Dishes in a cauldron
Most often in Russia, fish soup, pilaf and porridge are cooked in a cauldron. If you cook fish soup, it is better to select good, albeit small, fish. Take the one with the larger head. You can choose a variety of vegetables and spices to suit your taste. You can add cereal, but remember, it is not added to the classic fish soup. The porridge in the cauldron turns out very rich. What grain to cook it from is up to you to choose. Most often, buckwheat, pearl barley, rice and millet porridge are prepared. A variety of vegetables, meat, depending on preference, stew or sausage are added there. Pilaf on a cauldron is a particularly popular dish lately. This is probably due to the fact that a cauldron is an ideal utensil for him. The taste of pilaf is excellent. Despite traditions, in Russia they take any meat they like. In addition to these, you can cook a huge number of other dishes in a cauldron. We will introduce you to some recipes in this article.
Duck pilaf
© Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 500 g rice
- 1 duck
- 400 g carrots
- 400 g onion
- 750 ml water
- 10 cloves of garlic
- salt, pepper, barberry and turmeric to taste
Preparation
- Remove the skin and bones from the duck, we only need the meat.
- Cut the meat into large pieces.
- Cut the carrots into strips and the onion into half rings.
- Place duck fat in a cauldron and fry it until it turns into cracklings. Take the cracklings and fry the meat in the resulting fat until golden brown.
- Add onions and carrots, stir and fry for another 10 minutes.
- Then add salt, add spices, cover with a lid and simmer for 25 minutes over medium heat.
- Rinse the rice in several waters. Place a layer of rice on top of the zirvak in a cauldron, add water, salt and put on fire.
- When the water boils, reduce the heat to low and add the head of garlic, removing only the top layer of peel.
- Cover the cauldron with a lid and cook until the rice has absorbed all the water. And you can learn about 7 unforgivable mistakes that novice cooks make on the way to perfect pilaf in our article.
- Turn off the stove and let the pilaf brew for a while.
- Stir and serve the pilaf.
- Bon appetit!
Dish recipes
Pilaf with pork in a cauldron on a fire
Probably one of the most delicious and colorful pilafs! Your friends will certainly like it. The main ingredients for preparing this dish are: pork (approximately 1.5-2 kg), rice (1 kg), carrots (1 kg), onions (500-600 g) and sunflower oil (0.5 cup ). Everyone prepares the base for pilaf or zirvak according to their own taste. You can make it hot, spicy, add barberries, dried fruits, garlic, cumin – it’s up to you. One hour of effort and the pilaf is ready!
Fish soup in a cauldron
Oh, this soup with the smell of a fire is simply delicious! When you're fishing with friends or family, try cooking this miracle. Any fish will do, as long as it’s fresh. You will need an almost standard set of products: fish (about 1 kg), potatoes (5-6 pcs.), carrots (2-3 pcs.), onions (4-5 pcs.), water (about 3 liters), salt and greens (to taste). But there are two important points. When the fish is almost ready, pour a glass of vodka into the ear and then lower the charred edge of the log there for 2-3 seconds. Only then add the greens. Remove all coals from under the cauldron and let the soup brew for about 15 minutes. A delicious dish is ready! In total, cooking should not take more than 40 minutes.
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Shish kebab in a cauldron on a fire
Meat cooked in a cauldron turns out incredibly tender and flavorful! Your friends and family will definitely like it. Products needed for making barbecue: pork neck (approximately 2.5-3 kg), onion (1 kg), lard (0.5 kg), salt (1 tbsp.), allspice (1 tbsp. spoon), parsley (to taste). Cooking will take about 1 hour, but it's worth it. Shish kebab can be made from any meat. But remember, if you cook it from beef, the cooking time will naturally increase, but if you cook it from chicken, then vice versa.
Borscht with zucchini and apples, stewed rabbit with potatoes, crucian carp in sour cream sauce, lamb shulum, lagman, mushrooms with potatoes - these wonderful dishes, like many others, can be cooked in a cauldron over a fire. We will discuss the recipes in more detail in our next posts.
Preliminary preparation
All vegetable products must be washed and thoroughly dried. Wash vegetables a couple of hours before cooking.
Medium-sized vegetables are baked whole, but large specimens can be cut into acceptable pieces. This is done with eggplants, zucchini and zucchini.
Do not get carried away with small pieces, as they will certainly burn
But the tomatoes are not cut, otherwise the loss of all the juice is inevitable. The peppers are also roasted whole.
