How to cook aza in Tatar style from beef - a step-by-step recipe with a photo. Azu cooking recipes How to cook azu with gravy

Azu is a traditional dish of the national Tatar cuisine. Sometimes it is made from horse meat and lamb, but most often from beef. Of the mandatory items in the recipe, in addition to meat, there are pickles, carrots, onions, some potatoes and tomato paste. The remaining ingredients can be added based on your own fantasies and taste preferences (for example, azu from pickles and potatoes in pots or a Redmond slow cooker). We offer you some delicious and original beef azu recipes.

How to make beef azu with carrots and pickles correctly and tasty: recipe with photo

This is how experienced chefs prepare the traditional basics (for example, Anastasia Skripkina). The dish turns out to be moderately spicy and has a rich taste with spicy sourness.

Required Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 600 gr
• pickled cucumber - 2 pcs
• carrots - 2 pcs
• onion - 2 pcs
• garlic - 5 cloves
• sunflower oil - 5 tbsp
• tomato sauce - 4 tbsp

Step-by-step instruction

1. Rinse beef and chop into thin strips.
2. Cut carrots and cucumbers into cubes, finely chop the onion.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the meat in it for 7 minutes over medium heat, stirring regularly with a wooden spatula.
4. Add onion and fry 1 minute.
5. Add carrots and cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Then put the cucumbers and keep on fire for another 1 minute.
7. Lastly, add the tomato paste, salt and mix gently.
8. Pour water into the pan so that it completely covers all the ingredients and bring to a boil.
9. Pass the garlic through a press and attach to vegetables and meat.
10. Cover the dish with a lid and simmer over low heat for 45-60 minutes.
11. Serve hot.

How to cook beef azu without tomato paste and cucumbers

This is a dietary (for such diets as "Attack", Mediterranean, etc.), a non-spicy dish should be prepared only from lean meat. Azu from beef acquires a soft, slightly sweet taste and is even suitable for serving at a kindergarten or school (according to the Afisha-Food culinary portal).

Required Ingredients:

• beef - 500 gr
• sweet tomatoes - 3 pcs
• carrots - 1 pc.
• onion - 1 pc.
• starch - 1 tbsp
• butter
• greenery

Step-by-step instruction

1. Lightly beat off the beef, cut along the fibers into thin strips and salt.
2. Grate the tomatoes and carrots, chop the onion.
3. Melt a piece of butter in a frying pan and fry the meat on it for 3 minutes until a light golden hue.
4. Add onion and cook for 1 more minute.
5. Then put the tomato mass and carrots, mix everything and pour warm water so that it covers all the products in the pan.
6. Salt, cover and leave to simmer over low heat for about half an hour.
7. After the time has elapsed, add starch, mix well and cook for another 15 minutes.
8. Serve hot and garnish with fresh herbs.

The process of cooking azu from beef with sour cream and "Tkemali"

Azu, made according to this recipe, has a pronounced creamy taste and is full of satiety. As a side dish for meat, you can use not only potatoes, but also rice or pasta.

Required Ingredients:

• beef - ½ kg
• butter - 3 tbsp
• homemade sour cream - 3 tbsp
• Tkemali sauce - 2 tbsp
• processed cheese - 100 gr
• greenery

Step-by-step instruction

1. Cut the meat into thin pieces.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, reduce the heat and put the meat there. Fry, stirring regularly, for 35-40 minutes. During this time, the beef should release juice, but if it does not stand out enough, you can add clean warm water.
3. In a separate container, combine "Tkemali" and sour cream, beat them with a fork until smooth and put to the meat. Mix well and simmer under the lid for another 5-7 minutes.
4. Grate melted cheese and put in a pan. Salt the dish and turn off the fire.
5. Let it brew for 10-15 minutes and serve, decorating with sprigs of fresh herbs.

The recipe for beef azu and the technological process of its preparation in the oven

This is a way to cook a classic dish, but not in a pan, but in the oven. The meat in this version is especially tender and literally melts in your mouth.

