I was sitting down with my team mate Hannah about a week ago encouraging her to write a blog and share her unique perspective with others, and I realized I needed to follow my own advice. I have a unique perspective on this race from others in that I am a cook by profession and view the world though the lenses of food and my senses. What I love most about cooking is how all my senses become involved in the process. I am listening for the sizzle as my cut of mixed peppercorn and grey sea salt crusted New York strip steak hits the oiled cast iron pan. I am smelling the air for the warmth of cinnamon that will alert me that my cinnamon crumb cake is almost done. I am looking to see tiny little bubbles littering the top uncooked side of my banana brown butter pancakes, so I know it is time to flip it. I test the temperature of my water with my finger tips to make sure it is warm but not hot, so when I add it to my yeast to begin the process of making pizza dough, I do not kill the yeast. Last but definitely not least, I taste everything I make before serving it to a loved one for the proper amount of salt, acid, sweet, spice, and richness to balance out a dish and appease the palette.
This total immersion of senses is amazing! Your concentration and focus is completely centered on one task. For someone who is a bit hyperactive like me, it is the ideal working environment.
So I thought why not share my fascination with food in a blog? Really I simply plan to try and describe the food availability and preferences here in Mongolia as far as I have come to understand it. I also would love to share a local recipe or two that you can try out for yourself at home.
Mongolia: The Food
The ground is fairly firm and rocky here, and the winters are long. This leads to not a large variety of produce available even in summer months. What is available produce wise here in the summer comes plentiful though. All sizes of shops, small stands, and even farmers markets boast big burlap sacks of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, small watermelons, onions, green cabbages, green onions, and English cucumbers. I have also seen red, green, and yellow bell peppers, garlic, broccoli, and bok choy. The fruit is delicious but again not a plethora of options that Americans are exposed to. Imported are bananas, apples, plums, kiwi, and grapes. Local fruits include plum sized crabapples, wild blueberries, black currents, cranberries, seabuckthorn berrries, and small wild strawberries. Many Mongolians pick them buy the gallons and sell them on the road side fresh and as jams.
Speaking of fruits, they love juice here. Other popular drinks are Fanta, iced fruit teas, and Pepsi. I can not forget to mention the popular traditional drink of fermented horse milk. I’m sure you have never wondered what that must taste like. If you are at all as curious as me, I’ll save you the trouble of searching it out yourself and describe it to you. It is strange and not a taste Americans are accustomed to. It is thinner than cow’s milk but not as thin as water. There is a small hit of sweet when it fist hits your mouth. The short lived sweet note is followed by a musky gamey taste that reminds you of the horse it came from not too long ago, followed by a sourness that only comes from milk left out too long. In the countryside of Mongolia they will heat it up and drink it in beautifully crafted metal bowls. The bowls are approximately the size of a soup bowl, and I have to talked to some Mongolian men who boast of drinking as much as nine bowls of the stuff in one sitting. They will also take this milk and cook it in a pot with some sugar till it is thick and lay it out to dry in the sun in different shapes to make a sort of candy. All Mongolians enjoy this treat. The candy is sweeter than the milk and not quite so pungent. It is also a bit chalky tasting. The shape of the candy will actually let you know which region that particular one came from, for each region will make it a little differently.
Livestock does well here, so meat particularly sheep, goat, cow, and chicken and many milk products are eaten very often. Horse meat is available in some places too. Their yogurt is thinner in consistency like the drinkable danimals yogurt I enjoyed as a kid. Wheat is another good staple seen in a variety of breads, as a wrapping for lamb dumplings, and rolled and cut into wide linguine style noodles.
Mongolians are not isolated from their neighbors and have been influenced by the world at large in many ways. You see this in their love of coffee, Russian candy, cookie, and ice cream products, and love of Korean cuisine. There are American product stores with many major brands, pizza shops, burger shops, and fried chicken fast food stops. While they love Korean culture and cuisine, I have not seen many spicy foods around. They spiciest food I have seen is the instant Korean ramen noodles available in most markets and convenience stores. I have had Chinese food while here, and it is pretty much a replica of American Chinese food.