It’s a different matter if the vegetables are cooked in a cauldron and are intended for stewing. In this case, all the components of the future dish are chopped.
Whether or not to use marinades is a matter of personal preference, but it's certainly worth trying both options.
If you want to fry vegetables on the grill, then you need to consider the following:
Recipes for dishes on the fire
- It is necessary to achieve extremely uniform heat from the coals. To do this, the fire is lit in advance.
- Roasting vegetables begins with the largest fruits and those varieties that take longer to bake.
- The frying grid must be greased with oil. This is guaranteed to prevent vegetables from sticking to it. The grill pan is oiled in the same way.
- Large vegetables are baked for no more than 15 minutes, but for small fruits or chopped pieces, 5-8 minutes is enough.
- To give vegetables additional flavor, you can sprinkle them with diluted lemon or garlic juice. Or you can simply throw a crushed sprig of rosemary or thyme onto the coals.
If you are preparing stewed vegetables in a cauldron, then only monitor the intensity of the heat and its uniformity.
Having familiarized yourself with the basics of processing vegetable products, you can begin to consider the most successful recipes for vegetables over a fire.
Lagman
For preparation you will need:
- beef, lamb - 700 gr.;
- noodles - 300 gr.;
- carrots - 1 pc.;
- onions - 2 pcs.;
- bell pepper - 1 pc.;
- potatoes - 4 pcs.;
- radish - 1 pc.;
- tomato - 4 pcs.;
- zucchini - 1 pc. (small);
- greens - to taste;
- vegetable oil - 50 ml;
- salt - to taste.
Prepare and cut the meat into small pieces. Pour oil into a preheated cauldron, add meat, salt and pepper. Fry until brown. Dip the onion in half rings into the meat. Next, cut the vegetables into strips and finely chop the garlic.
Add carrots to the meat, after 5 minutes, potatoes, bell peppers, radishes and zucchini. Remove the skins from the tomatoes and mix with assorted vegetables.
Pour water 3 cm above the contents in the cauldron. When it boils, lower the garlic, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Add chopped herbs and remove.
You can take ready-made noodles or make homemade ones:
- flour - 3 cups;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- water - 50 ml;
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
- salt, baking soda - on the tip of a knife.
Add egg, salt to a deep bowl and beat. Add warm water and oil. Gently add flour and knead. Leave the finished dough in a cold place for an hour. Then we repeat the kneading. Roll out the dough thinly, cut into strips, and form into sausages. Coat the sausages with oil and stretch to the desired thickness. Boil the noodles in boiling salted water.
Place in portioned plates, pour over vegetable stew and serve immediately, otherwise the dough will become loose.
WHAT DISHES CAN BE COOKED IN A CAST IRON KAZAN IN NATURE
A cauldron is an incredibly convenient utensil for preparing dishes both at home and outdoors. Kazan came to Russia from Asia and became widespread among the population. One of the most popular cast iron cauldrons came to Russia from Uzbekistan, where handmade cauldrons are produced, distinguished by their unsurpassed quality. If the cauldron is made of high-quality material and is initially processed with high quality, then the dishes in it will turn out to be as healthy as possible and very tasty.
Healthy food is obtained due to the fact that the dishes in it do not burn, do not fry, but simmer. And as you know, when languishing, all products retain their beneficial qualities and all vitamins. It has long been known that all dishes cooked in a cauldron are healthy food due to simmering and lack of burning. The dishes turn out to be very aromatic and much tastier than those prepared in ordinary dishes.
Dishes in a cauldron need to take longer to cook than in ordinary dishes, since before cooking you need to prepare the cauldron itself. At the very beginning, you need to pour oil or fat into an already heated cauldron and heat it for a while.
When a dish is prepared outdoors, which means on a fire in which the cauldron will be placed, you need to make it as hot as possible, because this is a very important condition for cooking in a cauldron. This is necessary so that the prepared dishes have an appetizing crust. Also, the cauldron definitely needs a lid. Previously, cauldron lids were not used, but were covered with anything, for example, planks. But in the modern variation, cauldrons are sold with lids. The lid is needed to ensure that the air in the cauldron is evenly distributed.
According to the advice of many people, you need to add a lot of onions to any dish. This is necessary to make the dish more juicy, since onions release a large amount of juice, and this juice turns into steam, which has a beneficial effect on the preparation of any dish.
