Recipe: Azu

You need: beef – 500 g, onions – 3 pcs., carrots – 2 pcs., tomato paste – 1 tbsp. spoon, pickles – 2–3 pcs., flour – 2 tbsp. spoons

Necessary

Beef – 500 g

Onion – 3 pcs.

Carrots – 2 pcs.

Tomato paste – 1 tbsp. spoon

Pickled cucumbers – 2–3 pcs.

Flour – 2 tbsp. spoons

Olive oil for frying

Broth or water – 250 g

Pepper, bay leaf, herbs, garlic

How to cook

Cut the beef across the grain into pieces 1.5–2 cm thick. Beat them and cut them into bars 1 cm wide and 5–6 cm long. Fry the meat in olive oil in a saucepan. We do not add salt, as we will add pickles later. Cut onions and carrots into strips. Sauté the vegetables in another frying pan. Add a spoonful of tomato paste and a couple of spoons of flour to them. Sauté, breaking up any lumps of flour with a spatula. Then pour broth or water into the pan. Stirring, bring the sauce to a boil and pour it into the saucepan with the meat. Peel pickled cucumbers and remove seeds (if the skin is rough). Cut them into strips and add to the meat. Pepper, add bay leaf, finely chopped cilantro, dill and garlic. Simmer everything until done. Taste for salt: if it is not enough, add a little cucumber pickle to the base. If it's too thick, add water or broth.

Some cooks add fried potatoes to the basics and stew them together with the meat. Serve better fried potatoes as a side dish. It will be more aesthetically pleasing.