Experiencing local cuisine is an exciting part of every trip. However, many tourists who come to Crimea on vacation believe that since we live in the same country, then National dishes We have the same ones, which means you don’t even need to look for establishments that offer something special. And absolutely in vain! Crimean cuisine will offer a lot unusual dishes, and some may well become your favorites!

What to try in Crimea?

The most original dishes of Crimean cuisine are Tatar. Nowhere except Crimea will you try the national treats of the Crimean Tatars. Meanwhile, even well-known dishes prepared by professional local chefs, will gain new taste. Another argument in favor of Crimean Tatar cuisine is its cheapness: you are unlikely to find more affordable prices for food in Crimea in 2016.

What will tourists be treated to? Crimean Tatars? The main dish on the menu is pasties. These “meat pies” (that’s how the name is translated from Crimean Tatar) are prepared here according to special recipe. They are made from flour without yeast, with onions and peppers. By classic recipe For the filling they use lamb, but pasties with beef and cheese also turn out very tasty. They are fried in oil heated to 200 °C. For those who like less fatty foods, Crimean cuisine will offer yantyk - this is the same cheburek, but fried in a dry frying pan without oil.

Another interesting dish- cubete. This juicy pie with lamb, onions and potatoes. Yufakhash are tiny dumplings, again with lamb, which are eaten with broth. Sarma is a local equivalent of cabbage rolls: the meat is wrapped in grape leaves. Lagman is very popular in Crimea - rich soup lamb with vegetables and special noodles.

Driving along the highways in the direction from Simferopol, you will certainly see large barrels by the road: tandoor samsa is sold here. Be sure to try these pies filled with lamb and onions, generously seasoned with spices. Prices for such food in Crimea in 2016 are very affordable, and hearty and Tasty dinner guaranteed! By the way, the quality of the dishes is one of the best.

If you are looking for where to eat national cuisine in Crimea, we can recommend visiting cafes and restaurants in Bakhchisarai - for example, next to the Khan’s Palace.

When you come to Crimea on vacation, be sure to try black sea fish and seafood. Even if you are not a fan of such dishes, we assure you: prepared from... fresh products, they will be much tastier.

The most “Crimean” can be called julienne of rapana and mussels. They are grown or caught right off the coast and delivered to restaurants without freezing. It is difficult to compete with these dishes of Crimean cuisine in terms of usefulness: protein, collagen, mineral elements they are contained in an easily digestible form. Main secret seafood preparation - minimal heat treatment. All you have to do is keep them in water or in a frying pan just a few minutes longer than expected and they will become rough.

But from fish dishes You should definitely try red mullet in Crimea. Her tall taste qualities The ancient Romans valued it, buying it “by weight” for silver. It tastes best simply fried and seasoned with spices, so food prices in Crimea in 2016 will pleasantly surprise you. Excellent choice there will be Black Sea flounder and mullet. Where to eat in Crimea delicious fish? We recommend visiting Balaklava: in numerous restaurants on the embankment you can taste delicious Crimean cuisine while watching the fishermen and enjoying the magnificent view!

What's for dessert? The most obvious answer is baklava. Puff pastry with honey and nuts is sold everywhere in Crimea (however, you should not buy it on the beaches, there is a risk of getting sick - read how). You can wash down lunch with booze - low alcohol drink which is made from raisins, or aromatic tea from Crimean herbs.

The post contains 5 recipes for Crimean classic cuisine, author-performer - Elena Lagoda, she is a Crimean ethnographer.

1. Karaite pies — favorite dish of all Crimeans and in general one of the culinary calling cards of Crimea. True, they are also very popular in Lithuania, where a fairly large Karaite diaspora lives. In Lithuania they are calledkibinai (or kibins). The Karaite dough is crispy, and the filling is very juicy.

Ingredients

For the test:

Flour - 650 g

Butter – 250 g

Water – 200 ml

Egg - 2 pcs. + 1 pc. for surface lubrication

Salt - 0.5 tsp.

Sugar - 0.5 tbsp. l.

Vinegar 9% - 1 tbsp. l.

For filling:

Lamb or beef pulp - 600 g

Onion - 2 pcs.

