Sulu Khingal

SULU KHINGAL is Azerbaijani national dish, which served as a first and a second course meal at the same time. Sulu Khingal made of lamb, chickpeas and homemade noodles, and served with a fresh or dried mint, fried onion and wine vinegar.

Ingredients
for the soup:
½ pound (250g) lamb (or beef)
1 small size onion
1 tablespoon clarified butter
½ cup chickpeas
pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
mint to taste
grape vinegar to taste
for the dough:
2 cups flour
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup water

Preparation:
Preparing the chickpeas.
Before cooking dried chickpeas, the first thing you will have to do is soak them. Place chickpeas in a bowl and cover completely with cold water. Allow to soak overnight, about 12 hours. Once chickpeas have soaked, drain and transfer to a cooking pot. Cover with water twice the amount of chickpeas and bring to a boil. Simmer for approximately one hour, until chickpeas are cooked. Drain the chickpeas in a colander or strainer and let them to cool down. Then you need to remove the skin from the chickpeas. Use your fingers to very gently squeeze the chickpeas and loosen the skin from them. You can squeeze them from one hand into another. It is a very easy to do procedure. Once you remove the skins, discard them. Alternatively, you can use canned chickpeas, it is less economical, but you will save your time.

Preparing the dough.
Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the egg, salt and water, and start kneading the dough until it is soft and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball, cover with a plastic wrap, and set aside for 20 minutes to rest before rolling.
Dust your working place with flour and start rolling out the dough into a large thin layer, approximately 1-2 mm thick. Then cut the dough into small squares.

Preparing the meat.
Slice the meat into small pieces, cover with water and bring to the boil. As it comes to a boil, skim the foam off, and then add chickpeas, turmeric and salt to taste. Simmer until the meat is cooked.

Cooking Sulu Khingal.
While the meat is cooking, prepare the onion.
Cut the onion into small pieces and fry in a clarified butter until golden brown.
As soon as the meat is cooked, add the squares of dough to the broth, gently mix them with a spoon, so they don’t stick together, lower the heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes until the dough is tender.

Serve Sulu Khingal on individual plates, and decorate with a chopped mint and the fried onion. Separately serve vinegar.
Bon Appétit! Enjoy!

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