Tangritah Uyghur

- Alex 3 Comments

date of visit:  December 2009

NOTE: since our visit the restaurant now claims to be under new management … we haven’t made it back to see if things have changed.

It was up to Andy to choose a venue for a Friday night dinner and, without hesitating, he knew he wanted to try out Tangritah Uyghur* on Grote Street.

This is a restaurant which is easy to miss – it is towards Morphett Street on the northern side of Grote, with a tiny shop frontage. A sign announces “Tangritah Uyghur Shish Kebab Restaurant: all foods are especially handmade”.

The Uyghur are an ethnic group which, predominantly, lives in north western China. They are Turkic, rather than Chinese, and their religion is Islam. In recent times, there has been some tension between the Uyghurs in China and the Chinese administration.**

Inside, the restaurant has just a few tables and the majority are set up bench-style, so you may end up sharing space with other diners. It is quite basic but as long as you’re not expecting silver-service I can’t see how this would be a problem.

There’s quite a range of dishes on the menu, and most are handily priced at just $10.  We opted for lamb kebabs (5 for $10), a lamb pan pie (both Uyghur specialties) and a dumpling soup.  To drink we just enjoyed the green tea.  This meant that the bottom line was just $30 for ample food for 2.

The kebabs were served on huge skewers with a sensible dose of chilli.  By this I mean that you could taste the chilli but it would probably only frighten the most sensitive palates.

For me the real wins of the meal were the pan pie and the dumpling soup.  In my opinion, it’s possible that Tangritah Uyghur’s dumplings give Dumpling King a run for its money.  Of course, that might be a point which requires further investigation …

The pan pie was not for the faint hearted … a lightly spiced lamb mince filling was encased in bread and then shallow fried.  This is the type of food I love but it’s possible that people watching their diet might feel a little differently!

We polished off all of our food and felt very full afterwards so I suspect we may have been a little ambitious when it came to ordering.  We watched tables near us and parties of 4 were happy sharing one of the $25 hot pots.  A lot of the food is very rich and works on the principle of taking a little meat and making it go a long way.  The lamb pan pie, in particular, would be fantastic winter fare.

If you happen to be near the Central Markets and you happen to be hungry, then a visit to Tangritah Uyghur should be on your list of things to do.

Tangritah Uyghur Shishkebab Restaurant on Urbanspoon

address: 116 Grote Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000

Tangritah Uyghur

Incredibly cheap and tasty

Cheap, tasty Uyghur food – specialties like dumpling soup, shishkebabs and lamb pan pies. Hearty and warming food.

Rating:4.0 stars
****

*If, like me, you have no idea how to pronounce this, it’s “wee-gar”.
** As this is a food blog rather than an ethnography or political blog, I’m going to leave it at that.

Chicken Schnitzel Parmagiana

- Alex 3 Comments

Nothing says ‘pub lunch’ (or ‘pub dinner’) like a schnitzel.  The whole time I was in the UK I tried to explain the idea of a ‘parmi’ and failed miserably.

It’s also a dish which is ridiculously easy to put together at home.  Invariably you can produce something tastier, not to mention healthier, than that for which you’ll pay the best of $20 for in a pub.  Pub parmis usually have a remarkably similar lifecycle – one that involves the freezer and the deep fat fryer.

For an ‘at home’ parmi you don’t need anything more exotic than a frying pan.

First, choose your meat.  A chicken breast is very easy – one will do two people and you just need to slice it in half horizontally. If you want to use pork or beef choose a cut which generally cooks quickly and flatten it out by wrapping in cling film and beating with a rolling pin (or meat mallet).

Dip your meat in egg followed by breadcrumbs and quickly fry it in a pan of hot oil (something like peanut oil, which has a high smoking point and is almost flavourless).  The meat needs to be thin enough so it cooks quickly and you want your breadcrumbs to turn golden but not burn!

Set the meat aside (on some kitchen towel to soak up any excess fat) and prepare your topping.  You’ll definitely need mozzarella cheese.  If you want to go the really simple route, then top your meat with a slice of ham followed by the cheese.  For Hawaiian then you’ll need thin slices of pineapple (if you’re using tinned make sure you use pineapple in its own juice, rather than in syrup … you’re not making a dessert!) in addition to your ham and cheese.  A simple tomato sauce will do your basic ‘parmagiana’ , or you can go all out and have a Bolognese style sauce.  Think of it in the same way you’d think of pizza toppings.

When you’re done, top with the mozzarella cheese and finish under a hot grill – the cheese should be melted, bubbling and going brown.  I think in this case I wasn’t quite generous enough with the cheese – make sure you don’t make the same mistake!

chicken parmigiana

Serve with a salad and you can pretend it’s healthy!

Bolognese Sauce

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I’m feeling brave … after all, a bolognese sauce is one of those things that everyone makes, everyone knows how to make and everyone has an opinion on how it should be made.

In Bologna, the home of the Bolognese sauce, it is called a ragù and the ‘Bolognese’ comes from the sauce’s French name, sauce bolognaise.  Strictly speaking the sauce should contain just a dash of tomato paste … so please don’t complain that what follows is not a traditional Bolognese sauce!

I had a good read through quite a few recipe books to come up with my final approach.  I knew I had to make do with what was already in the house – so recipes calling for chicken livers, pork and various other exotica will have to wait for another time.  In the end, I most closely followed the recipe found in Ainsley Harriott’s Ainsley’s Friends and Family Cookbook (Amazon US, Amazon UK).  This is a great book as it’s very practical.  Most of the recipes are simple, or quick, or make use of store cupboard ingredients (or all three) which makes it a great resource.  However you happen to feel about Ainsley’s television persona, this book is certainly on the money.

My personal opinion is that, in order to make a good Bolognese sauce you need to make sure you cook it slowly and for a long time, so I was happy to see that Ainsley wants you to simmer your sauce for at least 2 hours, and preferably up to 4.  I really think that if you do give your sauce a good, long, slow cook you cannot go far wrong.

Here is my interpretation of Ainsley Harriott’s Bolognese sauce.

Begin by heating some olive oil in a large pan.  Chop (or dice) two rashers of bacon and add this to the oil.  Fry until starting to crisp, and then add 1 finely diced onion, a diced carrot, garlic to taste and 1 anchovy, finely chopped.  This is a pasta sauce tip I picked up from watching Rick Stein:  an anchovy in a pasta sauce adds depth of flavour without fishiness.  Ainsley’s recipe has you add anchovy essence at the end but I had to make do with the real thing!  Add a scant teaspoon of dried thyme (a few sprigs of fresh thyme, if you have it) and a bay leaf and leave this to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The vegetables should start to soften and take on a little colour.

At this point, it’s probably worthwhile winding the heat up a little because next you add 500g beef mince.  Mix this into the vegetables well, breaking up clumps and sauteeing it so that it’s well browned (you don’t want an anaemic, grey sauce, do you?).  Add 2 tbsp of tomato paste and stir well.

Now add 300mL of red wine (if the pan needs deglazing use a little of this prior to tipping in the whole lot) and a 400g tin of tomatoes.  Finish with a grate of nutmeg.  Give it all a good mix, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 2-4 hours.

Most of the time is taken up with the simmering so while you do have to be in the house you can hardly call this recipe labour intensive.  And best of all, serving is not a time sensitive process!

When you’re ready to serve, correct the seasoning and off you go!

spaghetti bolognese

Serve with your favourite pasta (and discover it’s tricky to take a photo that makes it look appetizing!), but make sure to save some leftovers for home made schnitzels …