Salt

Ground black pepper

Fat tail fat (if the meat is lean) - 100 g

Cooking method:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl. Finely chop the chilled butter or coarse grater and combine with flour, add eggs, salt, sugar and water with vinegar and mix homogeneous soft dough. You can do without vinegar, but with it the dough becomes crispier, that is, the effect of puff pastry appears. Wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Step 1. Knead the dough and put it in the refrigerator for an hour

2 . Traditionally, lamb is used for Karaite pies. The Karaites did not eat pork. Therefore, if you do not like the flavor of lamb, you can replace it with beef. Adjust the fat content of the meat to your taste. If you use lean meat, add a little fat tail fat. This will add juiciness and lamb flavor to the filling.

Finely chop or chop the meat (but do not use a meat grinder, otherwise there will be no juiciness), add chopped onion to it. Season the filling with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Step 2. Prepare the filling for Karaite pies

3. Pinch off balls the size of a child's fist from the dough and roll out into thin flat cakes. Place a tablespoon of filling on one half and seal the edge. Then we wrap the edge with a pigtail, like a large dumpling. If you don’t know how to do this, go to Google with the request “pigtail on dumplings” or pies and watch one of the suggested video options. Google usually produces a large number of very intelligible short videos.

Step 3. Forming the pies

4. Sometimes in some literary sources I came across a recommendation to make “spouts” on Karaite pies - holes with a tuck for steam to escape. I DO NOT RECOMMEND doing this. Since in this case the juice flows out unsightly and remains in streaks on the pie, in addition, the filling remains dry and not juicy, and the pie itself does not inflate without exposure to steam and remains flat.

5. Before baking, brush the pies with egg and bake at 200 degrees for about half an hour. Serve hot!!! True, they are also very tasty when cold.

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2. Kashyk-ash - spoon soup

This ancient dish is found among several peoples in Crimea. Among the Crimean Tatars, kashyk-ash or sometimes another spelling kash-kash is translated as spoon soup, among the Crimeans - syuzme, among the Karaites - khamur-dolma (lit. stuffed dough), among the Azov Greeks who came out of Crimea - hashikhya. Essentially, these are very small dumplings with meat filling. They are served along with the broth in which they were boiled. As a rule, curdled milk or natural yogurt and sprinkle generously with herbs. The size of the dumplings spoke about the skill of the hostess. There should be at least 6-7 of them in a spoon. I could fit 8 and even had some room left.

Ingredients

For the test:

Water – 200 ml

Egg - 1 pc.

Salt - 1 tsp.

Flour - at least 4 cups, but possibly more (640 g)

Sunflower oil - 1-2 tbsp. l.

For filling:

Beef – 200 g

Lamb – 150 g

Onion - 1 pc.

Ground black pepper

Salt - 1 tsp.

For serving:

Greens (onion, dill, parsley) - to taste

Yogurt or sour cream - to taste

Ground black pepper - to taste

Cooking method:

1. Mix flour, water, eggs and salt into a stiff dough. Cover it with a bowl, film or towel and leave for an hour.

Step 1. Knead the dough

2 . For minced meat, pass the meat and onion through a meat grinder. Salt and pepper. The choice of meat was determined by religious views, since Tatars and Krymchaks do not eat pork. The proportions of beef and lamb can be any.

Step 2. Prepare the minced meat

3. Roll out a small piece of dough on a well-floured surface. The fact is that making small dumplings takes longer than regular ones, so the dough can dry out. If you have an assistant in modeling, then you can cut the dough into squares and quickly form dumplings. The dough needs to be rolled out quite thinly, but not too zealously - otherwise the dough, wet from the filling, may break through. Squares should be no larger than 3 cm in size.

Step 3. Making small dumplings

If you are making dumplings without an assistant, then you need to roll out the dough in small portions, cut it into strips, and fold the strips one on top of the other. In this case, the dough should be very stiff and dusted with flour so that the layers do not stick together. It is easier to cut strips folded together into equal squares. We stack the finished squares on top of each other - this way the dough dries out less - and form small dumplings the size of a knuckle. Some craftswomen sculpted dumplings the size of a marigold.

4. Ready dumplings Place on a floured surface and let dry a little, then freeze or cook immediately.

Step 3. Place the finished dumplings on a floured surface

5. Place the dumplings in boiling broth or water. Serve the porridge immediately, without allowing the dish to cool. Season with ground pepper and sprinkle generously with herbs. If desired, you can top it with sour cream, yogurt or natural yoghurt.

