MOHГOЛ XOOЛ

After my last post about food, I was asked if I ever eat any "Mongolian food." I don't really. Not at home anyway. When we do our weekly Friday dinner, I sometimes get veggie khuushuur (a mashed potato/carrot/green onion mixture in a fried pocket) or veggie buuz (steamed dumplings with shredded cabbage, carrot and onion), but for the most part, it's just too much a pain to make for one. That being said, I was CRAVING some veggie tsuivan so I took a crack at it Saturday night. It turned out pretty damn good. And just so you know, any food you get State-side that claims to be Mongolian isn't. Not unless it's meat soup, meat khuushuur, meat buuz or meat tsuivan. If there's any kind of sauce, seafood, or non-root vegetables, it's NOT Mongolian. HuHot is a (delicious) lie!


First, make your dough (just flour and water) and let rest while you chop your veggies (and meat if desired). I used carrot, potato, cabbage, onion and garlic.


Next roll out your dough. If you've never made noodles before, sorry, it's a feel thing, you just gotta know.


Then slather your dough in oil and fold it onto itself.


Slice the dough into strips.


Pull the strips apart a bit.


Now start your veggies over low heat. Probably the meat too.


When the "hard" (carrot, potato, onion) veggies are starting to soften, add the "soft" (cabbage, garlic) veggies.


After just a couple minutes, add enough water to cover the veggies and turn up the heat. The seasoning is Mongolian "Universal" seasoning, which kinda tastes like Ramen seasoning.


When the liquid is reduced by about half, drop the heat to a low simmer and add the noodles to the top. Cover and finish cooking 'til all the liquid is gone and the noodles are done (not chewy).


The delicious finished product. Yum!