Chak-chak day

Chak-Chak Day is celebrated annually on October 14th. This gastronomic holiday is dedicated to delicious and satisfying oriental sweets, typical of Bashkiria, Tatarstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The authorship of the recipe is unknown, but the dish is found on the menus of various Turkic peoples. It will be a good end to the meal, suitable for both festive and everyday tables. Chak-chak is usually washed down with tea and eaten with your hands, breaking off small pieces. If the sweetness is large, then it is customary to cut it into portioned pieces. The best way to celebrate chak-chak day is by preparing this delicious yet simple delicacy. To do this you will need flour, honey, sunflower oil, eggs and sugar. Beat the eggs with sugar, then add flour to them and knead into a thick dough. It needs to be rolled out into a layer 0.5 cm thick and cut into small oblong pieces. Next, these pieces of dough are fried until golden brown in boiling oil. A cauldron is traditionally used for this, but it can be replaced with a deep frying pan. The sweetness is placed in a mold and poured with heated honey or honey-based syrup. Cooking time for chak-chak depends on the number of servings. The finished dish can have any size and shape: flat, round, pyramidal. It is considered healthy due to the natural honey in its composition. But, at the same time, it is quite high in calories. Therefore, such sweetness should be consumed in moderation by those who tend to be overweight. Chak-chak is stored for about three weeks. All this time it remains sweet and aromatic. In each locality, chak-chak is prepared differently; the recipe may vary slightly. Many families have their own signature recipe, which is passed down from generation to generation. Just 20 years ago, chak-chak was considered a festive dish and was prepared only on special occasions. More than one wedding in Bashkiria or Kazakhstan could not do without such a delicacy. Moreover, several generations took part in the preparation of the sweets. Unmarried girls rolled out and cut the dough, married girls fried it in oil. Representatives of the older generation placed the fried products in molds and filled them with honey syrup. Thus, chak-chak served the purpose of uniting the family, communication between its members, and made it possible to maintain the tradition. Among the Tatars, wedding chak-chak is usually prepared by the mother of the bride. Each guest is given a piece of delicacy. It must be eaten; it is believed that such a festive sweet will make life long, prosperous and happy. When serving the wedding chak-chak on the table, the parents of the newlyweds usually say congratulations. They wish the newlyweds to unite as tightly as a chak-chak smeared with honey, and their life together to be as sweet. Just as chak-chak is assembled from individual pieces into a single whole, they must always stick to their relatives and their people.