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3. Chebureks

Chebureks are the most popular dish Crimean cuisine, they are prepared in almost every home. Both my mother and grandmother often cooked pasties, at least once a month - that’s for sure. This ancient dish is found among many Crimean peoples under different names. Chebureks are the Crimean Tatar name, and among the Krymchaks and Karaites they are called chir-chir (consonant with the sizzling oil during frying). Previously, they were prepared only from lamb and fried on lamb fat. Now they are boiled in hot sunflower oil, and on the menu of numerous Crimean chebureks, cafes and restaurants you can often find variations of cheese filling, tomato and even sweet chebureks with cottage cheese. And all this is undoubtedly very tasty too.

The dough in chebureks is thin, very tender and slightly crispy. Hot chebureks are always bubbly, pot-bellied, and when you bite into them, the filling oozes delicious juice- broth. It goes without saying that you should only eat them hot, before the juice is absorbed into the dough.

Ingredients:

For the test:

Flour - 3.5 cups. (560 g)

Water - 1 glass.

Salt - 1 tsp.

For filling:

Onion - 1-2 pcs.

Salt

Greenery

Black pepper

Water - about 0.5 cup.

For frying:

Refined sunflower oil - at least 0.5 l

Cooking method:

1. Mix water, flour, salt and a small amount of vegetable oil into a fairly stiff dough. You need to knead it until it becomes smooth, elastic and glossy. Cover it with a bowl, film or towel and leave to rest for an hour.

2 . Add salt, a lot of herbs and ground black pepper to the minced meat. Finely chop the onion and sprinkle it with a little salt, crush it with your hands so that it becomes softer and is not too noticeable in the finished pasties. Mix the onion with the filling, add water and stir. The consistency of the minced meat should be a little liquid, but not too much - so that the filling does not spread, and not thick - so that ready-made cheburek it remained juicy.

3. Pinch off a ball of dough from the dough and roll out a thin circle with a diameter corresponding to your frying pan or cauldron in which the pasties will be fried. If the dough sticks to the board, lightly dust it with flour, but not much, so that the excess flour does not burn in the oil. Place a tablespoon of filling on one half of the circle, cover with the other half and seal the edge well. We cut the edge of the dough with a special knife for pasties. The Crimean Tatars called it chegyr.

4 . Pour a lot of oil into a cauldron or deep frying pan so that the pasties float and do not touch the bottom. We heat it very well, so that when lowering the cheburek it boils. Fry the chebureki until golden color. It is important that there are no holes in the dough and that the edge is well formed, otherwise during frying the juice will leak out and the oil will smoke heavily. Turn over and remove the chebureki with a slotted spoon.

We serve the pasties right there! Immediately!!!

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4. Yantyki

Essentially, yantyki are pasties fried in a dry frying pan, without oil.. Freshly cooked, they are generously greased butter and cover, this makes them soft and very tasty. The result is a completely different dish from chebureks. It's hard to say which one tastes better, you have to try both!

Ingredients:

For the test:

Flour - 3.5 cups. (560 g)

Water - 1 glass.

Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.

Salt - 1 tsp.

For filling:

Minced lamb or beef - 200-300 g

Onion - 1-2 pcs.

Salt

Greenery

Black pepper

Water - about 0.5 cup.

For lubrication:

Melted or softened butter - 100 g

Cooking method:

All stages of preparation before frying, that is, kneading the dough and preparing the filling, are no different from pasties.

Then we take a frying pan, preferably with a thick bottom, preferably cast iron, heat it over medium heat and fry the yantyki without using oil, that is, in a completely dry frying pan. A couple of minutes on one side and the same on the other. If you are not sure that the dough is fried, you can turn the yantik over again and let it bake for another minute.

Grease hot yantiki with butter and cover with a lid or plate so that they steam a little and soften. Served hot, of course!

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5. Jewish stuffed fish (gefilte fish)

I learned about this dish from my grandmother, who for a long time lived in the same yard with Jewish family. The peculiarity of this dish, traditional for Crimean Jews, is that the whole fish is skinned, stuffed and then boiled with beets, onions and carrots. It is probably appropriate to mention that in the 20s of the twentieth century. A large number of Jews moved to Crimea and they even wanted to make the peninsula a Jewish autonomy.