Required Ingredients:

• beef - 0.5 kg
• potatoes - 8 pcs
• pickles - 3 pcs
• onion - 1 pc.
• garlic - 6 teeth
• tomato paste - 3 tbsp
• peppercorns 8 pcs
• bay leaf - 2 pcs
• mayonnaise - 3 tbsp. l
• ketchup - 3 tbsp. l
• water - 150 ml
• pepper
• spices
• sunflower oil
• greenery

Step-by-step instruction

1. Cut the meat into small pieces, salt, pepper and fry in a pan for 5 minutes until a pleasant golden color.
2. Chop the cucumbers into cubes and put on the bottom of the serving pots, place the fried meat on top.
3. For the sauce, mix ketchup and mayonnaise and put 1.5 tsp in each pot.
4. Add peas of black allspice, bay leaf and sprinkle with dried herbs.
5. Peel the onion and cut into half rings, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, put in a pan, season with spices, fry until soft and put in pots.
6. Peel the potatoes, cut into slices and fry in a pan for 7 minutes over high heat, sprinkling generously with a mixture of salt and ground pepper.
7. Fold in pots, pour tomato paste diluted in water. Close the pots carefully with foil on top and place in an oven preheated to 200 ° C. Cook 40 minutes.
8. Before serving, you can decorate with herbs.

Beef azu recipe: video instruction

If you are not sure that you can cook beef aza correctly, use the detailed video instruction. Here, the entire cooking process is clearly demonstrated and useful recommendations are given.

Irina Kamshilina

Cooking for someone is much more pleasant than for yourself))

Content

Good meat food is valued in every national culture. Azu is a dish of the Tatar menu, which is small meat pieces in tomato sauce with spices and various additives. Tatar goulash is a spicy dish seasoned with hot spices and oriental herbs, popular throughout the post-Soviet space.

How to cook aza in Tatar style from beef

Classical Tatar food is prepared from lamb, beef (veal), horse meat and served with potatoes, rice, pasta, buckwheat, vegetable garnish. Traditionally, preference is given to potatoes and rice: they emphasize the taste of meat, wonderfully complement it. Cooking azu from beef is a simple matter. Choose a quality piece of beef, find the best step-by-step recipe with a photo and get started.

Azu from beef in a slow cooker

Suitable for this dish is the pressure cooking technology. Especially tasty is meat with pickles in a slow cooker with a pressure cooker function. You do not have to choose a recipe adapted to kitchen appliances - any will do. In a modern electronic multicooker, meat pieces will cook much faster, retain their wonderful taste and aroma to the maximum extent.

Azu from beef in the oven

Good news for those who like to cook in ceramic dishes: the beef azu in the oven turns out to be incredibly tasty if you use portioned pots. The option with potatoes is especially good, which, when baked, is soaked in spicy meat sauce. When baking, cover the clay containers with a lid. Serve the spicy meat dish directly in a serving dish for baking or transfer to individual plates.

Azu recipe in Tatar

From the fried pieces of meat in a spicy sauce, a hearty, tasty, rich dish is obtained. Each beef azu recipe is similar to all the others, because they are based on the centuries-old traditions of the Tatar people, carefully preserved by today's housewives. And yet any option is original, unique, worthy of attention. Recipes differ according to the method of preparation (in a frying pan, oven, slow cooker), they use a variety of side dishes, vegetable additives, herbs. Try, choose, delight your loved ones with delicious Tatar azu.

Recipe for beef azu with pickles

• Cooking time: approximately 50-60 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 4.
• Calorie content of the dish: 115 kcal.
• Purpose: lunch, hot second course.
• Cuisine: Tatar.

The traditional description of azu can be found in encyclopedias of Tatar cuisine. For a colorful national meat dish, high-quality beef with pickles, tomato sauce, onions, and spices is used. Meat pieces prepared in this way are served with mashed potatoes, boiled rice, and pasta. Any garnish will do.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 400 g;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• canned cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• beef broth - 0.3 l;
• flour - 3 tbsp. l.;
• salt pepper.

