Mince mutton flesh with onions, season with pepper and salt and mix thoroughly. Cool forse-meat in refrigerator for 20 minutes. String forse-meat on a spit which wider than for shashlyk and shape as sausage. Roast over charcoals. Wrap lyulya-kebab in lavash (thin flat cake). Roll heavy unsalted dough 1 mm thick and bake both sides in griddle without dripping. Garnish lyulya-kebab with coiled onions, sumac or tomatoes roasted on a spit.

Azerbaijan kitchen is rich. There are different sorts meals in Azerbaijan cuisine. All the national meals are cooked according to old traditions. Kebab is a dry meal and takes a countable place in our cuisine. Kebab is an old national meal. There is no Azerbaijan who does not know the taste of kebab. In our folklore kebab is named specially. There is an Azerbaijani proverb. Kebab must be "bloody, hero alive." There is no wedding party without kebab. Unlike other national meals kebab is prepared by men, not by women. In old times kebab prepared on mangal (it is a special iron box used for frying meat). When a sheep was cut, the men used to say, "Give me meat for one or two shishlik kebab’’. This word is used by some people as ‘’shashlyk’’. In some places kebab is fried on mangal with charcoal. But nowadays in some wedding parties it is fried on electric store without charcoal. There are various types of kebab: lyulya-kebab, tika-kebab, potato-kebab, fat kebab, kidney kebab, liver kebab, chicken kebab and others. The most popular among them are lyulya-kebab and tika-kebab (pierce meat).

One of my favourite dishes is Pilaf. But I prefer to eat Kham-Doshama- Pilaf. I shall give you douche of Pilaf:

Take 2-3 pieces of lamb per a helping, salt and pepper. Stew dried fruit and peeled chestnuts in butter. Pour on melted butter in pot, place slices of pumpkin, then pieces of meat and stewed fruit and rice on top. Simmer to readiness. When serving, put rice on plate and place meat, fruit with chestnuts and pumpkin aside. Pour on melted butter.

Pilaf is mentioned in many Azerbaijan folk tales and legends. When I was a child she used to tell me folk tales about heroes, gins and witches. One of them is about Korogli — 16th century hero of Azerbaijan. I’ve heard this tale from my grandmother. Korogli was a great man and a brave knight who had been defending his people from foreign invaders and local feudal lords. They say he was so strong that could kill 77 enemies, at one stroke and had 7777 men. One day Koroglu said to his cook "Cook me pilaf of 7-pound rice and the biggest calf in the herd. The Cook thought that Korogli was going to have important guests. He prepared delicious pilaf and served to the table. When Koroglu saw the pilaf was ready, he went to the table and offered his cook join him at the dining-table. The Cook thought "There would be plenty of food after the feast, that won't do for a servant to sit at the same table with his master." So he muttered, "Thank you, dear master. Please, enjoy your meal. I'll eat after the feast." Korogli said" Well, you know better." Then he began to help himself to pilaf. The Cook was very surprised to see that Koroglu didn't wait for his guests. But it did not surprise Koroglu’s men. They knew that Koroglu ate pilaf of 7-pound rice and a calf for dinner. And the poor Cook had to prepare dinner for himself because nothing was left on the table. They say after pilaf Korogli used to drink 7 barrels of water.

During all holidays my grandmother cooks delicious pilaf. When pilaf is ready you can feel its wonderful smell from distance.

The chicken is cut, salted, boiled a little and roasted. Onion is roasted too, but separately. Roasted onion, hen, chestnut, prunes, raisins, saffron are mixed. This mixture is laid into the big and deep frying pan, then add little broth on them and put the frying pan on the slow fire. Then rice is boiled a little and strained. The saucepan with thick bottom must be warmed thoroughly. After that its bottom is glazed with butter and a small amount of rice mixed with egg, flour, kefir and saffron is laid to the glazed bottom of the saucepan. The strained rice is laid over the mixture and the saucepan is covered tightly. Pilaf must be stewed 45 minutes or an hour.

