Do you know what is the most popular dish in Azerbaijan? The answer is simple - barbecue, kebab. Wherever you go, to the city or to which village, everywhere during lunch or dinner, mutton skewers will definitely be served - among other dishes or as the only dish. And, you know, shish kebab there, in Azerbaijan, does not bother, does not bother, it looks organic in the neighborhood with any dishes. Well, we eat bread every day and nothing, doesn't it bother us? This is exactly the same with Azerbaijani barbecue - you can eat it every day.
Maybe it's because the meat in Azerbaijan is very tasty. No, really, it's delicious. It seems that the shepherds who raise livestock do nothing special to improve the taste of meat - they don’t give the livestock any bait, they don’t even give vitamins, they don’t feed their wards with grain or corn, but they act simply: they drive herds and flocks to pastures with good grass, they are fed with pure water flowing from the mountains and do not chase after the daily weight gain. In a word, everything flows as usual, as it was in the centuries before us, but the rich nature, the generous sun and the almost perfect ecology do their job - the rams turn out to be both well-fed and delicious to the point of unreality.
And the second reason, it seems to me, lies in the fact that barbecue in Azerbaijan is prepared very simply - without any fancy marinades, without a mind-boggling amount of spices - nothing but a pinch of salt is required to cook Azerbaijani barbecue. Well, perhaps, skewers, barbecue and coal. And most importantly, without which the barbecue will never work out under any circumstances, this is a man at the barbecue.
This man's name is Elmaz. But it would be better if his parents called him Almaz - because this man, in my opinion, is the best kebabchi in Azerbaijan. It may very well be that so far only his neighbors know about this, at whose weddings and family celebrations he cooks barbecue, me, and now you too. But don’t tell anyone about him, please, because otherwise this artist, this nightingale of Azerbaijani culinary arts, will be put in a gilded cage of fashionable restaurants or even made a court cook, and I know for sure that he needs absolute freedom for creativity. He should take a walk around the neighborhood of his native Akstafa to find inspiration, for example, in apples that are about to ripen, but still have the necessary firmness and pleasant sourness, or in a dogwood twig plucked right with the leaves, which, it turns out, smell breathtakingly appetizing and fresh. He also definitely needs to say hello and chat with all the butchers at the small Akstafa bazaar to make sure that today he can’t do without a call to a familiar shepherd. And no one should count to him how many lambs will go to today's barbecue - he will say two, then two, but he will say "five is necessary", so shell out - you will have a pleasure that many times exceeds in value all the money on your credit cards.
I will pity the women and children who read these lines, and I will not talk about the skill with which Elmaz cuts and skins rams. I will say one thing: it seemed to me that the lambs were even grateful to him for how easily and painlessly he did the inevitable with them. Remember, in the Middle Ages, those condemned to the chopping block brought coins to the executioner? So, if those lambs had gold, they would bring them to Elmaz, holding them in their mouths.
When both carcasses were already lying in front of us on the table, somewhere there, on the edge, lay the hatchet. But Elmaz joked about this instrument:
- We didn’t slaughter a cow today! For such small lambs, this knife is enough.
Tell me, what do you think of an artist who, in order to realize inspiration, will certainly need a prepared canvas, crushed paints, or certainly gel pens? And what do you think of an artist who needs a pencil stub, a piece of coal from an oven, and a piece of paper to create a masterpiece? Which one is the real artist?
So is Elmaz. Do you think he had some kind of special knife, which grand chefs arm themselves with, preparing impotent food in pompous restaurants? Nothing like this! Elmaz had a small knife made of the most ordinary iron, cheap and unpresentable. But, God, how he worked for them! Let the surgeons come and see how unmistakably the knife moved in his hand - exactly, the first time, revealing joints, joints and veins.
On one side, pieces of meat fit for shish kebab-tikya (pieces) were laid out, on the other, trimmings and fat were folded, shanks and shanks, separately ribs and back were laid aside, cutting between the cartilages, Elmaz cut out the brisket and turned it in his hands, something then inventing.
- You know, Stalik, you can also cook a shish kebab from these shanks and shanks.
Watch, learn and admire!