Cooking method:

1. Finely chopped onion fry with a little oil.
2. Cut the pulp into thin sticks measuring two by five to six centimeters. They need to be fried in corn, olive or other oil until a beautiful golden brown appears.
3. Add onion, a glass of broth, tomato paste to the meat sticks, simmer the mixture over low heat for twenty minutes.
4. Finely chop the cucumbers or grate on a coarse grater. Season the meat with slices of pickled cucumber, mix. Add salt, generously season with pepper, add crushed garlic.
5. Pour the remaining 100 ml of broth into flour, mix, bring to a liquid and homogeneous state. Pour the flour into the pan, stirring the contents until thickened. Simmer for about a quarter of an hour.

Azu in Tatar classic recipe

• Cooking time: 50-60 minutes.
• Servings: for 4-5 people.
• Calorie content of the dish: 107 kcal.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

It is difficult to say which of the recipes for this dish can be called real, classic, traditional. They say that in the old recipe they did not put fried vegetables in it, but onion or carrot frying is very suitable for meat, complements its taste, saturates the sauce with aromas. But tomato paste (even worse if ketchup) was not added to the classic Tatar aza with beef. The stew was prepared with crushed tomatoes of large, fleshy, sweet varieties. The dish was seasoned with black ground and hot red pepper, garlic.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 400 g;
• onion (large) - 1 pc.;
• carrots (medium) - 1 pc.;
• tomato (large) - 2-3 pcs.;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• canned cucumber - 2-3 pcs.;
• beef broth (water) - 150 ml;
• flour - 3 tbsp. l.;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Cooking method:

1. Before you cook the meat, you need to make a frying. Fry chopped onions and carrots in vegetable oil. Carrots can be grated or cut into strips, onions look good chopped into half rings.
2. Fry small meat sticks (as in beef stroganoff or slightly larger) in a pan in oil. Add fried vegetables, peeled and chopped tomatoes, chopped garlic to them. Simmer the mixture for about a quarter of an hour. The sauce with tomatoes will be liquid due to the abundance of juice, you do not need to add water to it unless absolutely necessary.
3. Grind cucumbers, put them in meat sauce. Mix flour with water or broth. Pour the mixture into the pan in a thin stream, continuing to stir the gravy until it thickens.
4. Add salt, add seasonings and simmer until tender, about fifteen minutes.

Azu in Tatar style with potatoes

• Servings Per Container: 5-6.
• Calorie content of the dish: 149 kcal.
• Purpose: hot meat dish.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

Very often on sites dedicated to cooking, there are recipes for azu from beef with potatoes. In this case, the potatoes are not just a side dish, but are cooked along with other ingredients in the same pan. For you - a few secrets on how to cook a delicious meat dish, characterized by an abundance of spicy tomato sauce, in which pieces of beef pulp and potatoes literally float.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 500 g;
• garlic - 3 cloves or more;
• canned cucumber - 2-4 pcs.;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• tomato (paste) - 2 tbsp. l.;
• potatoes (medium) - 10 pcs.;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• broth (water) - 250 ml;
• salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the pulp into long sticks, fry in oil. After five to seven minutes, add the onion. Saute until the onion rings are soft.
2. Grate cucumbers or cut into small cubes. Add them to meat, put tomato paste, fill with broth or water. Add salt to taste, add pepper, garlic, bay leaves. Simmer for at least 45 minutes.
3. Peel and cut the potatoes, fry them in a separate frying pan in oil until almost ready. Put the potato slices in a container with meat, simmer for ten minutes.
4. Already in the plate, a portion can be sprinkled with herbs.

