Qovurma is a cooked dish that is part of the cuisine of Azerbaijan and the cuisine of Turkey. There are several varieties, all of which involve stewing meat with fruit, herbs, or vegetables, It is a variation of Kavurma.
Despite sometimes being translated as "kourma", the dish has no culinary relationship to the korma of the Indian subcontinent, although both names are derived from the same Turkic root.Perry, C. "Korma, Kavurma, Ghormeh: A family, or not so much?" in Hosking (ed.) Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2009, p.254
Etymology
The word "qovurma" is one of many, in several languages, thought to have descended from a prototypical Turkic root qawirma, first recorded in the 13th century,Perry (2009), p.257, citing Athir al-Din abu Hayyan al-Andalusi, Kitab al-Idrak li-Lisan al-Atrak and which may have been spread across the region by the upper classes in the Timurid era.
Preparation
In Turkic countries, "qovurma" refers to a number of related dishes, most of which are begun by frying meat in butter and which often include dried fruit. In addition to fruit, verjuice, sour grape juice, is often used as flavouring. Similar stews flavoured with fruit are found in the adjacent country of Iran, where they are referred to by the name khoresh.
Varieties include lamb qovurma, liver qovurma and sabzi qovurma.Qovurma, Explore Azerbaijan, accessed 30-01-18 Sabzi qovurma, or lamb stew with herbs, is a blend of Persian and Turkic cooking: "sabzi" means "green" in Persian. Sabzi qovurma is served either accompanied by plov (pilaf), or as a dish on its own with yoghurt and crushed garlic.Sabzi qovurma , news.az, accessed 30-01-18
Turşu qovurma combines lamb with preserved lemons and dried apricots and is flavoured with turmeric,Turşu qovurma , Azeri Food, accessed 30-01-18 while nur qovurma features lamb and pomegranate.
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