This is a very difficult dish, both in terms of preparation technology and its significance, which is simply enormous for Jewish culture. Translated from Yiddish, gefilte fish can be translated not only as stuffed fish, but as a filled, rich fish. It is served on the holidays of Passover and Rosh Hashanah, and is also ideal for the Sabbath, since, cooked on Friday, it contains no bones, which means it does not violate the Jewish prohibition against removing bones on the Sabbath.

When cold, stuffed fish is very tasty dish. It is served in different ways. Some are served with broth as a cold first course, while others allow the broth to harden and serve as aspic.

I learned the intricacies of cooking from my friend and colleague Evgeniy Melnichenko, who simply expertly prepares gefilte fish. By the way, Evgeniy is an amazing artist, a master of wood carving, many of his products are dedicated to Jewish art.

Ingredients

For fish:

Pike or pike perch – 1.5 kg

Onions - 2-3 pcs.

Matzo – 100 g

Dill - 0.5 bunch.

Raw eggs - 2 pcs.

Boiled eggs, peeled, whole (small) - 3 pcs.

Salt - to taste, but a little more than usual

Ground black pepper

For the broth:

Raw beets - 2 pcs.

Raw carrots - 2 pcs.

Onion - 1 pc.

Yellow and red onion peels

Bay leaf - 3-4 pcs.

Black peppercorns

Brown sugar - 0.5 tbsp. l.

Salt - to taste

Water

Cooking method:

1 . First, let's focus on the choice of fish. I think perfect fish for this dish pike perch, although traditional for stuffed fish in the world are considered pike or carp. A bearing is also quite suitable.

We clean the fish from scales, remove the gills, cut off all the fins except the tail, remove the gill bone, but try to ensure that the head remains attached to the body along the back. Then we go under the skin with our fingers and separate it from the meat. In the place of the dorsal fin under the skin, we trim the bones with scissors, being careful not to damage the skin. So we reach the tail, gradually turning the skin inside out. Finally, we use scissors to separate the ridge from the tail, again, being careful not to damage the skin.

2. Before you start preparing the minced meat, collect the cut off fins, ridge and scales (discard only the gills), add a liter of water and cook over very low heat. clear broth, lightly adding salt to it. Strain the broth.

3 . Cover the matzo with water and let it soften completely. In supermarkets you can find many variations of matzo, from classic unleavened to delicious salty with onions, poppy seeds and other fillings.

Finely chop the onion and saute half in vegetable oil, and leave the other half raw.

We separate the meat from the bones and pass it through a meat grinder along with the matzo. Add sautéed and raw onion, salt, pepper, chopped herbs, two raw eggs. Mix everything.

4. We fill the fish with minced meat, but not too tightly, but so that it takes on a natural shape. Sometimes boiled eggs are placed in the middle of the fish so that the cut fish slices looked more impressive. By the way, I noticed that with eggs inside, the fish retains a more rounded shape when cooked and does not become flat.

5 . Place on the bottom of the pan onion skins, peeled and cut into slices beets and carrots, whole peeled onion, Bay leaf, peppercorns.

6. Then we place the fish belly down, back up and fill it with hot broth. It's okay if the fish is completely uncovered. Salt the broth well and add a couple of teaspoons brown sugar. If you don't have brown sugar, you can replace it with burnt sugar: hold half a tablespoon of sugar over the fire until it caramelizes and turns light brown. Cook the fish with the lid closed for about two hours, skimming off the foam at the beginning. We wait for it to cool completely and only then take out the fish, trying not to let the head come off.

Strain the broth, heat it and add gelatin according to the instructions. Place the fish on a dish, pour in a small amount of jelly, let it harden well and decorate with lemon, beets, and herbs.

Pour the stuffed fish with hot broth and cook for about 2 hours.

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Another recipe for chebureks from the book “Karaite Cuisine”:

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Our blog has already published posts with seasonal recipes Crimean products and according to Crimean recipes.

Take into account the recipes of Crimean cuisine from the chefs of the Tyubeteyka restaurant chain, Eduard Sobchenko and Tamara Savenko.

LAMB ON THE BONE “FULL IMAM”

Ingredients for 1 serving

Lamb back 300-400 g
Potatoes 150 g
Carrot150 g
Coriander, cumin, garlic, salt to taste

Preparation

Chop the meat, add a little salt and fry in sunflower oil until golden brown crust(but not until full readiness). Place the meat in a thick-walled pan or saucepan, add enough water to cover the meat, as well as spices and chopped garlic. Simmer on low heat for 1-1.5 hours under the lid. Cut potatoes and carrots big pieces and 20 minutes before the meat is ready, add them to the pan. Bring to readiness and serve immediately.