Azu in Tatar style in pots

• Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 5-6.
• Calorie content of the dish: 107 kcal.
• Purpose: lunch, second course.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

Azu with beef in pots is distinguished not only by a beautiful portion serving. This is inexplicable, but the products not only retain, but also increase the natural aroma and rich taste, if cooked in ceramic containers. Just do not forget to cover the pots with a lid and make sure that the dishes have the required amount of liquid. The last condition is easy to follow: azu in Tatar style is cooked in a large amount of gravy.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 350-400 g;
• canned cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• potatoes - 6 pcs.;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• tomato (large) - 2 pcs.;
• broth (water) - 0.3 l;
• vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
• a mixture of peppers, salt, herbs.

Cooking method:

• Fry the meat, cut into cubes, over high heat until golden brown. Add finely chopped onions, cucumbers, keep on fire for a couple of minutes. Divide the contents of the pan into two pots.
• Cut the potatoes into slices, stack on top of the beef. Do not forget to add salt, but remember that cucumbers contain a lot of salt. Season with pepper mixture.
• Add crushed garlic, chopped tomatoes and 150ml liquid per pot. Cover the pots and put them in the oven (180 degrees) for 45-50 minutes.
• Serve the dish sprinkled with herbs.

How to cook beef azu with gravy

• Cooking time: approximately 1 hour 10 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 2-3..
• Calorie content of the dish: 144 kcal.
• Purpose: meat dish.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

The abundance of liquid sauce is a distinctive feature of this Tatar dish. Azu of beef with gravy, described below, cannot be called dietary. It does not claim to be a classic, although it has a lot of fans. As part of the gravy, vegetables (onions with carrots), mushrooms, ketchup, mayonnaise. The sauce formed during the preparation of Tatar goulash turns any side dish, even the simplest, into a culinary masterpiece.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 400 g;
• pickled cucumber - 3-4 pcs.;
• champignons - 100 g;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• carrots - 1 pc.;
• ketchup - 3 tbsp. l.;
• tomato paste - 2 tsp;
• mayonnaise - 3 tbsp. l.;
• water or broth - 100 ml;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Cooking method:

1. Fry miniature portioned meat sticks until golden brown, add a little salt, add pepper, put the beef in a heat-resistant deep form.
2. Place a layer of sliced ​​(grated) cucumbers on top.
3. Make a frying of mushrooms, carrots and onions, lay them in a third layer.
4. Mix mayonnaise and ketchup, add sauce to meat and vegetables. Dilute tomato paste in water or broth, pour into a heat-resistant container. Cover the dish with foil, leaving a small hole for steam to escape. Bake for three quarters of an hour at an oven temperature of about 200 degrees.

Azu with beef and rice

• Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Number of servings: for 2-3 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 144 kcal.
• Purpose: hot second course, dinner.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

Azu with rice and pickles is prepared in two different ways. Boil rice separately, serve with meat and generously pour sauce - it's easier. Option two involves adding almost ready-made rice cereal at the last stage of stewing a meat dish. In this case, the grains of rice are quickly soaked in the sauce, taking some of the gravy into themselves. You need to try both options to choose yours.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 400 g;
• carrots - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• pickled cucumber - 2-3 pcs.;
• tomato (paste) - 1-2 tbsp. l.;
• broth (water) - 150 ml;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• rice - 300 g;
• salt, spices.

Cooking method:

1. Fry chopped meat over high heat. Add onions, carrots, chopped cucumbers to the fried beef cubes. Simmer for about a quarter of an hour.
2. Add a tomato diluted with broth or water. Chop garlic, add to meat. Add salt and season with spices, keep on low heat for ten minutes.
3. Boil rice until half cooked, put in gravy and simmer for about fifteen minutes.

Azu from beef with sour cream

• Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
• Servings Per Container: 2-3.
• Calorie content of the dish: 144 kcal.
• Purpose: meat dish, lunch, dinner.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

This recipe for beef azu with sour cream is fundamentally different from other recipes. There are no canned cucumbers or tomato sauce in it. Fried pieces of beef are poured with tkemali sauce with sour cream or cream. Homemade tkemali is preferable to store-bought sauce. The meat is tender, perfectly harmonizes with any side dish.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 0.5 kg;
• butter - 1 tbsp. l.;
• sour cream - 3 tbsp. l.;
• "Tkemali" sauce - 2 tbsp. l.;
• processed cheese - 100 g;
• salt, herbs.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the pulp into sticks, fry them in oil over low heat. Cover the skillet with a lid. The frying time is three quarters of an hour. You may need to add water.
2. Mix "Tkemali" with sour cream, add to the meat, keep on fire for another seven minutes.
3. Add chopped or grated processed cheese, herbs, mix and remove from the stove. Allow cooked to cool slightly, serve with any side dish.

