Where East Meets West: A Journey Through Azerbaijani Cuisine
Decadence is the name of the game: home made Azerbaijani-style Baklava
I had always assumed that Azerbaijan, and by extension it’s food, was Middle Eastern or Central Asian. This was an assumption Turan argued vociferously against. Pulling up a map on the internet, she showed me how Azerbaijan is actually considered to be geographically part of Europe (or at least the northern part, extending down to Baku). How this can be the case when it lies far to the east of Turkey, Lebanon and Syria is still beyond me, but there is one very big argument for it’s European credentials - plov.
Plov. There are over 200 types of this special dish, which is intrinsic to Azerbaijani society, and served to guests as a centre piece at any social gathering. The scenes as a ceremonial plov is punctured by the chef’s knife, steam billowing out of the splintered crust as guests watch on in anticipation, are special to experience. The components of this dish are simple - rice, plus meats and dried fruits set off with an array of spices - but the myriad of different ways that it can be put together, with different flavours from different ingredients balancing in different ways, but always resulting in a rich, decadent experience, mean making plov is for Azerbaijanis a form of art.
During our wedding celebrations in May this year, plov was everywhere. At the engagement ceremony it was centre stage, billowing steam with gusto. The flavours were mouthwatering, but my friend d’Arcy and I were doing our best not to eat too much, as we had the Baku half Marathon to run the next day. At the wedding itself a few days later we no longer had that problem, and with Shah Plov everywhere (King Plov - made with every kind of meat), we could indulge as much as we liked. But the best plov was that cooked by Turan’s mum, Sukufe, on the first day, when my parents went with me to her house for the first time to meet Turan’s parents. Turan had warned her mum that my mum was vegan (reaction - ‘no problem, I won’t cook beef or lamb… they eat chicken, right?’😂), and so she cooked a beautiful version made with chestnuts, prunes, apricots and other assorted dried fruit. For all of the grandeur provided by the restaurant venues over the next few days, Sukufe’s plov was my favourite.
As Turan’s mum’s bemused reaction to the concept of vegetarianism / veganism shows, meat is a staple of Azerbaijani cuisine. Kebabs are as varied, succulent, and juicy as any found in Turkey, and there is an underlying belief that meat is essential for health. Men especially regard a meal as not being complete with a sizeable dose of beef or lamb. Despite this, there is a great variety of vegetable-based dishes to experience. Azerbaijani customs dictate that a table should always be covered in dishes, especially when there are guests present, and this means that there is a huge variety of side dishes, similar in style to Turkish mezze. Also, the soups in Azerbaijan are amazing. They tend to be on the thick side and are consumed in huge quantities both as starters and to complement mains.
The simple dishes are often the best. Green Beans and Tomatoes, and Aubergine Stew are two of my favourite dishes that Turan whips up often when she is short of time. This approach is often used in the more rural, mountainous areas of Azerbaijan as well, to great effect. Before our wedding, my friends and I took a trip to Khinalug, a tiny village perched high in the Caucasus mountains. We spent the days hiking and running in the rarified air among stunning natural beauty, and our evenings feasting on the simple delights that the homestay hosts provided. Breakfast would be sweet tea, homemade bread and fresh dairy, and dinner would see a variety of simple yet tasty dishes of vegetables friend with eggs, home-made meatballs and more bread.
There is so much more to Azerbaijani cuisine than what I have been able to go over here, but that is why the food is fast becoming one of the things I most look forward to about visiting. Azerbaijani people love eating, and they love talking about their food. Whether that food is European or Asian in provenance doesn’t matter - as a country where East meets West, the influence of both is immediately obvious in making the food something that makes me want to go back for more.
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