Kesme

Ingredients

Noodles

• 400 gplain flour
• 2eggs
• 120 mlwater
• 1 tspsalt

Soup

• 600 glamb on the bone, in pieces
• 2onions, chopped
• 2carrots, diced
• 3potatoes, diced
• 2tomatoes, chopped
• 1sweet pepper, chopped
• 3 tbspoil or mutton fat
• 2 litreswater
• salt
• black pepper

To finish

• 1large bunch dill
• 1 bunchcoriander
• 3 clovesgarlic, crushed

To serve

• kaymak or sour cream

Directions

1. Make a firm dough with the flour, eggs, water and salt, knead it 10 minutes, and rest it 30 minutes under a cloth.
2. Keep the dough firm rather than soft. Kesme noodles are meant to hold their shape and a soft dough dissolves into the broth.
3. Brown the lamb in the fat in a heavy pot.
4. Add the onions and cook until golden, then the carrot, pepper and tomatoes.
5. Pour in the water, bring it to a boil, skim it, and simmer for an hour until the lamb is tender.
6. Roll the rested dough out very thin, into a large sheet.
7. Dust it with flour, fold it loosely into a flat roll, and cut across it into narrow strips with a sharp knife.
8. Kesme means cut, and the hand-cutting is what the dish is named for. The strips should be slightly uneven, which is the mark of hand-cut rather than machine noodles.
9. Shake the cut strips apart and dust them with more flour so they do not stick.
10. Add the diced potato to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.
11. Drop the noodles into the simmering soup and cook them for 5 to 7 minutes only.
12. Cook the noodles in the soup itself rather than separately. The flour on them thickens the broth slightly, which is exactly what you want.
13. Add them at the very end. Left in longer they swell, soak up the broth and turn the whole pot to porridge.
14. Take it off the heat and stir in the dill, coriander and crushed garlic.
15. The herbs go in raw at the end and go in by the handful. Dill in particular is what makes it taste Central Asian rather than generic.
16. Serve very hot in deep bowls with a spoonful of kaymak.
17. If you are making it ahead, cook and store the noodles separately and add them to each bowl, because they will not survive sitting in the broth.

Technique

• It is a winter soup and it is made to be filling rather than delicate.
• The same dish appears across Central Asia and Turkey under close variants of the name.
• Any leftover noodle dough is dried and kept, which is the traditional practice.

Substitutions

• Beef in place of lamb.
• Dried tagliatelle broken into short lengths, which is a real compromise.

Variations

• Made with beef and no potato.
• Thicker, closer to a stew than a soup.
• With more tomato, as it is made in the Fergana valley.

History

Home noodle soup whose name means cut, for the dough rolled and sliced by hand.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kesme?

Kesme is a soup & stew from Kyrgyzstan: hand-cut noodle soup with lamb, potato and herbs. Home noodle soup whose name means cut, for the dough rolled and sliced by hand.

How long does Kesme take to make?

Kesme takes 40 min plus 30 min resting of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kesme?

Yes, within limits. Beef in place of lamb. Dried tagliatelle broken into short lengths, which is a real compromise.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kesme?

Keep the dough firm rather than soft. Kesme noodles are meant to hold their shape and a soft dough dissolves into the broth.