Dish · Khorezm
Khorezm plov
Khorezm’s plov tradition, including suzma palov, in which the rice is boiled separately and drained before it meets the zirvak.
Dish · Karakalpakstan, Khorezm
Juvari gurtik
An old dish of Karakalpak and Khorezm cooking: coin-shaped sorghum-flour dumplings simmered in meat broth.
Photo: Елена Щипкова · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Made with sorghum
Gurtik (kurtik, gurtuk) has long been made from juvari, or sorghum, flour, though wheat flour is used today too; the wheat version is called bug‘doy gurtik or iri gurtik. In the Karakalpak recipe published by the Gastronomic Association of Uzbekistan, a turkey is simmered for 1.5–2 hours before chunks of carrot and potato are added. Dough made from the broth, sorghum flour and salt is shaped into coin-sized pieces and boiled in the same broth.
The gurtik is piled onto a platter, topped with the meat and vegetables and scattered with onion lightly fried in fat skimmed from the broth.
Names and variations
The name shifts from place to place: qayish gurtik in Turtkul and Ellikkala, bug‘doy or iri gurtik in Khodjeyli and Kungrad, and qayish gurdik in Khorezm. By ingredient there are pumpkin, carrot and chicken versions; by method, salma, jezli and asma gurtik. Family guesthouses in Nukus and the districts of Karakalpakstan are the place to try this home-style dish.
Sources (2)
Photos
Dish · Khorezm, Karakalpakstan
Tukhum barak
Khorezm’s signature dish: delicate boiled dumplings filled with raw egg mixed with milk or butter.
Dish · Khorezm
Shivit oshi
Known as ‘Khorezm’ or ‘green’ lagman: dill-flavoured noodles (shivit means dill) served with a meat sauce and suzma; sources trace the dish to Khiva.
Dish · Karakalpakstan
Karakalpak beshbarmak (turama)
The Karakalpaks’ festive dish: boiled meat and sorghum-flour dumplings are finely chopped, mixed and served on a shared platter with broth.
Dish · Nationwide
Plov (osh)
The centrepiece of any Uzbek meal: meat, onions and yellow carrots are cooked into a rich base in a kazan, then rice is steamed on top. UNESCO-listed since 2016.
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Tashkent plov
The capital’s style of plov: everything is fried first and the rice is mixed into the base; wedding plov adds kazy sausage, chickpeas, raisins and sometimes quail eggs.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand plov
A layered plov in which nothing is stirred: the rice stays pale, and the carrots and meat are served on top of it.
Dish · Bukhara
Bukhara plov and oshi sofi
Bukhara’s own plovs: oshi sofi, made with separately boiled and drained rice, and plov cooked with mung beans.
Dish · Fergana, Andijan +1
Fergana plov
The dark plov of the Fergana Valley: a bone, meat, onions and carrots are fried long and hard until the zirvak turns deep brown.
Dish · Nationwide
Samsa
Flaky pastries baked on the inner wall of a tandoor, filled with hand-chopped lamb, tail fat and onion — or wild greens in spring and pumpkin in autumn.