Dimlama is a traditional Uzbek dish that’s especially popular during the annual harvest time (spring and summer) when you can find an abundance of vegetables in Uzbekistan and most other countries in the region. All ingredients are cut into large pieces and placed in layers in a way that they can cook in their own juices. The dimlama recipe takes around 1.5-2 hours to prepare and the final result is a hearty stew served on a large plate and eaten with a spoon.
In all languages that belong to the Turkic language group, the word dimdama (or its variations dimlama, dymadama, demdeme, etc.) translate to the verb boil. This is an exact description of this stew. The dish first appears in Central Asia at the territory of today’s Uzbekistan in the Middle Ages. As you may or may not know, all Central Asian cuisines heavily rely on underground vegetables (because not a lot of vegetables can grow above ground in the Central Asian steppes) which traditionally don’t grow in this region throughout the year.
Ghent Stew: Waterzooi