Azu with vegetables and beef

• Cooking time: approximately 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 2-3.
• Calorie content of the dish: 96 kcal.
• Purpose: lunch, dinner, meat dish.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

People who follow a diet and the principles of separate nutrition will definitely fall in love with the basics with vegetables and beef. In addition to the usual onions, carrots, tomatoes, you can use sweet peppers, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus beans. These vegetables and meat will make a balanced lunch or dinner, moderately satisfying and quite dietary. Feel free to use frozen vegetables, the dish will not get worse from this.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 400 g;
• carrots - 1 pc.;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• tomato (large) - 2 pcs.;
• Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.;
• canned cucumber - 2-3 pcs.;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• Brussels sprouts - 400 g;
• salt, spices.

Cooking method:

1. Fry the beef sticks in oil over high heat, add onions, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, chopped finely. Stew for half an hour, add salt and season with spices.
2. Boil Brussels sprouts for 15 minutes, cut in half.
3. Add chopped tomatoes, sweet peppers, Brussels sprout halves to the dish. Simmer for about a quarter of an hour. Serve warm.

Beef azu with pasta

• Cooking time: 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 3-4.
• Calorie content of the dish: 112 kcal.
• Purpose: meat dish for lunch or dinner.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

Pasta is a great side dish for a meat dish. As in the case of rice, the beef azu with pasta is prepared in two versions. Boil pasta, vermicelli or horns, rinse them with cold water and use as a generous side dish with meat dipped in gravy. The second method involves stewing pasta in the gravy of a pre-prepared dish. The quality of pasta is very important, they must be made from durum wheat.

Ingredients:

• beef pulp - 300 g;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• pickled cucumber - 2 pcs.;
• tomato (paste) - 1 tbsp. l.;
• beef broth - 0.3 l;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• pasta - 300 g;
• salt pepper.

Cooking method:

1. Fry onion, beef in oil, combine them in one container.
2. Add chopped pickled cucumbers, garlic, tomato diluted in broth. Stew meat pieces in gravy for about forty minutes.
3. Separately, boil the pasta until half cooked, recline in a colander and rinse them.
4. Mix pasta with meat, keep on fire for three to five minutes after boiling. The dish is ready.

Azu from beef with buckwheat

• Cooking time: about an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 3-4.
• Calorie content of the dish: 109 kcal.
• Purpose: hot dish, lunch.
• Cuisine: Tatar.
• Difficulty of preparation: easy.

By the same principle, azu is prepared from beef with buckwheat - the favorite porridge of Russian children and adults. Buckwheat looks more interesting with meat with white sauce, so try cooking it with meat with sour cream and Tkemali sauce. Boil buckwheat separately, serve it to the meat, pouring plenty of gravy.

Ingredients:

• beef - 0.3 kg;
• sour cream - 2 tbsp. l.;
• butter - 1/2 tbsp. l.;
• "Tkemali" sauce - 2 tbsp. l.;
• processed cheese - 70 g;
• buckwheat - 300 g;
• salt, herbs.

Cooking method:

1. Fry meatballs in oil for 40-45 minutes. The fire must be small.
2. Mix sour cream and "Tkemali", add to the meat.
3. After five minutes, add chopped cheese, herbs, salt to taste.
4. Boil buckwheat separately. Serve with meat and gravy.

Even a novice hostess can cook delicious basics with beef. The main components of the dish are beef pulp, pickles, spicy tomato sauce. Azu with white sauce is less common, but also has fans among gourmets. Do not overcook the meat, stew it well and make sure that there is plenty of liquid in the gravy.

