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 · Khorezm, Karakalpakstan
Tukhum barak
Khorezm’s signature dish: delicate boiled dumplings filled with raw egg mixed with milk or butter.
Photo: Oybarchin0302 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
How it is made
For tukhum barak, a stiff dough of water, salt and flour with a spoonful of oil is left to rest for half an hour. It is divided into 5-gram balls, rolled into thin circles, and the moistened edges are shaped into an unpleated dumpling with an opening left for the filling — a liquid mix of egg with a spoonful each of butter and milk (or salted water) per egg — before the opening is sealed.
The dumplings go into salted boiling water and cook for another half-minute after they float: the dough should swell but stay firm. They are then dipped in cold water or brushed with butter and served with sour cream or qatiq.
Khorezm’s pride
In the Khorezm dialect the dish is also called yumurtka barak; it is considered the most refined dish of Khorezm and Karakalpakstan and is rarely made elsewhere. The Gastronomic Association of Uzbekistan calls it a Khorezm brand. Try it in national-food restaurants and family guesthouses in Khiva and Urgench, hot from the pot.
Sources (2)
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 · Karakalpakstan, Khorezm
Juvari gurtik
An old dish of Karakalpak and Khorezm cooking: coin-shaped sorghum-flour dumplings simmered in meat 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.