DIMLYAMA


Ingredients for 2 servings

Lamb (pulp) 300 g
Eggplant (medium) 1 pc.
Onion 1 pc.
Potatoes (small) 2 pcs.
Fat tail fat 50 g
White cabbage 100 g
Carrots (small) 1 pc.
Tomato 1 pc.
Garlic 5 cloves
Lamb broth 1 glass
Fresh cilantro to taste
Zira, red ground pepper, salt to taste

Cooking time: 2 hours

Preparation

Cut the lamb into pieces, cut the fat tail into thin slices, onion into rings, tomatoes and carrots into slices. Cut off the top of the garlic head and peel the roots. Bell pepper remove seeds and stems, cut into rings. Cut the eggplant into slices. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut off the hard veins from the cabbage leaves. In a cold cauldron, place fat tail plates, bones, and lamb pulp on the bottom, add a little salt, and add cumin. Then add all the onions, carrots, tomatoes, cilantro, eggplant, hot peppers entirely. Salt, cover the contents of the cauldron with a lid of cabbage leaves.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce to low and cook for 1.5 hours under a tightly covered lid. 40 minutes before readiness, place the potatoes on top of the cabbage and close the lid again. Serve by placing on a wide plate in reverse order: cabbage, potatoes, vegetables, peppers, garlic, meat. You can also bake dimlyama under the dough. The broth is served separately with chopped cilantro added to it.

DRINK WITH CHICKEN


Ingredients for 2 servings

For the test:

Milk (or water) 1 tbsp.
Yeast 20-30 g
Flour 4 tbsp.
Egg 1 pc.
Butter/vegetable oil (or margarine) 4 tbsp. l.
Sugar 1.5 tsp.
Salt 1/4 tsp.

For filling:

Onions 100 g
Bell pepper 100 g
Champignons 100 g
Chicken thigh 2 pcs.
Turmeric, jambul, salt to taste

Cooking time: 2 hours 10 minutes.

Preparation

First we make the dough. Heat the milk. Prepare the dough: dilute the yeast in Not large quantities warm milk and put it in a secluded warm place for 15-20 minutes. Sift the flour. Grind the egg with sugar and salt. Melt the butter. By the way, Tatars use vegetable oil instead of rendered fat(lamb, beef or chicken, as well as a mixture of them). Mix eggs and butter in milk, add the dough, add flour and knead the dough until it comes away from your hands and bowl. We hide it in a warm place, covering it with a napkin. It should double in size (at least half an hour will pass). Then mix again and let stand again (15-20 minutes).

Remove the meat from the bone, cut into small pieces, vegetables into large cubes, mushrooms into slices. Fry the meat until half cooked, add vegetables, spices and simmer until cooked (about 20-25 minutes). Divide the dough in half, roll out two “pancakes” 2-3 mm thick. Place the filling in the center and wrap around the edges. Brush the edges with egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.

LAMB RIBS IN HONEY GLAZE


Ingredients for 1 serving

Lamb ribs 300 g
Tomatoes, spices, garlic, herbs to taste

Cooking time: 1.5-2 hours

Preparation

Chop the ribs, fry in sunflower oil until golden brown and simmer in a frying pan. Let's do spicy sauce: cut tomatoes into pieces, mix with oriental spices, chopped garlic and herbs, dilute with broth to consistency thick sour cream. Add honey to the resulting paste in a ratio of 1 to 1. Marinate the ribs in this mixture for 1-1.5 hours. After that, heat them on the grill and serve with spicy eggplants.

HASHLAMA


Ingredients for 2 servings

Lamb ribs 400 g
Carrot 1 pc.
Onion 1 pc.
Bell pepper 2 pcs.
Kurdyuk 50 g
Lamb broth 1 cup
Garlic 6 cloves
Zira, salt, ground red pepper, coriander to taste

Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Preparation

Chop the ribs into pieces 4-5 cm long, chop the vegetables coarsely. Heat the fat tail in a cauldron, fry the ribs in it until a crust forms, over high heat. Then add the broth and spices and simmer over low heat, covering with a lid, until the meat is cooked (about 40 minutes). As soon as the meat is ready, add the carrots, cover with a lid and let simmer for 5 minutes. Next, add the onion, cover again and simmer for 5 minutes. Immediately after this, add the pepper with coarsely chopped garlic. After 5 minutes, lift the lid - the khashlama is ready.

