Saj – what is it and step-by-step recipes for cooking Azerbaijani dishes in a pan

The content of the article

• What is a sage
• Pan
• Dish
• How to cook
• Sage Recipe
• Pork
• From chicken
• From beef

The recipe for cooking is very old, and the treat itself got its name thanks to the dishes in which it is cooked. This is a flat, wide frying pan, which is called, like the food itself – saj. In the historical homeland of dishes, it is used outdoors, cooking meat and vegetables exclusively on charcoal. In a modern interpretation, sage can be cooked at home.

What is a sage

The word itself came from Central Asia: in Azerbaijan it is called a cast-iron pan with a sloping bottom, which is used for cooking over a small roasting pan with coals. Sajj is also a dish consisting of lamb meat and various vegetables fried in chicken fat. Each hostess in Azerbaijan prepares a treat according to her own recipe, introducing new ingredients and spices, varying their amount. The basis is meat, bell pepper, eggplant, pita bread, tomatoes. Freshly chopped greens – cilantro, basil, young onions, dill.

Pan

The sajj pan is reminiscent of the lid of the boiler; it looks like a concave circle equipped with side handles. Previously, this ware was made of cast iron and clay, today it is made of thick steel or pure cast iron. The saj pan is used in different ways: if you place it on the coals with the convex side to the top, you can cook tortillas and pita bread. If you put the dishes upside down, you can make not only traditional saj, but also other vegetable or meat stews, roasts, etc. Thanks to the unusual design in the pan, you can cook a large amount of food at a time.

Since traditionally a saj-frying pan is used for cooking on fire, there is a tableware for sale equipped with a special stand and a small barbecue. A frying pan can be used together with an ordinary grill, the main thing is to stock up on coals. The best choice would be cast iron sage, since this material better accumulates and distributes heat, food does not stick to it. Steel dishes are lighter, practical, but cool faster.

To prepare a classic Azerbaijani dish, it is better to take a cast-iron frying pan for coals, in home life they often use electric or gas sage. For a small family, an average speed of 35-40 cm is suitable, and in order to cook food for a large company, it is better to prefer dishes more than 40 cm in diameter. Before the first operation, the cast-iron product must be baked on fire for 15-20 minutes, after which salt is poured into the bottom and the pan is allowed to cool. After the calcined dishes are rinsed with water, heated again and wiped with sunflower oil.

Dish

This is a delicious Azerbaijani treat, the main features of which are the addition of tender, soft meat, an abundance in the recipe of vegetables and serving with a sheet of pita bread. Preparing a saj dish in a pan of the same name, which is a slightly concave cast-iron circle with a small roasting pan with coals installed under it. Dishes are used in Azerbaijan on both sides, depending on the type of treat that is being prepared. The dishes on the sajah are unique and very tasty: during the cooking process, the vegetables exchange taste with meat through butter or, ideally, mutton fat.

How to cook

The principle of creating eastern treats is that all components are quickly fried over high heat in fat. Sliced ​​or rolled thin pita bread is placed at the bottom of the plate, and fried vegetables and pieces of meat are placed on top of it. Serve hot on the table, usually with a roasting pan. During the meal, the coals continue to smolder, maintaining the heat of the products. The process of extinguishing the components continues for a long time, and the fat flowing from them saturates the pita bread, so gourmets consider this part of the sajah the most delicious.

Sage Recipe

If you have a special pot with a roasting pan, it is not difficult to prepare an Azerbaijani delicacy even at home. However, the process can be simplified a bit. To do this, the components are alternately fried in a wok or ordinary pan, and only when served on the table, the products are transferred to the sage. Instead of fat tail fat, housewives use chicken fat or lard. The treat can be served to guests and does not require observance of etiquette: eating saj is allowed by hands, dipping pita bread into gravy that drains from vegetables and meat.

Pork

• Time: 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 4 Persons.
• Calorie content: 790 kcal / 100 g.
• Purpose: lunch, dinner, festive feast.
• Cuisine: Azerbaijani.
• Difficulty: simple.

Previously, the dish was prepared exclusively from a young lamb, frying the pulp from different parts of the carcass. Nevertheless, the pork sage is also very tasty: the treat is aromatic and juicy. The proposed recipe involves the use of the pelvic or scapular part of the pig, where the fillet is moderately soft and oily. Azerbaijani treats can be supplemented with champignons, cauliflower, other vegetables, beans, suluguni cheese, seasonings. Fat tail fat can be replaced with chicken fat or lard.

