Someone remembers this hearty meat dish as a Soviet restaurant classic, someone heard about its Tatar roots. But to prepare the basics at home under the force of even a novice hostess, and it is not necessary to wait for a solemn occasion.
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Cooking at home Azu - a classic recipe
The option, familiar to most as the classic basics, is more likely Russified version. So this dish was passed from family to family, from mothers to daughters for decades. So you would try it in the dining room number 1 sample of 1975. The recipe is simple.
To get 3-4 servings at the exit, take:
- 500 grams of beef;
- 500 grams of potatoes;
- 2 medium onions;
- 3 medium sized pickles;
- 300 grams of fleshy tomatoes;
- 20 grams of wheat flour;
- 40 grams of tomato paste;
- liter of beef broth;
- oil (sunflower or corn);
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- parsley;
- salt and pepper.
Prepare the ingredients. Wash the meat in cool water and let dry. Peel the vegetables. To easily peel tomatoes, scald them in boiling water first. After cooling, the skin is easily removed.
Then we process the basis of the dish - beef tenderloin. Chop the beef into oblong pieces. The incision is made in the direction across the fibers. You should get a few centimeters wide and about six long bars, similar to those used to make beef stroganoff.
Important! For the correct basics, the loin or shoulder blade is suitable. A less successful option is the trailing edge. It is difficult to get the desired result from the sinewy and greasy parts of beef: when frying, you risk making the meat stiff and evaporating the juice.
Turn on a strong fire, heat oil in a non-stick pan. Do not cover. Sauté the beef until golden brown for ten minutes, stirring constantly.High temperature during frying will ensure the preservation of meat juice inside during further stewing.
Reduce heat by a third, sprinkle meat with flour and spices, and cook for another five minutes. Flour will make the sauce thicker, provide a consistency familiar from the Soviet recipe. Now transfer the meat to a stewpan with thick walls (a saucepan is also suitable), fill with warmed beef broth. Simmer under the lid over low heat for about half an hour. For lack of broth, use boiled water.
While the beef stews, take care of the vegetables. In a still frying pan, put the onion chopped into rings and sauté for several minutes. Grate the tomatoes or chop finely. Add to the onion rings with the tomato paste. Fry for another five seven minutes over moderate heat.
Grind pickles into small sticks. Add to the pan to the vegetables, continue to warm for another ten minutes. Then slightly increase the temperature to evaporate the excess tomato juice. After adding the vegetables to the beef, continue to stew.
Cut the potatoes into strips, as for deep fat. Fry in a new dish until golden brown at high temperature. Lightly salt. When the basics of beef are almost ready, add potato straws and mix.
Put chopped herbs and garlic. Add spices if it seemed a little. Turn off the stove, and leave the food to languish under the lid for another ten minutes. Juicy meat dinner is ready.
Azu in Tatar
The phrase “Tatar-style asu,” frankly speaking, is incorrect. We owe it to the Tatars with this simple recipe, and any element is Tatar. And subsequent modifications of the dish have little to do with the original version of the nomads, retaining only the name and basic technology.
The main feature of the Tatar azu, which is hardly applicable in home cooking, is the use of horse meat. Originally prepared the basics that way.
But you can add the national oriental flavor to the familiar recipe of the basics, slightly changing the set of ingredients given in the classic recipe above:
- replace beef with fresh mutton;
- remove flour from the recipe;
- replace the paste with sun-dried tomatoes in your own juice;
- use fat instead of oil, or take melted butter;
- put more garlic and pepper - in the Tatar version the basics are sharper;
- replace parsley with cilantro.
Otherwise, the cooking technology remains the same. Instead of a saucepan, it is preferable to use a cauldron.
Pork Azu Recipe
It is interesting: pork roasting recipe in a pan
A common modification of oriental goodies is the recipe for pork basics. It will not work to feed the Tatar with this food, since Islam forbids the use of pork carcasses, but the Slavic husband will appreciate the tender and satisfying pork basics.