EGGPLANT SALAD WITH YALTA ONION


Ingredients for 1 serving

Eggplant 150 g
Tomato 70 g
Crimean onion 20 g
Cilantro 5 g
Salt, garlic to taste

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Preparation

Cut the eggplants into large cubes, add some salt and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Drain the resulting juice and fry them in sunflower oil until browned. Let it cool. At the same time, cut the tomatoes into cubes and the onions into rings. Chop cilantro and garlic. Mix all ingredients, season with sunflower oil and salt.

ORIENTAL SALAD WITH GREENS AND MINT


Ingredients for 2 servings

Iceberg salad 100 g
Green salad leaf 30 g
Green frozen peas 30 g
Fresh cucumber 50 g
Parsley, dill, mint 2 g each
Salt, olive oil, lemon juice to taste

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Preparation

Lettuce and cucumber cut large pieces, chop the greens. Add thawed (or fresh) peas, season with salt, olive oil and lemon juice.

Contribution of the peoples of the peninsula to the national Cuisine

The Crimean Peninsula is inhabited by a huge number of nationalities: Karaites and Greeks, Ukrainians and Russians, Jews and Armenians, Crimean Tatars and Azerbaijanis, Germans and Moldovans live here... And each of the nations brought something of its own to the culinary traditions of these places. About the cuisine of the Taurians and Scythians , who once inhabited sunny Taurida, little is now known. Countdown culinary delights, formed thanks to the inhabitants of the peninsula, are usually traced back to the formation of the Crimean Khanate.

What dishes to try

TO traditional dishes Crimean Tatars can be classified as: tokmach noodle soup, dumplings (they are usually served only with broth), pilaf, bean soup"bakla shorbasy". Subethnic groups of Crimeans often eat in their own way: residents of the steppe regions mainly prefer to consume meat and dairy products, and residents of the “south coast” prefer fish, fruits and vegetables. Despite the differences, there is something that unites Crimean Tatar cuisine - dough, pumpkin, beans, lamb and coffee.

Karaites are also a people who have inhabited the lands of Crimea for a long time. Their cuisine is dominated by meat and dairy foods, as well as baked goods. Even today, many housewives are familiar with the recipe for kubete pie. And traditional dishes for the Karaites were: meat stewed in its own fat “kavurma”, dry-cured sausage (in the past it was brought to readiness under the saddle) sausage “sujuk”, meat baked and fried in dough (“yantyk”, “chir-chyr” and etc.). It must be said that all kinds of sauces could be served with meat, including beans, quinces, apples or plums. Karaite cuisine is decorated with all kinds of pies - with cheese, meat, mulberries, cherries, plums...

Of course, the contribution of other peoples and nationalities to typical Crimean cuisine is also very noticeable. For example, the Bulgarians enriched the diet of the inhabitants of the peninsula with such a dish as stuffed pepper, Armenians – rich meat soup“khash”, Ukrainians – borscht with pampushki and krucheniki, Russians – okroshka and pancakes, Greeks – famous salad from vegetables with the addition of olives and fresh soft cheese, and Georgians - cabbage rolls rolled from grape leaves…

Baklava is a very popular dessert in Crimea. This oriental sweetness prepared from puff pastry, nuts and honey. Similar confectionery can be found in Crimean Tatar, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Azerbaijani cuisines...

Sarma (aka Dolma) is also widespread - these are cabbage rolls, but the filling is not wrapped in cabbage leaves, as we are used to, but in grapes. The unique combination of meat filling with slightly sour grape leaves will not leave any gourmet indifferent.

When in Crimea, you should definitely try fish and seafood from the Black Sea. It’s worth trying julienned mussels and rapana; they are either grown or caught off the coast and delivered directly to restaurants. This dish is very healthy, rich in mineral elements, collagens and proteins, and is very well absorbed by the body.

What drinks are popular among Crimeans?

For a long time, the Crimean Tatars consumed healthy fermented milk drinks: kumys (made from mares’ milk), katyk, yazma, ayran. In winter, when fresh fruit there was not enough food on the table, it was customary to prepare khoshaf (a kind of compote made from dried fruits).