I had the opportunity to help out a bit at a coffee shop in the town I had been staying at, and I learned while I was there that Mongolians are not big on breakfast. They prefer to start their day with coffee at the most and have a filling lunch around noon and a good dinner. I cooked breakfast for a couple of Mongolians at the coffee shop one morning, and they thanked me and told me it was a special treat for them. Who would have ever guessed that breakfast could be seen as a novelty?
This is by no means an extensive list of all that Mongolia has to offer. I’m sure there is still much to be experienced that I have barely even begun to see, but I hope this gives you a little better picture of the place I am at.
Recipes:
Buuz (Dumplings)
Skill Level: Intermediate
This recipe was shared with me by one of my Mongolian English students who loves to cook. She told me in Mongolia that theses dumplings are served with a spicy ketchup to dip them in and a nice salad to round out the meal. Though if the idea of dipping them in a ketchup sounds strange to you these would be equally as good with a nice soy sauce.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
3/4 cups room temperature water
1 pound Ground lamb (a great substitute would be half ground beef and half ground pork)
1 medium Onion, diced small
2 Tablespoons Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper
Meat Filling:
Mix the ground meat, onion, salt, and pepper in a bowl together. Cook off a little of the filling in a pan and taste it to make sure there is enough salt for your personal preference. Add more spice as needed. Cover and refrigerate till ready to shape dumplings. (This is a very basic filling. Other ingredients Mongolians will add to the filling include shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, garlic, and green onion. Feel free to play with the spices if you would like.)
Dough:
Measure your flour into a medium sized bowl. Then add the water slowly while stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Once the flour has absorbed all the water and a rough dough has started to form, scrape off your spoon. At this point there should be very little to no dry flour in the bowl. If there is still a good bit of dry flour in the bottom of your bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time using it to incorporate the rest of the flour. Be careful not to add too much water or the dough will stick badly to your hands. Once you have rough clumps of dough in your bowl, gather it all together to make one ball of dough. Kneed this ball of dough for 5 minutes by pushing down on the front of the ball and folding the top portion over it, continue to repeat the motion while rotating the dough occasionally. Let the dough rest covered for 10 minutes. This gives the flour time to absorb all the water which will make for a dough that is smooth and easier to handle. Kneed the dough for 3 more minutes. Let the dough rest covered for 8 minutes. This will give the dough time to relax which will allow you to roll it out better. Cut the dough into two equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time and keeping the other covered so it won’t dry out, roll the dough into a log shape keeping the thickness as even as possible. Cut the log width wise into small pieces about half an inch long. Roll each small piece into a ball. With a rolling pin, roll the ball out into a thin circle approximately 2 inches in diameter. Repeat this process with all of the dough until all the dough is shaped into circles. If the dough starts to stick to either your work surface or the rolling pin, use a little all-purpose flour dusted on your work surface and rolling pin. Careful not to use too much flour or else when you try and fold the dumplings closed, the dough will be too dry and not seal well.
Short Cut: If you do not have time to make your own dumpling dough or are not interested in doing so, you can always buy the pre-made packaged wanton dough from the store. It will taste a little different than making it yourself, but it is still a good alternative.
Shape:
Place about a tablespoons worth of meat filling in the center of one of your dough disks. There are two ways to shape this particular dumpling. One way is to place the dumpling in the middle of one palm of your hand and with your other hand begin to fold the edges over each other creating pleats in the dough. Continue folding in this manner all the way around the dough till you have created a round purse shaped dumpling. The other way is to fold the dough in half over the filling in a half-moon shape, and crimp the edges together. Continue shaping dumplings until you have used all the dough. You may have some left over filling.
If reading about how to shape becomes too confusing, I encourage you to look up a video on YouTube for further help. Sometimes it is much easier to see than to read how to do something. I was not able to copy a link, but if you search “how to shape Mongolian dumplings” you will be able to find some helpful videos.
Cook:
Steam dumplings for 20min. You can also fry them in a pan of oil.
