THE SECRETS OF WINTER CUISINE

What can be better, after a long tiring day at work than to finally get back to a warm home, where the lights are on to welcome you and there is smell of tremendous, substantial dishes floating towards you: the last spoonful of dusbara has been eaten, not a single qutab is left on the plate and a blissful warmth and satisfaction spreads throughout your body… How did winter cuisine come down to us, on the basis of what traditions?

Like all Azerbaijan's dishes, those of its winter cuisine are rich and there are many of them. Azerbaijani cuisine took shape as a consequence of the way of life, and the cultural and historical traditions. The country's top chef, the director general of the Centre of Azerbaijani Cuisine, the president of Azerbaijan's Association of Chefs, Tahir Amiraslanov, has let us into some historical features of the local cuisine that is intended for the cold season of the year.

Azar - the symbol of winter

On 21 November the shepherds used to come down from the mountain pastures, the soldiers returned from their campaigns, and the hunters began to prepare for the hunting season. On 30 November people would get ready for the Azer festival. Yusif Vazir Camanzaminli writes that the festival was approximately of the same significance as Novruz [Spring festival], only, unlike the latter which heralds the approach of spring, Azar was a symbol of the incipient winter.

In that period the herds would start to come down from the alpine pastures and the slaughtering of the animals began. In that age, this was justified, for the animals lose weight in winter and there was not the wide variety of fodder for them that we have today. The animals that returned from the alpine meadows were, as they say, in peak condition. Preservation of the meat began. Qovurma was made from finely chopped meat and preserved in clay pots or in waterskins and covered with melted fat. This method of preserving meat was common in many regions of Azerbaijan. The meat prepared in this manner kept for several months. It was used for cooking dishes in winter and sometimes it was given to the children to eat just like that. 

Traditionally, xas was made from the animals' legs, heads, and tongues. After they had frozen it on the glaciers, they cut off pieces when they needed it and heated it up on the fire, producing a satisfying dish. The animals' innards were not preserved, because they were used for making dishes for the Azar holiday, which boasted many rituals. So, one person would sit on a donkey and have cold water poured over him. He would shout, "I'm cold" but they continued to pour water over him. In actual fact, steam was rising from him, because he had previously eaten his fill of a special ritual broth made of grain meal. A special type of yeast-based cake was also made for Azar with icing and grains on it. This baked cake symbolised the origin of men.

The winter season, called Boyuk cilla, began on 21 December and was regarded as a festival for men, the origin of men. It lasted 40 days until the beginning of February. During that period men mainly occupied themselves with hunting, because one of the necessary elements on the winter table was game. Besides, in winter they killed domestic poultry, which were salted in some places and dried in others (like the Qax-Balakan zone). Home-made sausages were made from the meat. Branches bearing pomegranates and quinces and maize on stems were hung up on the roof to keep them. Apples were stored in wells and potatoes in wells and special pits.

Of course, today, in the age of refrigerators and freezers and green houses providing us with fresh fruit and vegetables in the winter, there is no longer any need for all this preserving of food for winter, but in ancient times searching for different ways of preserving foods was an urgent necessity, even though the nutritive properties and the benefits they would bring were often damaged. 

The traditions of winter cuisine

On 2 February Kicik cilla, the women's festival began, which lasted for 20 days. It ended almost by the beginning of spring. Kichik cilla was followed by the Novruz festival. The first carsanba-yalanci (the female deceiver) and the xabarci (female herald) fell on Kicik cilla after the festival of Xidir Nabi (10 February). For Novruz they baked baklava and sakarbura, which symbolised the stomach of a pregnant woman and on it (the sakarbura), by way of protection, they would draw runes and protective symbols.

In the winter season they would stay around the open fire, they would take the fire into the house and keep it going with firewood and brushwood, and previously prepared pellets (made from dried or processed manure). When it burns, the pellet (kizak) gives off amazingly pleasant fumes reminiscent of incense. Besides being economical and practical, the kizak's smoke had disinfectant properties. No-one would get lung diseases in the place where it was being burnt. 

In actual fact, depending on its shape, two types of hearth were used - the tandir, the underground [clay oven] for baking lavash bread for long storage and preparing several dishes and the buxari, a stone oven. Benches were placed on the top of the tandir, it was covered with a carpet and people used to sleep on top of it. This kind of bed was called a kursu.

The buxari oven had hooks on its walls, from which a cauldron hung on chains. So, the main food in winter was meat and foods made with flour, in the main boiled dishes. Since there were no fresh herbs and vegetables, large amounts of the herbs dried in summer, marinades, salted pickles and preserves were used. Dried peas and wheat were kept in the house and halim asi and pilaff were made from them. Many dishes needed to be boiled for a long time, therefore the older women boiled them the whole night through. The children gathered around them and listened to the grandmother's fairy tales, until they fell asleep. The main winter dishes and the most popular ones were the baked ones like dusbara, gurza, qutabs, yarpag xingal and others.

