Dona shurak – salty apricot seeds!
Imagine an Oriental bazaar. You’re walking between the rows of fruit, passing through the mountains of watermelons and melons, into the rows of dried fruits and nuts, and suddenly you hear an unfamiliar expression: “Dona shurak” or “Shur donak. You look around – what could that mean? “What is dona shurak?” you ask. And then you are shown little bones covered in salt crystals or white patches, smelling of ash. Oh, the divine creation of nature, touched by human hands! Salted peanuts don’t even have a fraction of the competition of dona shurak. So.
Dona shurak – salted apricot seeds, which are consumed everywhere in Uzbekistan! This is not even an appetizer for beer, it is an essential part of any table in Uzbekistan on all occasions.
Salty apricot pips – dona shurak in Uzbek style – is made of apricot pips, and the smaller they are, the more valuable they are. This is a very labor-intensive process that involves many people. At first, each pit is taken out of apricot and peeled from its pulp and falls into human hands. Each pit is hit with a hammer so that a crack appears in it. Note, this action requires quite a bit of skill, because if you look closely at a handful of don shurak, almost all of the pips have an equal crack running right along the edge of the top side of the pip. Then all these “cracked” pips are boiled in salt water. After that they are poured into a huge vat with sand or ashes and put on the fire. There they are roasted in the sand or ash for additional 20 minutes. In some regions of Uzbekistan, in addition to everything, after roasting the bones, they mix them with chalk, giving them a white coating, but this is not done everywhere. And now dona shurak is ready! How to eat it?
One takes one kernel in his hand and with the other hand, using one half of the unopened kernel, put the kernel in the crack and twist it like a lever, thus opening the kernel. And in it is a salted kernel! And then dexterity and skill! And that unforgettable salty taste of the kernel of the bone, with a flavor of fire … impossible to tear yourself away!!.!
By the way, dona shurak was declared the most expensive export item in Uzbekistan. From $3000 to $4000 per ton! This is quite understandable, since each bone goes through a unique process. But the taste of this product is unforgettable and can not be compared to anything else.
Dona shurak – unforgettable taste of Uzbekistan!