Serve with a dipping sauce and a nice salad.
Tsuivan (Noodle dish)
Skill Level: Easy
Ingredients
1 1-pound packaged linguine style noodles (for my gluten free friends the wide long rice noodles would be a great substitute)
1/2 pound of meat cut into small bite sized strips (mutton is traditional but beef, pork , or chicken would work just as well. Mongolians believe the fattier cuts of meat are good for you, but lean meat will still be tasty.)
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, sliced into thin rounds and set aside the dark green part for garnishing
1/2 green cabbage cut into thin strips
2 large carrots cut into match stick like pieces
Oil for pan (vegetable oil, avocado oil, or safflower oil are all good options)
Salt and pepper to taste
With your cut meat in a wide bowl, generously season it with salt and pepper by tossing the meat as you add your seasoning to make sure all the meat comes in contact with salt and pepper.
Cook noodles according to package directions.
While noodles are cooking, heat up a large sauté pan to medium-high heats and add enough oil to coat the pan. When the pan is nice and hot (you will know this by tilting the pan and seeing the oil run from one side of the pan to the other quickly like water) add the meat to the pan making sure to distribute it in an even layer inside the pan. Let the meat cook and brown well on one side before stirring it. When the meat is about half way cooked, add the onion and garlic to the pan. Continue to cook stirring occasionally to prevent burning until the meat is fully cooked. If the meat seems to be getting to dark before it is fully cooked, then tun the hear down to medium. Add the cabbage and carrots and stir to incorporate well. Add about a 1/4 cup of water to the pan and lid it to steam and soften up the vegetables. Turn the heat down to medium if you have not already done so. This should take about 5 min. Remove the lid and let any excess water evaporate. By now the noodles should be done. Add both the meat mixture and noodles together in a large bowl. Toss together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Dish up, garnish with the set aside green onion and Enjoy!
Feel free to add extra of your favorite vegetables to this dish and even play around with spices. I have seen Mongolians add fresh cucumber to this dish in the summer or even some diced boiled potatoes to it. It is very versatile and meant to feed hungry friends and family with whatever is on hand to use.
Cinnamon Crumb Cake:
For my baking friends, I decided to include this recipe. It is not a traditional Mongolian dish. While I was helping at the coffee shop, Cornerstone, in Erdenent, Mongolia, They asked me to bake them something to sell. This was what I ended up making. It is one of my favorite things to eat with coffee! I love the flavor of cinnamon, and I love how as this bakes it fills your whole kitchen with the smell.
Ingredients
Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups All -purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt, kosher (if using a finer salt like table salt use only 1/8 teaspoon worth)
Melt the butter either in a microwave or on the stove top.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
Add the melted butter over the dry ingredients and stir together till the butter is completely incorporated and no dry spots remain.
Set aside.
Cake:
1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt, kosher
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour-cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat over to 350 degrees F
Grease and flour or grease and line with parchment paper one 9” round cake pan or 8X8” square cake pan
In a large bowl of either a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together by hand or on low speed. Add the melted butter to the bowl and mix on low to medium speed till the butter is incorporated though out the dry ingredients. Add the eggs mixing on medium speed until they are well incorporated. Stop and scape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the sour-cream and vanilla and mix until the are fully incorporated. Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix on high speed for 30 seconds. Stop. Remove the whisk and knock off any excess batter from it into the bowl.
Pour half of the batter into the prepared cake pan. This batter tends to be a bit thicker than other cake batters and you may need to spread it out with an off set spatula or the bottom side of a spoon to get it in an even layer. Sprinkle in an even layer half of the crumb topping over the batter. Pour the remaining half of the cake batter on top of the crumb layer smoothing out the batter as needed to ensure and even layer. Sprinkle on top the rest of the crumb topping. Put the whole Sha-bang into the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a took pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake for 30 minutes to an hour. (I’ll admit I have gotten impatient before and let it cool for about 15-20 minutes before slicing into it and enjoying it warm)
Slice and Serve with tea, coffee, or your preferred beverage.
Enjoy!