Cooking through the ages

The high-fat soups eaten in winter are an inseparable part of our cuisine. Satisfying and aromatic, unlike the customary soup served as a starter, they contain a small amount of broth and a lot of semi-solid food, which means they can be eaten as both a starter and a second course. Piti, kofte-bozbas are the most brilliant representatives of this "family" of foods. Kofte-bozbas are large meatballs made of lamb or mutton mince with rice and dried cherry-plums inside, boiled with chickpeas, potatoes, curry, sprinkled with onion and dried mint, forming a real winter palette of colours and aromas; piti is a completely authentic Azerbaijani dish which is cooked in clay pots.

The ingredients in it are approximately the same as in kofte-bozbas, only the sheep's head and breast are used, and the fatty sheep's tail and an infusion of saffron are added. The age-old recipe for piti is not made with potatoes, but with chestnuts. But at that time piti was exclusively a winter dish, since chestnuts, when gathered and added to the dish out of season, are no longer of good quality and give the broth an unpleasant colour.

En croute

Attention should be paid to the specific form of serving meat and flour-containing dishes. There are three types of dishes like this - dusbara, gurza and xangal. Essentially, the main way in which they differ is in their shape, their appearance and the way they are served, and insignificantly in the content of the mince and the pastry. Dusbara, which are small dumplings stuffed with lamb, are boiled in boiling water or in a strong broth and are served as a starter, are extremely popular. The ability to make the dusbara as small as possible is especially appraised. A housewife has long been considered a good one if she could get 16 dusbara on a tablespoon (the number of "little dusbara" varies according to the type, but the main thing is that you at least manage to get 10 or12 on the spoon).

Gurza is a large variant of the dumplings which are prepared in the shape of little pies; they are long and the pastry is pinched together in the form of a snake (from which it gets its name)

Xangal is a rectangular piece of pastry thinly rolled out and boiled. There are two types. There is sulu xingal, boiled in broth, which is served with it, sprinkled with dried herbs, with vinegar served on the side. Then there is qiyma-xingal, which is served as "mains"; the drained flat pieces of dough are place in a dish, the fried onion and minced meat are spooned onto them, cinnamon can be sprinkled onto them and they can be served with gurut [dehydrated yogurt] or yogurt or with fried minced meat.

Yet another type of boiled dish with dough is arista, or Azerbaijani soup with pasta. This is a stiff dough, thinly rolled out from which the pasta shape [lapsha] is cut. Little meatballs are made from minced meat and chopped onion and then boiled. Small beans called mash are boiled separately. Dried cherry-plums are also added. Arishta is served with vinegar, garlic and dried mint.

The qutabs or "chebureki" made of thinly rolled pastry with various fillings such as meat, tripe, pumpkin or herbs, which are very popular with the residents of Baku may be called the winter version of Azerbaijani "fast food". Naturally the qutabs containing fresh herbs are more common in summer. In winter people prefer meat- and tripe-filled ones known as qarin-qursag qutabs.

Hot, smeared with butter, sprinkled with sumac spice, piping hot, need to be eaten straightaway before the fat congeals. If you have ever ordered qutabs in a cafe or restaurant, you should not be surprised if they do not give you a knife and fork. It is not bad manners to eat qutabs with your fingers; as a rule, they roll them up into tube shape and dip them in yogurt (if they are filled with herbs) or sprinkle sumac on them.

Ritual-based

Buglama may also be counted among the winter dishes; i.e. "cooked in its own steam". This is meat, lamb is most common and popular in Azerbaijan, cooked together with vegetables such as onions, chillis and sweet peppers, and cherry-plums which are braised until they are ready. It is common knowledge that braising imparts a unique taste and aroma to a dish.

You should not ignore the well-known xas, which can almost be called a ritual dish. It is not without reason that this is the best dish for maintaining and restoring your strength, for those who want to boost their energy for a hard working day. This is why it is served before daybreak, in the very early hours of the morning. Besides this, the substances contained in the xas promote the rapid knitting of the bones after fractures.

…Although practically any delicatessen and refined food is only the nearest supermarket away in the courtyard of the 21st century, for all that, today's townspeople sometimes get a longing for the foods of the past… And even now we prepare those dishes in practically the same way as they have come down to us from the past. You won't find these longed-for foods in the nearest supermarket. They embody the wisdom of centuries and the very spirit of Azerbaijan. You are all the more aware of this after you have tried the hot high-fat food that our ancestors used to eat in the cold of winter. You sense a feeling of calm satisfaction. Azerbaijan's winter cuisine makes for particular comfort.