Nut, potato, onion are minced and mixed with an egg. After that salt, pepper, and flour are added to that mixture. Mixture is roasted in a frying pan. When omelet is ready, it’s cut. Pilaf is put to the big dish and dressed with omelet hen, and chestnut. The surface of the pilaf is sprinkled with roasted raisins. Pilaf is called the royal or king’s meal in Azerbaijan.

Pilaf is the national Azerbaijan dish. When there were not special saucepans with thick bottoms pilaf was cooked in copper pans made by skilled potters in a special way. Pilaf is a high-calorie meal. It’s eaten without bread. When it was impossible to find or to get flour for making bread in old times in Azerbaijan peasants cooked pilaf.

With its variety pilaf is used mostly in the Lankaran region of Azerbaijan Republic. In other regions pilaf is cooked when it is holiday, wedding or birthday. But in Lankaran pilaf is a daily meal.

Old men narrate "Once, long, long ago people lived very poor life in villages. They lived from hand to mouth. They ate grass in the fields. During winter people couldn’t find food and stayed hungry during the long, damp, winter. They were looking forward to spring and green wheat. But…that year spring was very rainy. The water covered fields. It was impossible to sow the wheat. Rains didn’t stop. One day the peasants went out and began to pray to God for help.. They prayed all day under the rain. In the morning when they got up, they saw that all fields had turned green. Peasants understood that it was God’s gift for them, but didn’t know what was it.

Days passed. The peasants saw that the all the fields were golden. Grateful people gathered God’s gift, cleaned from peel and filled their corn-bins with white grain. They learned to cook a meal from that grain. In this legend is narrated about the rice from which is cooked the Azerbaijan national meal pilaf.

There are a lot of ways of cooking pilaf and different type of pilaf in Azerbaijan cuisine. Pilaf with mutton, chicken, fish, dill, nut, omelet, pilaf with eggplant, and so on. Pilaf, which is cooked in birthdays, weddings and in holidays, is the symbol of the family prosperity and nation. In Azerbaijan weddings when pilaf is served the light is turned off, and fellows in national dresses bring this meal adorned with burning flame. First they put the pilaf on the bride and bridegroom’s table, wishing them happiness, and then pilaf is served to other guests.

Mince mutton flesh with onions. Add rice, shredded herbs, season with salt and pepper. Scald fresh grape leaves and pickled leaves blanch till half ready. Mix forcemeat thoroughly and wrap 25gr in each leaf. Put dolma in a pot, pour on water and stew for an hour. Serve sour cream with garlic separately.

Dolma is one of the dishes that I like best of all. There are different sorts of dolma in Azerbaijan cuisine; dolma with grape leaves, with cabbage, with potatoes, and with apples. Azeri people cook dolma from old times. The ingredients of the stuffing of dolma changed during the centuries. For instance, in old times people put sugar or quince on the cabbage dolma to make it sweeter. But today most of people do not use it. Very, very tasty dolma is dolma with grape leaves. I like wrapping stuffing (mutton, rice, onion) into boiled grape leaves. My mother likes it to be wrapped small and tiny. So I was very excited when she allowed me to help her for the first time. I did my best to make as tiny dolmas as possible. I think she liked my work. I saw smile on her face when putting my dolmas into the pan.

Grandma told me she used to spread dolmas into thread so that they do not crumple. AndI cooked dolma how grandma told me. When dolma was ready I served it on the table with sour cream. My parents praised it a lot. Ever since I prepare dolma at home.

My father says that I even cook dolma better than my mother. Maybe it's because of my secret? I have my own secret of preparing dolma. I wrap myrobalan plum instead of stuffing into 2-3 dolmas. They say it brings luck to the person who finds it in his/her plate. You couldn't believe this but every time by chance one of these myrobalan plum dolma comes in my plate.