Lagman: classic recipe

Prepare all the ingredients for lagman according to the classic recipe. The meat for lagman should be chilled.

Cut the beef into small, equal-sized pieces.

Peel and rinse the onion. Slice the onion into thin strips.

Pour 50g of vegetable oil into a deep pot or cauldron. Place the pot over medium heat and heat the vegetable oil well. Add the prepared beef meat and sliced onions to the pot. Sauté the meat with the onions, stirring occasionally, until the onions become transparent.

Peel and rinse the carrot. Slice the carrot into long slices. Do not chop it too finely. The vegetables should be distinguishable in the finished dish.

Add the carrot to the pot with the meat and onions. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add the tomato paste to the pot. Mix everything well to evenly distribute the paste among all the ingredients. Sauté the vegetables with the meat for another 5 minutes.

Add black pepper, cumin, and paprika to the pot. Mix well and cook for a couple more minutes.

Pour one liter of hot water into the pot and add 1 tablespoon of salt. Mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Rinse the eggplant and cut into long slices, similar to the carrot.

Add the eggplant to the pot with the other ingredients. Stir. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Peel and rinse the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into the same size slices as the carrot and eggplant.

Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with a lid, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove the seeds from the sweet bell pepper and cut into long slices.

Add the pepper to the saucepan with the other ingredients. Stir. Cover with a lid and cook the sauce (gravy) for an additional 10 minutes.

Thoroughly wash and dry the parsley. Finely chop the parsley leaves.

Add the chopped parsley to the saucepan with the sauce. Stir.

Cover with a lid and simmer for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the noodles for lagman according to the classic recipe.

Pour the noodles with the remaining vegetable oil and rub with your fingers to evenly distribute the oil over the entire surface of the noodles. For this recipe, chilled lagman noodles were used. If you couldn't find them, you can use dry noodles, but make sure to also oil them all over.

Pour a large amount of water into a pot. Add salt at a ratio of 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 liter of water. Once the water boils, add the noodles to the pot, stir, and cook for 3-4 minutes after the water boils. The key rule for correctly cooking noodles is to have 3 times more water than the volume of the noodles. If you don't have such a large pot, it's better to cook the noodles in batches.

Transfer the cooked lagman noodles to a serving dish. The dish should be warm. To warm up the dish, you can pour hot water that was used for cooking the noodles into it. Wait for a bit, pour out the water, and then place the noodles in the dish.

On top of the noodles, place the ready-made kaila. Serve the dish immediately. It must be hot. Traditionally, lagman is served with ajika or spicy lazjan sauce. Lagman according to the classic recipe is ready. Enjoy your meal!