Video: Tatar beef

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How to cook aza in Tatar style from beef with pickles - step by step recipes with photos

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The origin of the word "azu" is explained in different ways. Translated from Persian, "azu" means small pieces of meat in a spicy sauce. In Tatarstan, it is believed that the name of the dish comes from the word "azdyk" - food, food. And some researchers believe that the word "azu" is onomatopoeic, symbolizing the whistle of a sharp chopping tool at the moment of chopping off a piece of meat. Be that as it may, azu is delicious, and in this article we will talk about how a real Tatar azu is prepared, as well as about the basics from the most unexpected ingredients.

Classic azu

Ingredients:
700 g beef or lamb,
3 large tomatoes
1 large onion
3 medium cucumbers
1 tbsp tomato paste,
5-6 potatoes,
100-150 g of broth or water,
salt, pepper, parsley, bay leaf, garlic.

Cooking:
Cut the meat into 2 × 4 cm cubes, trying to cut across the fibers. Cut the tomatoes crosswise, dip in boiling water for 1 minute, then pour over with cold water and remove the skin and also cut into cubes. Cut cucumbers into cubes, onion - into half rings. Quickly fry the meat in a very hot frying pan until golden brown, spreading it in parts so that it does not have time to give juice. Put the meat in a cast iron pan, season with a little salt and pepper. Also fry the onion and add to the meat. Pour in water or broth so as to just cover the meat, put the tomatoes on top and simmer with the lid closed for 30 minutes. Then add bay leaf, pickles, tomato paste, mix and simmer for another 15 minutes. Taste it, sometimes you need to add a little sugar to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes. Peel potatoes and fry until tender. Mix in chopped parsley and garlic. Put potatoes on a plate, top with stew. Sprinkle with parsley and garlic.

Ingredients:
500 g of meat,
2-3 bulbs
2-3 carrots
3-4 pickled cucumbers,
500 g potatoes
salt, ground black pepper, bay leaf and spices - to taste.

Cooking:
Chop the onion and carrot and fry in a small amount of vegetable oil, add the meat cut into small pieces and simmer for about 15 minutes. Then pour in some water, add all the spices and simmer until the meat is half cooked. Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes, add to the meat and fill with water so that it only covers the potatoes. Simmer over medium heat until fully cooked, then add diced or grated cucumbers and bay leaf. Stir, leave on fire for 5 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 kg beef,
2 pickled cucumbers,
2 onion heads
3 potatoes
cream or sour cream, spicy ketchup, salt, pepper to taste.

Cooking:
We cut the meat into thin strips, the onion into small cubes, put it in a pan with oil and a little water. Pour ketchup (you can be spicier and more), salt and fry this whole mixture until all the water has evaporated. We spread the meat in pots, fall asleep with cucumbers, cut into small cubes, put potatoes on top, also cut into cubes (or straws) and fill with water to half. Salt and pepper - to taste. Pour cream (sour cream), cover with herbs and put the pots in the oven, heated to 180-200ºС for 1 hour.

Ingredients:
500 g beef,
200 g onion
150 g tomato paste,
250 g pickled cucumbers,
40 g flour
100 g melted fat,
salt, pepper, bay leaf, garlic to taste.

Cooking:
Cut the meat into cubes and fry in lard until golden brown, pour hot broth. Add the onion sautéed until transparent, tomato paste and simmer until the meat is cooked. Drain the broth and prepare the sauce: the flour fried to a light yellow color is diluted with broth, stirred well so that there are no lumps. In the finished sauce, put the meat, minced cucumbers and crushed garlic. The garnish is served with potatoes, previously boiled in their skins, and then peeled and fried until golden brown.

Ingredients:
1 chicken
5-6 tomatoes,
2 pickled cucumbers,
2 carrots
2 bulbs
herbs, spices, bay leaf.

