Uzbek Cuisine

You have Uzbek guests coming over to visit. You are unsure about cooking Uzbek food, and you know that your friends (or in-laws!!) do not like American food. Well, surprise them with Korean food. Remember, Koreans are a minority in Uzbekistan, brought there by Stalin. Korean food, especially the salads, are popular. I had the fortune of living in Korea so I know how to make Korean food. My mother-in-law loved it! Let me pass on this easy and delicious recipe.

First, you need to go to a Korean store and get dangmyun. (myun means noodles in Korean) These are clear noodles made from sweet potato. You can ask the people in the store for “chop chae noodles”. They will understand and help you. You also need soy sauce, sesame oil and dried shiitake mushrooms.

The package of chop chae noodles is huge so I use about half of the package of noodles.

You need very thin beef. This is called bulgogi beef. The korean store usually has it. You can also buy sirloin steak and slice as thin as you can. Marinate 1lb of beef in about a half a cup of soy sauce, teaspoon of sesame oil and a teaspoon of sugar. Do this ahead of time.

Take out a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms and soak in water.

Chop up in thin slices, 2 stalks of celery, 1 medium onion, and 2 carrots. Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large nonstick frying pan and stir fry each vegetable, one kind at a time. (The Uzbeks who watched me cook thought the method weird)

Boil the noodles according to the directions about 10 minutes. Drain and chop up Korean way, with cooking scissors. Then boil some spinach. After the spinach is done, drain.

Stir fry the beef on high heat until cooked. Then lower the heat a little and add the vegetables. Drain the mushrooms, cut them up and then add them. Then add the spinach, and the noodles. Stir fry them all, you may want to add some soy sauce. The noodles should be brown. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Serve on top of short grain rice and kim chi.

This is my own recipe that was a success (well a Korean taught me) It got an ochen vkusno rating!!!