Of course, people drink coffee and tea in Crimea, but these drinks take on their own flavor in these places. Many establishments offer visitors invigorating and flavored coffee in Turkish - this is the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, which once dominated the Black Sea region. As for tea, there are no tea plantations on the peninsula. But here, fragrant herbs and fruits grow in abundance - it’s from them that Crimeans prepare the healthiest herbal teas.

Traditional Crimean drinks include numerous wines made from local grapes. Today on the peninsula there are specialized enterprises that create great amount excellent products - strong and liqueur wines, white and red, ordinary and collection, dry and sweet, sparkling and still... Meanwhile, it is known that a heady drink made from grapes not only helps to diversify the taste of a particular dish, but also strengthens cardiovascular system. One of these enterprises is the Inkerman factory for the production of vintage wines, this is an entire underground city.

So there are admirers in Crimea tasty food awaits a mixture of Russian and Greek, Ukrainian and Tatar, Armenian and Karaite cuisine... And a harmonious interweaving of Eastern, Slavic and Mediterranean culinary traditions gives truly great results!

Sarma (aka dolma) is also widespread - these are cabbage rolls, but the filling is not wrapped in cabbage leaves, as we are used to, but in grape leaves. The unique combination of meat filling with slightly sour grape leaves will not leave any gourmet indifferent.

Sarma

Elmara Mustafa, Crimean Tatar blogger and writer

Crimean Tatar cuisine is one of the main attractions of Crimea, which is not inferior in importance to the palaces and natural beauty of the peninsula. The traditional food of the Crimean Tatars reflects notes of Greek, Turkish, Asian, Italian, Caucasian, Ukrainian and Russian dishes.

Subethnic groups also have local dietary features. For example, vegetables, fruits and fish are more common on the table of the southern coastal and mountain Crimean Tatars, while meat and dairy products are more common among the steppe Tatars. But at the same time, national treats are prepared everywhere and, as a rule, it is kamyr ash ( flour product) with lamb or beef.

We offer for tourists vacationing in Crimea and wanting to experience new gastronomic delights, 12 most popular dishes of original Crimean Tatar cuisine.

Chiberek

There is hardly a person who has not heard about the indescribably aromatic chiberek. This is the most popular dish of the national cuisine of the Crimean Tatars. And there are all sorts of pronunciation options: chuberek, cheburek, cheberek. In fact, chiberek - "whose berek" - is literally translated from Crimean Tatar as " raw pie"So, this is a thin puff pastry pie with various fillings. According to the rules, it must be fried in boiling water. fat tail fat, but now it is mostly cooked in vegetable or sunflower oil. You can use cheese as a filling.

The dish has long been loved by residents throughout Russia and is considered folk food of some "Asian" origin. However, in reality the dish has nothing to do with Asia. The fact that Chiberek, for example, was widespread in Uzbekistan, is associated with the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars there.

Cheburek. Archive photo

Yantyk

Yantyk (yantyk, yantykh) is the twin brother of chiberek, differing only in the method of preparation. You can say that they are dressed in different clothes. If chibereks are fried in a frying pan in a large amount of oil, then yantyk is prepared without it. After frying, while still hot, it is generously greased with butter. This is how the yantik becomes soft and tender.

The dish is great for those who limit themselves to fried foods.

© Flickr/Obormotto

Yantyki. Archive photo

Kebab

One of the favorite dishes of the Crimean Tatars is kebab, in other words, shish kebab. Despite the fact that frying meat is typical for many peoples, the Crimean Tatars do it in a special way - before frying over the fire, they cut the lamb into small pieces.

There are different ways of preparing kebab. For example, tash kebabs - shashlik baked in ash on sticks, kazan kebabs - shashlik stewed in a cauldron, tava kebabs - shashlik baked in pots or special frying pans, kyimaly kebab - minced meat shashlik, furun kebabs - shashlik baked in special ovens or in the oven. Any cooking method enjoys equal success among the local population.

© Flickr/Crocus Group

Kebab. Archive photo

Kashyk-ash and Tatar-ash

Tiny homemade dumplings with meat in broth will delight gourmets. Kashyk-ash - “spoon” soup. Why "spoon"? Because the skill of preparing this dish is directly assessed with a spoon. That is, the more dumplings that fit in cutlery, the more skillful the hostess is considered. And this work is almost like jewelry, since each dumpling should be the size of a fingernail. IN finished form There should be up to five to seven of them in a spoon. So, small dumplings are boiled in aromatic meat broth and served as soup. The dish is seasoned with katyk ( spoiled milk), sour cream and herbs.

