Crimean cuisine - what can you try in Crimea?

In most restaurants and cafes, you will be offered just such a “mixed” semi-European and semi-Crimean cuisine: Greek salad and borscht, pilaf and kubete.

Kubete / Kubete - a dish of Krymchak cuisine

This is a special juicy lamb pie with potatoes and onions. In Krymchak families, kubete is prepared for the holidays. Krymchaks are an independent people (although sometimes they are referred to as Tatars, Karaites or Jews). There are very few of them left, but they have their own language, religion (Judaism) and their own culinary traditions.

So, before, kubete was served hot on the table, without taking it out of the baking sheet, solemnly. A place was vacated in the middle of the table, then they sang: “Gelsen, gelsen, kubete, gelsen!” (“Come, come, kubete, come!”). The hostess put the kubete on the table, and it was the honorable duty of the men to cut it. First served hot stuffing, and then cut and served crispy bottom (instead of bread). Now kubete is sometimes sold in cafes just like meat pies, and this, of course, is not a real Krymchak pie, but anyway, the combination of meat, potatoes and onions is very tasty!

Dishes from all kinds of vegetables .

Among the favorite dishes in the Crimea, a special place is occupied by dishes from green beans, sweet peppers, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and, of course, eggplants. In Ukraine and Crimea, eggplants are sometimes called “blue” eggplants, which is still a mystery to me.

Among the favorite dishes in the Crimea, a special place is occupied by dishes from green beans, sweet peppers, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and, of course, eggplants. In Ukraine and Crimea, eggplants are sometimes called “blue” eggplants, which is still a mystery to me.

They are fried, cooked with garlic, added to stews, stewed with beef, lamb or chicken. A good vegetable snack is saute: these are fried eggplants with tomatoes, carrots, onions and garlic.

Fish and seafood

There are no comrades for the taste and color, but if we talk about the most delicious and famous Black Sea fish, these are flounder, mullet, red mullet (although the small Black Sea horse mackerel is also good). For seafood, try mussels fried with onions and rice. Many do not like mussels (they say, some strange mollusks), but they have a pleasant marine taste.

There are no comrades for the taste and color, but if we talk about the most delicious and famous Black Sea fish, these are flounder, mullet, red mullet (although the small Black Sea horse mackerel is also good). For seafood, try mussels fried with onions and rice. Many do not like mussels (they say, some strange mollusks), but they have a pleasant marine taste.

But the meat of the rapana mollusk can be quite tough (once we ourselves bought raw rapanas on the market and began to cook them. We didn’t succeed: the rapanas looked like rubber bands. But this, of course, does not mean that in a restaurant you they will serve the same hard rapans). If you are lying on the beach in the very heat, and you are offered to buy boiled shrimp, think about it: maybe they have been sold for a long time, and they are in a plastic bag, and on the street it is +30 in the shade. It's easy to get sick in the middle of summer!

Lagman is another interesting dish

Lagman is not a Crimean, but a Sino-Arabian dish, but in Crimea it has somehow “taken root” and everyone likes it. It's noodles with meat and gravy. Depending on the type of noodles and gravy used, there are many varieties of lagman. Sometimes it even looks like a thick spicy soup.

Then the lagman has a deep orange color: it includes bell peppers, carrots, some potatoes, garlic and pepper. Not surprisingly, lagman is a very satisfying dish (maybe even too satisfying for the summer), but it's worth a try.

Chebureks are not such an exotic dish.

They are also called "chir-chir" and also belong to the Krymchak cuisine. In Crimea, you can buy them almost everywhere, but keep in mind that cooking real pasties is an art that is not accessible to everyone. Pasties should not be crunchy on the teeth or be tough. There may be only two places in the whole city where pasties are cooked so that they melt in your mouth. Recently, chebureks with potatoes have appeared, as well as with cheese. And although many say that this is a hoax, not pasties - why not try it? Unleavened dough, from which chebureks are made, goes well with cheese. Or maybe you want to cook pasties yourself (to practice before going to the Crimea)? Then see the recipe below.

Crimean recipe for chebureks

Dough: 4-5 cups flour, 1.5 tbsp. spoons of sunflower oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, water as needed. Filling: minced meat - lamb or beef (previously only lamb was used) - 0.5-0.6 kg, 1-2 onions, parsley, salt and pepper to taste, water to make the minced meat juicy.

Preparation of pasties in the Crimean style: knead a stiff dough, knead well, cover with a towel, let stand in a warm place (no drafts). Prepare the filling; finely chop the onion and herbs. Cut the dough into pieces, as for pies. Roll each piece into a thin rod and, twisting from both ends in the form of a spiral to the middle, fold the dough like a bagel. Cover all blanks in a bowl or on a board with a towel. Roll out 8-10 blanks with a rolling pin in two steps: first into circles with a diameter of 8-9 cm, then each to a minimum thickness of 15-16 cm.

Put minced meat (a full teaspoon) on one half, close with the second half, bend the pie in half and fasten the edges well with your fingers. Cut the cheburek around the circumference with a tyrhol (cutter) or the edge of a saucer. Spread the prepared chebureks on a towel or on a floured board. Do not accumulate a lot of blanks before frying, so that the dough does not get wet from the minced meat. Pasties are fried over low heat in a deep bowl - a cauldron. Pour sunflower oil into the cauldron so that pasties float on the surface. Heat the oil until a light haze appears, then carefully immerse the chebureks (2-3 so that they fit freely on the surface of the oil). Fry, turning, until golden brown. It is better to turn and remove pasties with a slotted spoon so that the oil drains. Put the finished chebureks on a dish. Serve hot.

In addition to chebureks, there is also samsa : these are special triangular meat pies that are baked in a clay oven (tandoor). Samsa (like cakes) is an Uzbek dish, but it is also cooked with pleasure in the Crimea. Some restaurants even began to build tandoors. The tandoor looks like a large clay pot, to the walls of which flat cakes and samsa are stuck. The samsa dough is dense, fried - and inside, under a golden crust, there is a juicy filling.

Let's get sweet?

Honey baklava

Baklava, which is sold along the coast, looks like an intricate diamond-shaped patty, inserted one into the other and smeared with honey. The dough is crumbly, thin, like plates.

Baklava, which is sold along the coast, looks like an intricate diamond-shaped patty, inserted one into the other and smeared with honey. The dough is crumbly, thin, like plates.

But this is a "light" version of baklava. And baklava itself is a very sweet pie with nuts and honey (Baku baklava). It is soft, crumbly, and if you are a sweet lover, this dish will suit you very well.

Do you know what jam is made from in Crimea?

From apricots, strawberries, izyumerik (small Crimean plums), from quince, dogwood, raspberries. Even rose petals! If you accidentally come across a restaurant of Ukrainian cuisine somewhere, try syrniki with raisins and rose jam. This jam all consists of the most delicate petals and retains the aroma of roses . Maybe you will be able to try dogwood jam: these are dark red oblong berries that give the jam a very pleasant sour taste. In addition, dogwood is very good for health, and jam from it is no worse than raspberry.

In the markets you can find fresh honey (including honeycomb) and special sweets: figs and nuts in honey. This is a rather expensive treat, but it looks very beautiful! In a jar of golden honey - hazelnuts and almonds.

Of course, this is not all that you can try in the Crimea. There are dozens and hundreds of other delicious things, but space must be left for your comments!