Ingredients:

• potatoes – 5 pcs.;
• salt – a pinch;
• onions – 1-2 pcs.;
• pork – up to 500 g;
• tomatoes – 4 pcs.;
• large eggplant;
• sweet pepper – 3 pcs.;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• ground chili pepper – 1 g;
• greenery;
• vinegar – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

1. Cut the pork into large slices, pepper and onion – julienne.
2. Grind eggplant and potato for sage with nickels 0.5-1 cm thick.
3. Lubricate the potatoes and the blue ones with vegetable oil, season and place on a baking sheet / wire rack, sending in an oven preheated to 180 degrees.
4. Bake vegetables until browned.
5. Fry the meat until golden brown, add crushed garlic, onion and bell pepper.
6. Put pork in the center of the heat-resistant dish, and eggplant with potatoes along the edge. Place slices of tomatoes on top of the blue ones (salt them), then you need to sprinkle the products with chopped herbs and send all this to the oven, letting the tomatoes let the juice go. After serving the sage on the table.

From chicken

• Time: 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 3 Persons.
• Calorie content: 273 kcal / 100 g.
• Purpose: lunch, dinner, festive feast.
• Cuisine: Azerbaijani.
• Difficulty: simple.

Gentle diet fillet or juicy chicken thighs are a great option for the meat component for sage. Such a dish is prepared very simply and much faster than with veal, lamb or pork. Chefs recommend using homemade chicken in the preparation of the saj, as it is more flavorful, but the boiler fillet is also suitable. You can take any vegetables, most importantly – in large quantities. The following describes how to make a do-it-yourself sage at home.

Ingredients:

• tomatoes – 3 pcs.;
• boiled chicken breasts – 300 g;
• salt, spices;
• bell pepper – 1 pc.;
• mushrooms – 100 g;
• leek – 0.2 kg;
• green beans – 250 g;
• fatty fat – 2 tbsp. l .;
• pomegranate seeds – 100 g.

Cooking method:

1. Melt the fat in a pan.
2. Finely chop the onion, rinse the mushrooms under water, then cut into plates.
3. Sajo-prepared ingredients.
4. Boil the beans until tender..
5. Chop the pepper.
6. Put boiled beans in a frying pan, fry for 2-3 minutes with mushrooms and onions, send pepper here.
7. Cut the tomatoes into several slices and add at the very end of the preparation, adding the intensity of the fire so that the vegetables are fried rather than stewed.
8. Cut the chicken breasts coarsely, put them in the vegetables, salt, season the products. Fry them until ready for a couple of minutes.
9. Serve saj with pita bread, sprinkled with it can be decorated with pomegranate seeds.

From beef

• Time: 1 hour.
• Servings Per Container: 4 Persons.
• Calorie content: 160 kcal / 100 g.
• Purpose: for lunch, for a festive table.
• Cuisine: Azerbaijani
• Difficulty: simple.

Sajj can be prepared both with the help of a special frying pan on a roasting pan, and at home with the help of improvised dishes. For this purpose, use a wok or a deep cast-iron skillet. A modern interpretation of the recipe allows you to make a sage from chicken, turkey, pork, fish, etc. With beef, the treat is dietary, very aromatic and tasty. To reduce the calorie content of sage to a minimum, instead of fat, it is proposed to use sunflower oil.

Ingredients:

• Bell pepper;
• beef – 0.5 kg;
• large carrots;
• champignons – 0.2 kg;
• tomatoes – 2 pcs.;
• eggplant;
• potato – 4 pcs.;
• large onion;
• spices, salt;
• pita.

Cooking method:

1. Cut eggplant in nickels, salt, leave aside so that the bitterness goes away.
2. Chop the beef into cubes, put in a heated skillet, fry until cooked. After add salt. spice, finely chopped onion.
3. Cook foods over high heat. Put them on a large dish in the center. Place the plate on a steam bath so that the ingredients do not cool..
4. Cut potatoes into slices, fry, slightly salted.
5. Chop the carrots for the sage in circles, send to the potato.
6. Next, add chopped eggplant to the pan, and after 5 minutes – pepper and mushrooms. To keep the vegetables soft, cover them briefly.
7. Last slices of tomato slices are added to the vegetable mixture.
8. Put the finished vegetables around the finished beef. Serve Saj with Lavash.