Also, kashyk-ash is popularly called yufak-ash, which translated means “small food”. Tatar-ash is considered an analogue of this dish. Essentially these are the same dumplings, but larger in size and without broth.

© Photo from the page of the Bereket cafe on the VK social network

Tiny homemade dumplings with meat in broth

Kobete

This dish is the main decoration festive table And " business card" of Crimean Tatar cuisine. "Kob eti" means "a lot of meat." And no matter how they call this delicious and hearty pie- kubete, kobete, kubete. However, its essence does not change. Between two layers delicious dough the filling is made of meat, potatoes and onions.

Real kobete is not difficult to find on the menu of Crimean restaurants. Its taste will be a healthy competitor to homemade.

Sarma, dolma

These two dishes are considered one of the most appetizing and popular in the repertoire of any national restaurant. In simple terms, sarma are small finger-sized cabbage rolls, the filling of which is wrapped in grape leaves. The combination of meat filling with sourness from grape leaves gives the dish a unique taste.

If you put this filling in bell pepper- it turns out to be dolma.

© Sputnik / Aram Nersesyan

Dolma. Archive photo

Imam Bayildy

This is one of old dishes with its own legend and history. Imam Bayildy, also known as Imam Bay Oldy, is translated from the Crimean Tatar language as “the imam (spiritual head of the Muslim community) got rich.” According to legend, one day a stingy and greedy imam allowed his wife to cook something for the visiting guests from what was in the house. They only found a couple of eggplants, bell peppers, a couple of tomatoes and onions. Vegetable oil There was only enough to fry onions, peppers and tomatoes. And the eggplants just had to be baked. However, the imam’s wife coped with the task and prepared a delicious dish. Since then, the dish has been considered the food of the poor. Later this name became a household name. This is what greedy people are called at a moment of sudden “generosity.”

© Flickr/Evgenia Levitskaya

Fried vegetables. Archive photo

Sary Burmese (Fulti)

Recently, a new dish has appeared in the assortment of Crimean Tatar establishments - sary burma, although it has long been important festive treat Crimean Tatars. The name literally translates as “yellow, twisted.” The dish is a golden roll stuffed with... minced meat(with potatoes if desired) or pumpkin. Baked in the oven.

Makarne

With the onset of cold weather, it is also customary for the Crimean Tatars to prepare purely flour dishes. For example, makarne - boiled pieces of dough, seasoned with minced meat, ground nuts or curdled milk with garlic. In other words, bows with minced meat. In different regions of Crimea it is prepared differently. Kaimakly makarne - with sour cream, and dzhevizli makarne - with ground nuts.

Lokum or tawa-lokum

This is another one flour dish with juicy meat filling. Tava is translated as a frying pan, and lokum (lokhum) is a product made from dough. So, the name speaks for itself: buns baked in a frying pan. They are laid one to one in the form of a chamomile and generously greased with butter. Thanks to this, the lokum turns out to be very tender and soft.© Photo: Vitaly Blagov

Baklava. Archive photo

Kurabye

This shortbread V powdered sugar. It is prepared for almost all religious and family holidays. Not a single Crimean Tatar wedding is complete without kurabie - " butter cookies", as it is also called. This sweet masterpiece is usually served at duva (traditional Crimean Tatar family prayer) and Eid al-Fitr.

Kurabye can be baked for 12 different ways. Among them, sheker kyyyk are known - these are sweet kerchiefs, dzhevizli parmachiklar - nut fingers or dzhevizli boynuzchyklar - bagels with nuts, dzhevizli yaramaylar - nut crescents.

These are not all the masterpieces of Crimean Tatar cuisine. Each has its own characteristics and amazing taste. There are several other dishes that are traditionally prepared by Crimean Tatars. Starting from “fast food” in the form of samsa, wonderful manti to aromatic pilaf. But these incredibly tasty, nourishing and juicy dishes cannot be called primordially Crimean Tatar, since they are common in many national cuisines. Under the influence of traditions, the treats only changed their names and appearance features.

© RIA Novosti Crimea. Alexander Polegenko