Urama

Urama (урама / oʻrama) is an Uzbek sweet made by rolling dough out thinly, cutting it into long strips, and rolling up and frying each strip one at a time. It is characterized by its swirling shape and the gaps that form between the layers of thin dough, and it is finished with a dusting of powdered sugar.

In frying a wheat-flour dough, it shares something with the fried breads found widely across Central Asia. However, rather than puffing up small, thick pieces of dough, urama is shaped mainly by layering thin strips and showing their edges. When eating it, you break off the thin edges of the rolled strip.

A single strip creates the layers

Some methods for urama dough combine wheat flour with eggs, sugar, fat and other ingredients. The dough is first rested, then rolled out thinly and cut into strips. A cookbook by Karim Makhmudov, a specialist in Uzbek cuisine, describes cutting the dough with a tool that has a wavy blade into strips 5–6 centimeters wide and 45–50 centimeters long, then rolling up and frying each strip one at a time.

These dimensions are one example from the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) in that book. Some methods use shorter strips, which changes the number of turns and the height of the finished piece. Even so, its defining feature is clear: the shape is formed from a single strip rather than by gathering cut pieces together.

A wavy edge makes the outline of the roll stand out. Because the thin dough is layered many times over, its appearance is shaped not only by the cut surfaces but also by the edges of the strip and the gaps that form between the layers of dough. When it is fried, the oil and heat need to reach the inner parts of the dough, so it is handled differently from shaping a thick mass. The rolled form leads directly to the sweet’s appearance and to the way it breaks when eaten.

Qush tili, and differences among the same fried sweets

Uzbek cuisine also has a thin fried sweet called qush tili (куш тили). The name means “bird’s tongue.” It is sometimes grouped together with urama as a close relative, but Makhmudov’s cookbook treats the two, which are shaped differently, as separate entries.

Qush tili can also be made by cutting thin dough into wavy-edged squares or triangles, or by cutting thin rods of dough into small pieces. It is a family of sweets not limited to the rolled shape.

The Russian khvorost (хворост), sometimes rendered in Japanese as “havorosuto,” is a general term for thin fried sweets likened to twigs. Some cookbooks describe urama using this name, but whereas khvorost covers a variety of shapes, urama refers to the shape of a rolled strip. They share the features of being thin, fried and dusted with powdered sugar, but urama can be distinguished by its rolled-strip form.

Places where the name of the rolled sweet changes, and festive tables

The shape of urama is also reflected in regional names. A study of Uzbek food-culture vocabulary by Kamola Temirova describes salla as a sweet made by rolling an egg-enriched dough like a head wrap and frying it, and records interviews in which it is called urama in parts of Tashkent and Bukhara. The names vazziq in Fergana and salla in Surkhandarya are also given. Although the rolled-dough shape is shared, the sweet does not go by the same name everywhere.

In Tashkent there is also the name oʻramali qush tili, meaning rolled qush tili. Local interviews include an example of brushing the fried sweet with honey, decorating it with candies and other sweets, and preparing it for Hayit, an Islamic holiday. Some people in parts of Bukhara remember it as a sweet served at wedding and festival tables. What the interviewees described was the practice of about 30–35 years before the time of the survey. While the rolled form appears as a separate entry in cookbooks, in some places its name overlaps with qush tili on festive tables.

Urama also continues today as a sweet fried treat made at home. In a formula by Mahfuzaxon Rahimova, who shares Uzbek confectionery online, 6 egg yolks and 1 whole egg are combined with about 250 grams of wheat flour; the dough is rested, rolled out thinly, and cut into strips that are rolled up and fried over fairly low heat. Once cooled, it is dusted with powdered sugar. This egg-rich example and the formula in Makhmudov’s cookbook share the rolled shape but use different doughs.

At a bread and sweets festival planned in Babur Park in Tashkent in 2011, urama was listed, along with chak-chak and qush tili, among the Eastern sweets to be exhibited and sold. Urama was not only made at home but was also one of the flour-based sweets that confectioners planned to exhibit and sell.

The Tatar sweet of the same name

Tatar confectionery also has an urama made by coiling thin dough into a spiral and frying it. The Center for Cultural Resources of Tatarstan lists it alongside kosh tele (кош теле), which is cut into diamond shapes, and describes urama as a thin, spiral-shaped fried sweet. In addition, a study of the food culture of Tatars in the villages of Kachukovo and Ust-Tamak in Western Siberia lists urama made from strips of dough formed into rings among the dishes on ritual tables.

Sweet urama, and rolled savory dishes

The name urama alone does not determine the type of dish. Uzbekistan also has urama khanum, a dish made by rolling meat, vegetables and other fillings in thin dough and steaming it. Both involve rolling dough, but a sweet fried confection and a steamed dish with a filling differ in ingredients, cooking method and role at the table.

Sweet urama centers on the thinness of the dough itself and its rolled shape; unlike rolled savory dishes, it is not made to seal in the juices of a filling. In khanum, a filling is wrapped and steamed; in sweet urama, a strip is rolled and fried.

Chak-chak is also made by frying wheat dough, but small pieces are bound together with honey and sugar, shaped into a single mass and then cut. Urama keeps the outline of a single rolled strip and is dusted with powdered sugar on the outside. The difference lies in whether, after the dough is fried, its shape is kept or it is reshaped with a sweet binder.

Glossary