Chanasan Makh
Mongolia's plainest dish: mutton on the bone boiled in salted water with nothing else. The honour-meat of the steppe, eaten by hand with a knife.
Overview
Mutton on the bone, shoulder, breast, leg in big pieces, is placed in a deep pot. Cold water covers. Salt is added (heroically, about 1 tablespoon per litre). The pot comes to a boil; the surface is skimmed thoroughly; then it simmers, partially covered, until the meat is so tender it falls in big juicy pieces from the bone. The dish is piled onto a platter; the broth is reserved and drunk in cups alongside.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ kg mutton on the bone (shoulder, leg, breast, ribs - mixed cuts are traditional)
- 3 litres cold water
- 3 tablespoons salt (yes, 3)
- 1 onion (small, halved - optional; traditionalists use nothing)
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
To serve
- Salt flakes
- Mustard (Mongolian-style - sharp yellow mustard with a splash of water and salt)
Method
Stage 1 - Pot
- Place mutton pieces in a deep heavy pot.
- Cover with the cold water (the meat should be fully submerged with 5 cm of water above).
- Bring slowly to a boil over medium heat - slow heating makes a clearer broth.
Stage 2 - Skim
- As the water approaches a boil, foam will rise.
- Skim it off thoroughly for 3-4 minutes until it stops forming.
- Add the salt (and onion / bay if using).
Stage 3 - Simmer
- Reduce to the lowest simmer.
- Partially cover.
- Cook 1 hour 30 minutes until the meat is fall-from-bone tender.
- Don't boil hard - a gentle simmer is the rule. Boiling toughens the meat and clouds the broth.
Stage 4 - Rest
- Off heat; let the meat sit in the broth 15 minutes.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Lift the mutton pieces onto a wide warmed platter.
- Strain the broth into a jug or cups.
- Eat the meat by hand or with a knife. Sprinkle salt flakes onto the meat as you eat.
- Drink the salty broth from cups alongside.
- Mustard is offered on the side for dipping.
Notes
- Heavy salting: Mongolian boiled mutton is well-salted - the salt is what cures the bland and brings out the meat. Don't undersalt out of timidity.
- Slow simmer, no aromatics: This is the dish - meat, water, salt. Vegetables and herbs are anti-traditional. The flavour is pure mutton.
- Eat with your hands: Forks are wrong. Bones are sucked clean; cartilage is chewed.
Storage
- Refrigerate the meat in the broth 4 days; reheat together in the broth.
- The broth makes superb soup base; freeze 3 months.
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