Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Budaatai Khuurga - A Culinary Tour of Mongolia






Joan from Foodalogue who has been taking us on a worldwide virtual culinary adventure now takes us to a travel destination that brings to life the cuisine of Mongolia. The general cuisine is both dairy and meat with an extremely strong influence from China. Today, I've prepared a Budaatai Hkuurga which loosely translated is stew with rice and vegetables. When I prepared it, I thought - hmmm...this is like a stir fry (here's the Chinese influence).



Budaatai Khuurga

Ingredients

150-200 g Meat Traditionally, mutton is used, other types of meat such as beef work just as well.
Mongolians consider fat meat to be of higher quality, but there's no problem in using western style lean meat.

250 gm Rice (cooked)
Oil for frying
1 small Onion Cut in half rings.
2 Garlic cloves Minced
300-400 g Vegetables
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- White cabbage
- others Cut in strips
Salt
Pepper

Prepare the rice


Put rice, water, some salt and some oil in a pan and bring to a boil.
Keep boiling on low heat, until the water level has fallen below the rice- approximately 10 min
Simmer for another 10 min

Prepare the Vegetables
Sauté the onions in a lot of oil. (I used just less than 1/4 c)
Add the strips of vegetables and sauté as well
Very slow cooking vegetables
Add the meat and fry it with the vegetables.
Season to taste with pepper, salt, and other spices.
Add the finished rice, and mix everything together

Note: Although the oil may seem excessive, it's necessary for the dry rice. Very delicious dish. StumbleUpon

14 comments:

Dewi said...

I love mutton, unfortunately, I almost never seen it at the grocery store. This sounds so good, I am tempted to try it. But first, I must find out where to get mutton.
Cheers,
elra

What's Cookin Chicago said...

This looks so delicious and I wonder if I can get mutton at any groceries near by...

giz said...

Elra, Joelen - I actually used beef - it was delicious and I'm not a big beef eater.

FOODalogue said...

The dish you prepared is as colorful as the rosy cheeks of the child! This 'trip' has been so much fun. Thanks for participating.

Julia said...

Giz -- the directions say to season with salt pepper and other spices. I'm curious, what other spices did you use? I'm intrigued by Mongolian cuisine.

giz said...

Julia - I wrote the recipe as I found it but I don't use salt in my cooking at all and used Mrs. Dash and lots of pepper.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I would love any dish containing rice Giz. Sorry I missed you in Mongolia. Perhaps we will see you back in the States in the Deep South:D

Bunny said...

I'd make this with beef, oh Giz this looks good!

Cakebrain said...

I don't believe I've ever eaten mutton before. Lamb, yes...but not mutton! This dish looks absolutely yummy and it does indeed look like a Chinese fried rice dish almost!

kat said...

So colorful!

Cynthia said...

What a delightful and attractive dish.

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

I spent some time in Mongolia and the smell of mutton fat cooking will for ever be associated with the place in my mind
cheers
Solange from Pebble soup

Lori Lynn said...

Sounds delicious, and colorful too. Have a nice trip. Joan's tour is great, I'm really enjoying it.
LL

schorsch said...

You should make a habit of citing the sources of your recipes. This one is from Mongolfood.info, and I haven't seen any reference to that. Of course, I'm still happy that you liked it...

-schorsch

LinkWithin Related Stories Widget for Blogs
Share/Bookmark