Dinner for four will come from:
- 400 grams of pork tenderloin;
- 2 medium onions;
- 300 grams of potatoes;
- Bay leaf;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sunflower oil;
- tomato juice;
- pickles or cucumbers;
- three or four ripe tomatoes;
- greenery;
- salt and pepper.
Cut the pork with neat bars and fry over high heat for ten minutes. The pulp of a pig is fatter than a ram or a cow, so it is important to use less oil than in a traditional recipe.
Add onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. Having slightly reduced the temperature, fry for another five seven minutes. Add spices and fill with tomato juice. Stew under the lid until half cooked.
Fry the potatoes in a separate bowl until golden brown. Send to the meat. At the end, add bay leaf, chopped garlic and herbs.
The total cooking time is significantly less than for beef azo. Therefore, such a recipe is good if guests suddenly rushed in, or for a quick dinner.
Turkey Azu
You can diversify a low-calorie diet with a dietary variation of the basics: prepare the basics of turkey.
For 3-4 servings, take:
- 400 grams of turkey thigh fillet;
- 2 pickles;
- 30 grams of tomato paste;
- 300 grams of potatoes (4-5 medium tubers);
- 1 onion;
- 1 carrot;
- spices to taste.
Chop the turkey with elongated sticks and send to fry over medium heat in a pan or thick-walled pan. After 15 minutes, add onion half rings and carrots to straws. Keep roasting.
Meanwhile, in a separate frying pan, cook the potatoes, also chopped with straws. Combine potatoes with poultry, add tomato paste, chopped pickles, salt and pepper.
If you observe simple conditions, the basics of turkey are suitable for a children's menu. In this case, keep the number of spices to a minimum. Tomato paste only natural, cooked at home. Pickled cucumbers are preferably eliminated or reduced to a minimum. In this form, the basics of turkey are suitable for children from two years old.
Chicken fillet is less suitable for cooking basics, which require long stewing. The soft flesh of chickens will lose shape. Nevertheless, if the aesthetic requirements for a hearty dinner are not important, replace the turkey with chicken in the recipe in the same ratio.
How to cook the basics correctly: tricks and cooking features
To get a crisp consistency, it is important to follow the recipe technology. Use the helpful recommendations that will help you achieve the famous spicy salty taste.
- Do not use pickled cucumbers. They contain a lot of vinegar, which will affect the taste of the food and make the fillet tougher. Accordingly, canned gherkins are not suitable for the basics.
- Follow the rule: first separate frying the ingredients, then stewing together. Only in this way, as a result, it will turn out to be the basics, and not the potato stew with tomato paste.
You can diversify the traditional recipe by preparing the basics not on the stove. The dish will acquire new shades of taste.
Cooking the basics in the oven in pots
Try to cook the basics according to the original recipe using ceramic or clay pots for baking.
The composition and number of components are identical to the classic recipe.
First, you still have to fry the beef in a hot frying pan. Then distribute the ingredients in the pots, following the sequence: first vegetables, then a layer of tomato puree, after a half-prepared meat portion, on top of the potatoes. Smear with tomato puree again, and you can also add some sour cream to this option.
Place a crushed clove of garlic in the middle of the pot. Do not forget to slightly add salt and pepper to each new layer.
In a preheated oven, bake the basics for 60 minutes, maintaining a temperature of 200 degrees. If using pork, reduce the baking time to 40 minutes.
Cooking in a slow cooker
When the goal is to cook the basics quickly and with a minimum of hassle, use a slow cooker. Use products from the classic ABC recipe, halving the amount of ingredients.
First turn on the appliance for the "frying" function. Pour the vegetable oil into the bottom of the bowl, heat and lay the beef or lamb. Stir constantly, keep the lid open. After 15 minutes, add onions and cucumbers. Fry for another 5 minutes until the vegetables are brown.
Place the potatoes in the multicooker bowl, fill with water so that the contents are slightly visible from under the liquid. Add tomato paste, salt and pepper, and garlic. Set the quenching program for 90 minutes. Ten minutes before the end of the program, open the lid, mix and add fresh chopped greens.
