Tsuivan

Mongolia's steamed noodles: hand-cut sheets laid over mutton and vegetables and cooked in the pot's own steam, then tossed through at the end

Origin: Ulaanbaatar & the Mongolian Plateau

From the journey of Wheat.

Tsuivan is a noodle dish in which the noodles are never boiled. Sheets of unleavened dough are rolled, oiled, rolled up, and cut into thick ribbons; those ribbons are laid in a layer on top of mutton and vegetables that have already been fried in the base of the pot, a little water goes in, the lid goes on, and the noodles steam above the food rather than in it. At the end everything is turned through together so the noodles take up the fat and the juices they have been sitting over. That method is not a quirk. It uses very little water, which matters on a steppe where fuel is scarce and water is carried, and it produces noodles that are chewy and slightly dry rather than slippery, which is what Mongolians want. A tsuivan boiled and drained is a different and lesser thing, and cooks say so. The dish is everyday food in a way khorkhog and buuz are not. It is what a household cooks on an ordinary evening and what a canteen serves at lunch, made in one pot with whatever is available: mutton always, then potato, carrot, onion, cabbage, and sometimes turnip. The vegetables are the same short list that runs through the whole modern Mongolian repertoire, and for the same reason, being what will grow or store in a continental climate with a three-month growing season. Wheat itself reached the Mongolian plateau from both directions, from Chinese agriculture to the south and across Inner Asia from the west, and a herding society that grew almost no grain of its own nonetheless built a substantial flour cuisine on trade and on the settled margins. Noodles, dumplings, fried dough, and flour-thickened tea are all part of it, and tsuivan is the plainest expression of the lot.

Ingredients

Noodles

400 g plain flour
0.75 tsp salt
200 ml warm water, approximately
3 tbsp oil, for layering the dough

Stew

700 g mutton or lamb, in thin strips, with some fat
3 tbsp oil or rendered mutton fat
2 onions, sliced
400 g waxy potatoes, in batons
2 carrots, in batons
300 g cabbage, shredded
6 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1.5 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
350 ml water or light stock

To finish

2 spring onions, sliced, to finish

Method

Make a firm dough with the flour, salt, and water, knead it for eight minutes, and rest it covered for thirty.
Divide it into three and roll each piece out as thin as you can into a large sheet.
Brush each sheet all over with oil, roll it up loosely into a cylinder, and cut it across into ribbons about 8mm wide. Shake them loose and dust them with flour.
Oiling before rolling is what stops the ribbons welding together in the steam.
Heat the fat in a wide heavy pot and brown the mutton hard, in batches, until well coloured. Lift it out.
Fry the onions for six or seven minutes, then return the meat with the garlic, salt, and pepper.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage and turn everything through the fat for five minutes.
Pour in the water. It should come no more than a third of the way up the vegetables; this is a steaming liquid, not a broth.
Lay the noodle ribbons over the top in an even layer, spreading them out so they are not in a clump. Do not push them into the liquid.
Cover tightly and steam over a low heat for twenty to twenty-five minutes without lifting the lid.
The noodles are done when they are cooked through, springy, and no longer floury. If the pot has run dry, add a splash of hot water down the side.
Take the lid off and turn everything together with two forks or tongs so the noodles pick up the fat and the juices from underneath, then scatter the spring onion over and serve from the pot.

Notes

Do not boil the noodles and do not drown them: they cook in steam above the meat, which is the whole method, and the liquid should barely reach a third of the way up. Oil the dough sheets before rolling and cutting, or the ribbons will fuse into a block. Waxy potatoes hold up over twenty-five minutes of steaming. Mutton is the correct meat and gives the dish its character; lamb is milder and beef changes it substantially. Shop-bought flat wheat noodles work if you are short of time, in which case add them dry on top and increase the water a little.

The Gastrographer

Name: Tsuivan
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Ulaanbaatar & the Mongolian Plateau
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 0.75 tsp salt; 200 ml warm water, approximately; 3 tbsp oil, for layering the dough; 700 g mutton or lamb, in thin strips, with some fat; 3 tbsp oil or rendered mutton fat; 2 onions, sliced; 400 g waxy potatoes, in batons; 2 carrots, in batons; 300 g cabbage, shredded; 6 garlic cloves, sliced; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1.5 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 350 ml water or light stock; 2 spring onions, sliced, to finish

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control