PILAF
The most popular dish cooked in a cauldron is pilaf. The consumption of pilaf began around the 1st-3rd centuries, presumably in the East, just at the time when rice crops had just begun to be grown. Whether it was China, India or Turkey, in the different countries to which pilaf came, the dish acquired more and more new interpretations. And until now, there is no single recipe for preparing pilaf. There are more than 150 types of different cooking options. For example, in Uzbekistan, in every corner of the country, pilaf is prepared completely differently.
To cook pilaf over a fire in a cauldron, you will need to prepare all the ingredients in advance. Pilaf is prepared according to the same rules as at home, but the dish will be the most juicy and aromatic, and the rice will be more crumbly than in a frying pan. Be sure to give the pilaf time to brew under the lid before eating.
LAGMAN
Another favorite dish cooked in a cast iron cauldron is lagman. China is considered to be the birthplace of this dish. The dish turns out to be very aromatic and healthy, preserving all the beneficial properties of both meat and vegetables. The meat comes out with a golden crust, and the seasonings complement the luxurious taste of this dish.
SHURPA
The most popular soup cooked in a cast iron cauldron is shurpa. The soup has been known since ancient times, and came to us from the East. There are plenty of recipes for making shurpa, but there are several distinctive features of this soup. Let's start with the fact that this soup will always be very fatty, due to the fact that all the meat and vegetables are pre-fried. Also, any shurpa always contains a huge amount of spices, and all ingredients are cut into very large sizes. There are variations in preparing the dish not only with vegetables, but also with different fruits. As a rule, shurpa is prepared from lamb meat, but there are variations with chicken and even fish. Cooking shurpa over a fire will take about 3 hours, but the whole company will enjoy the aromas and tastes of this nutritious and healthy dish.
EAR
Another popular dish cooked in a cast iron cauldron outdoors is fish soup. Fish soup can be cooked from any fish caught in the river. Fish soup is very popular because you can go on a picnic and immediately find ingredients for soup. Ukha in a cauldron will be much more aromatic than cooked in a regular saucepan. It is in the cauldron that you can recognize the real taste of fish, and cast iron material helps with this. But you need to keep an eye on the fire, you need it to burn with moderate intensity to allow the fish to languish, and it is better if there is no lid on the cauldron. Cooking time depends on the fish that is cooked in the ear.
MEAT
As a rule, vacationers in nature prefer to barbecue. But you can cook more delicious meat in a cauldron. For example, from pork or lamb. The meat will be very juicy, soft and healthy, with a golden crust. It is very tasty if you mix spices, such as cumin, coriander, pepper and salt. And leave the meat to simmer on the fire. You can add various ingredients to the meat, depending on your taste, for example, garlic. After cooking, some water from the meat will remain in the cauldron - it is very tasty and can be used as a sauce for a side dish.
PORRIDGE
Many people don’t even realize how delicious porridge cooked in a cast iron cauldron in nature can be. For example, you can cook millet porridge with the addition of stewed meat. At the very beginning, if your company uses lard, you can fry the lard until golden brown, then add onions and carrots to it, and add garlic if desired. Next, we simmer it all together with cereal and stew. The aroma from this dish will spread far throughout the surrounding area. And the benefits and taste of this dish will not leave anyone indifferent, even children who do not always agree to eat porridge, especially in nature!
BIGUS
Another dish that needs to be cooked outdoors in a cauldron, but which many people have not even heard of, is a dish called bigus. And it is usually prepared with various smoked meats. Bigus is a very hearty dish that is best cooked over a fire. There are also plenty of variations of this dish, but no matter which option you choose, the taste will certainly amaze and delight you, and the unsurpassed smell will make everyone lick their lips! Bigus is made from meat and vegetables, with the addition of spices and, for example, smoked sausage or brisket.
BEEF RIBS
beef ribs - has an alluring aroma . A large amount of onion gives the dish appetizing and aroma. If you are tired of regular barbecue, ribs will be a great option for this. The dish contains no vegetables except onions. Onions should be taken in proportion - a third of the onion from the amount of meat. The ribs must first be rolled in spices and left for a while. Then, put them in a hot cauldron for frying, then add the onion and simmer everything together in the cauldron, along with spices. The aroma of the dish will be unsurpassed due to the use of a large amount of onions and spices such as zebra and pepper. It is recommended to cook this dish only with olive oil.
NARKHANGI
Another little-known, but very tasty dish to cook in a cast iron cauldron is narhangi. The main unusual ingredient in this dish is fat tail fat. Who doesn’t know what fat tail fat is – it’s a special fat found near the drums. This is the best fat for frying meat in a cauldron. Lamb is usually used in this dish. It is great to use this fat in nature, since it is impossible for this fat to deteriorate while being in nature. This fat can be used not only for cooking narharga, but also for other dishes cooked in a cast iron cauldron, for example, pilaf.
