Uzbek Lamb & Vegetable Soup: Shurpa

The name "shurpa" has variant spellings, like "chorba," "shorba," "shorwa," "shorpa," "çorba" and others. The many names are because the general dish is not only known in Uzbekistan, but also in parts of the Middle East, in parts of the Indian Subcontinent and in parts of southeastern Europe. Just as there are many names, there are also many recipes, with some versions being more like soup, and others being thick like stew, and there are variations even within a given country.When I've made this dish, the chilies have not made it spicy hot, so unless you use super hot chilies, I can't imagine it being hot. Also, I use boneless lamb, but the people of Uzbek almost always use lamb bones or lamb on the bone when making this dish, as the broth is what makes this tasty, and the lamb bones impart flavor; so, if you can get a lamb bone or two, great; if not, the world won't end because of it.

 

Uzbekistan is a central Asian country that was formerly part of the Russian Empire, as Turkistan, and then became the Uzbek Soviet Republic when the former Russian Empire became the Soviet Union after World War One. The capital of Uzbekistan is Tashkent, and the county's population of about 36 million is overwhelmingly Muslim. The principal language is Uzbek, which is from the Turkic family of languages, but the Uzbek area's long association with Russia/the Soviet Union has left many people with varying degrees of knowledge of Russian.    

 

Ingredients (6 servings):

 

1 to 1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into bite-sized pieces 

(optional) a lamb bone or two from your butcher shop

2 onions (baseball size), sliced, then halve the slices

2 potatoes, each cut into 8 pieces 

1 cup chopped carrot

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 chili peppers, sliced

6 cups water (to start, + additional 1/2 to 1 cup if needed)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

5 green onions, chopped (with the green)

1 can garbanzo beans (14.5 ounces to 16 ounces), drained

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 

 

Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat, then add the lamb pieces. Brown the meat for about 3 minutes, then add the onion and cook a further 3 minutes, stirring the meat and onion around. Now add the potato pieces and the chopped carrot (and lamb bones, if using). Add the water and increase the heat until the mixture begins to boil, then adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer. After about 8 minutes, add the red bell pepper slices, bay leaves, ground cumin, ground coriander, black pepper and salt. Stir well and continue simmering until the lamb and vegetables are tender. By that time, you will likely need to add some more water, as the soup will have cooked down a bit. Add another 1/2 cup up to 1 cup of additional water and stir well, then add the cilantro (coriander), turmeric and green onions; simmer another 3 to 4 minutes, then add the drained garbanzo beans, heat for another 3 minutes, then remove from the heat. Serve.  

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Sty- This word, long with the meaning "pen for animals, primarily used in reference to an enclosure for pigs," is a word of unknown ancient derivation, but Old Germanic had "stigjan," seemingly meaning "enclosure of wood," as the usage by its Germanic descendants imply that broad meaning, and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stig," meaning "animal pen, pig pen, house, hall (with its meaning of "room," as in "dining hall, dance hall"). "Stig" then became "sti," then "sty," and the meaning became specific to "a pen for pigs." ^ The compound word "pigsty" also came to be used in the second half of the 1500s for "dirty or messy room or home." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Stiege," meaning "wooden box/crate for fruit or potatoes," although originally meaning, or "perhaps" more prominently used for, "animal stall for livestock" (seems also to have been used at some point to mean "cage"), Low German once had "stiga" meaning "pig pen, pig stall," which then became "stege," with the same meaning, but also "lattice for enclosing areas," I could not find a form in modern Frisian, and it's a tough language to research, but it very likely had a form in the past, but uses in modern German, Low German, Dutch and Frisian, in reference to animal pens, has shifted to forms of "stall," and their cousin, English, still retains the word "sty," but unless perhaps in dialect usage, it is almost always used in the figurative sense of "dirty house or room" in the compound "pigsty," as English too often uses "pen" or "stall" for animal enclosures, Danish has (or had?) "sti," "pen for pigs," Swedish has "stia," "pen for pigs (seemingly in the past also for some fowl)," Icelandic has (had, antiquated?) "stia" meaning "animal pen."        

^ This noun meaning "pen for pigs," is not related to the other noun of this spelling,"sty," and meaning "swollen and inflamed area on the eyelid."