minutes in warm water. Wash well. Stuff lamb gut with meat filling. Tie up gut ends. Add hot water and put to boil for 1 to 1.5 hours.

For ravioli, see Zhizhig galnash. Put ravioli to boil for 20 to 25 minutes in salted water.

Serve sausage with corn or wheat flour ravioli.

Crush garlic with salt. Add small quantity of fat meat stock. Serve in separate bowl.

Chicken a la Chechnya (one portion)

Chicken - 208g., salt - 3g., onions - 5g. For the sauce: butter - 20g., whole milk - 50g., onions - 60g., black ground pepper - 0,05g., salt - 2g.

For dumplings: flour (corn or wheat) - 160g., water - 90g., salt - 2g. Broth - 250g., boiled milk - 50g.

Put cleaned and washed chicken into hot water (2-2.5 liters per 1 kilo), wait until the water boils, then turn down the heat. Remove the scum, add cut onions, salt and leave it to simmer in closed vessel until ready. Cut the boiled chicken into portions, put into a  pan with sauted onions, add the whole milk, salt and pepper, cover with a lid and leave for 5 - 10 minutes. Make dumplings out of corn or wheat flour. (The recipe for dumplings see above under "Zhizhig galnash"). Boil the dumplings in broth or salted water for 20-25 minutes, put on a plate, top with chicken pieces. Serve the chicken broth with boiled whole milk separately.