BULL EGGS
The next dish will seem unattractive and not tasty to many. But this is a real delicacy that everyone should try at least once in their life! And cooking in a cauldron will make this dish even more piquant and tasty! This dish is bull eggs , which have an attractive aroma and a very delicate taste. This dish is prepared very simply in a cauldron and does not require much effort in preparation, and this dish also takes very little time to prepare. For this we only need bull eggs, butter and spices.
The most difficult thing in this job is to cut the egg very carefully, since it is very delicate and very easy to spoil. You need to cut very slowly so that the pieces look beautiful when served. After cutting, you need to put the pieces in an already preheated cauldron and fry them with onions. Many are put off by the name of this dish, but the taste is amazingly delicious, and the aroma attracts all vacationers.
STEWED POTATOES AND MEAT
The more common, and probably the simplest dish for preparing a dish in a cauldron under natural conditions, is stewed potatoes with meat . The meat can be whatever you prefer, but pork is best. In this dish you need to use a lot of onions so that when cooking, its juice helps the dish cook properly. To prepare the dish, you need to cook all the vegetables. Start cooking by frying the meat.
In general, cooking meat in a cauldron can be varied with different ingredients. These can be various vegetables.
A cauldron is a very convenient utensil to take with you outdoors. Dishes cooked on a cast iron cauldron will delight the whole family with their taste, aroma, variety and usefulness. Moreover, during cooking, you do not need to constantly be near the fire, since the cauldron will not allow the dish to burn or spoil. Kazan is a great find for all vacationers, as well as for large families or groups.
Chicken with vegetables
© Depositphotos
Ingredients
- 700 g chicken meat
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 300 g potatoes
- 30 ml vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. water
- salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for marinade
- 1 tsp. chicken seasonings
- 50 g vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- pepper to taste
Preparation
- Thaw the chicken (preferably young) and chop it into pieces.
- Mix all marinade ingredients in a bowl. Brush the meat with it and leave for 20-30 minutes.
- Heat oil in a cauldron. Place the pieces of meat and fry on both sides over high heat until golden brown.
- Cut the onion into half rings, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, cut the potatoes into slices.
- Add onions and grated carrots to the browned meat. Fry, stirring, 3 minutes.
- Then add raw potatoes, hot water, salt and ground black pepper. Cover the cauldron with a lid and simmer the dish for another 20–30 minutes.
- The result will be very tender and soft meat that even children will like.
- Bon appetit!
With wild mushrooms
If you were lucky enough to pick up wild mushrooms while relaxing at the dacha, it’s time to cook potatoes with meat and mushrooms in a cauldron. If there are no wild ones, you can also buy champignons.
You need to take:
Preparation procedure:
- Disassemble the mushrooms, peel, rinse and boil in salted water (about 5 minutes).
- At this time, prepare the vegetables: cut carrots into halves, onions into quarters, potatoes into cubes.
- Cut the meat into small pieces.
- When the mushrooms are ready, drain them and place in a separate bowl.
- Heat the oil in a cauldron and fry the potatoes until half cooked, then transfer them to a separate bowl.
- Place onions and carrots in a cauldron and lightly fry in oil, transfer to another bowl.
- Lightly fry the meat in a cauldron, then add onions and carrots, salt, sprinkle with pepper, squeeze out the garlic and stir.
- Pour in water to cover the contents of the cauldron. Simmer covered for about 20 minutes.
- Place the potatoes and mushrooms into the cauldron, add water until the contents are barely covered, and simmer covered for about 30 minutes. Stir towards the end.
Sprinkle the finished dish with fresh chopped herbs, such as green onions and dill.
In the oven
And now about how to cook meat and potatoes in a cauldron in the oven. In this case, the result will be more of a baked dish. It is advisable to have a cauldron with a lid, but if you don’t have one, you can use a piece of thick foil.
What you will need:
How to cook:
- Coarsely chop the veal, carrots, potatoes and onions.
- Heat the oil in a cauldron and lightly fry the meat, onions, and carrots. Then put the potatoes, pour in water, salt, add ground pepper and put in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees.
- Cook for about an hour. If the water from the cauldron begins to run away, reduce the heat.
- A few minutes before readiness, add crushed garlic and chopped herbs.