Cooking:
We cut the prepared chicken into large pieces, salt, pepper and fry over medium heat until golden brown. We cut onion and carrot into large pieces, mix with pieces of chicken, peeled tomatoes are also cut into cubes and also sent to the pan. Add bay leaf, spices, pour in one and a half glasses of water and simmer over low heat for 40-50 minutes. Then add finely chopped cucumbers, simmer for another 10 minutes, sprinkle with herbs. Ready!

Azu is prepared not only from meat, but also from completely unexpected products.

Ingredients:
500 g boiled giblets,
1 onion
1 tbsp flour,
1 tbsp peace or vegetable oil,
1 pickled cucumber.

Cooking:
Boiled giblets cut into strips, mix with fried onions, fry a little. Toast the flour in a clean, dry frying pan until creamy. Dilute with hot broth from giblets, stirring constantly so that there are no lumps, boil. Add finely chopped cucumber, fried giblets, spices, salt and boil for 10-15 minutes. Serve with boiled rice.

Azu from squid

Ingredients:
500 g squid fillet,
2 pickles,
2-3 bulbs
1 tbsp tomato paste,
1 tbsp flour,
80 g butter,
parsley, bay leaf, allspice, salt.

Cooking:
Cut the onion into strips and sauté until translucent. Add tomato paste diluted with a little water and simmer for 5 minutes. Peel cucumbers, cut into slices, stew in ½ stack. water. Squid fillet cut into strips, salt, breaded in flour and fry in oil until golden brown. Combine all ingredients, add bay leaf, pepper, simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with herbs.

Ingredients:
1.5 kg of horse meat,
3-4 bulbs
5 barrel pickled cucumbers,
2-3 pcs. tomatoes,
1 kg of oyster mushrooms or champignons,
50 g butter,
sour cream, salt, pepper, bay leaf, herbs.

Cooking:
Prepare the meat: cut into 2×4 cm sticks, separating the fat and veins along the way. Put the scraps in a cauldron and melt the fat, put a piece of hot pepper in it, fry a little and take it out. In the prepared fat, fry the meat in small portions until golden brown, laying it in a separate bowl. Then, in the same fat, fry the onion, cut into half rings, until transparent. Cut the tomatoes crosswise, scald with boiling water and dip in cold water. Peel off the skin, remove the seeds, cut into cubes. Mix meat, onion, tomato pulp, simmer over low heat, add salt, pepper and seasonings to taste. Simmer for 40 minutes over medium heat with a lid on. In the meantime, sauté the onion in butter until transparent, add finely chopped mushrooms to it, simmer for 3 minutes, add sour cream and leave on medium heat under the lid for 5-7 minutes. Peel cucumbers, cut into cubes, put in a small amount of water until soft. Mix with meat and stew for about 5 minutes. Add flour to the mushrooms, mix, add water or broth, boil a little until the desired density. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes, put azu on top, put mushroom sauce on the side and sprinkle all this splendor with herbs and garlic.

As you can see, azu, cooked in any way, both traditional and innovative, is hearty, high-calorie and quite far from the concept of “light”. But there are also azu recipes that are devoid of the usual long stewing, and their composition is very far from the classic recipe. But the authors of such recipes still call them azu for some reason, probably because of the way the meat is cut. Here, for example, is an azu recipe that is perfect for a romantic dinner.

Marinade Ingredients:
100-150 ml olive oil,
2 tbsp ground sweet paprika,
1 tsp ground coriander,
½ tsp salt or 2 tbsp. soy sauce,
a mixture of peppers, coarsely ground.

Cooking:
Cut 1-1.5 kg of turkey meat into long pieces, marinate for 2-4 hours. Remove spices, quickly fry over high heat. For a side dish, you can cook leek: cut it into washers obliquely, fry in olive oil, add 1 glass of white wine. Put the side dish on a plate, lay the pieces of turkey on top, sprinkle with herbs.

In general, create, invent, try! After all, a real culinary specialist does not calculate the grams required by the recipe, but brings something of his own. This is how masterpieces are obtained even from a simple basics!

Larisa Shuftaykina