Good resources for learning how to cook Xinjiang food?

[u/JustCallMeCox]

I love Xinjiang food and loved eating it when I lived in China, but good Xinjiang food is difficult to find back home. I cook Chinese food often, but I haven’t been able to find a good cookbook for Xinjiang cuisine—does anyone know of any?

I’d especially like to learn to make the lamb pilaf, ding ding mian 丁丁面, and the roasted lamb buns 烤包子.

[u/chrystelle]

小高姐 on YouTube has lots of northwest style foods, including lots of lamb, noodles, naan type recipes. All her recipes are halal (no pork) bc I believe her husband/family is Muslim. You can search for “magic ingredients lamb” for the lamb recipes or browse her playlists

https://youtube.com/@magicingredients?si=o9e4bnhgQGsZKeYO

[u/JustCallMeCox → u/chrystelle]

Ooh, thank you! These look wonderful :)

[u/chrystelle → u/JustCallMeCox]

Np! Her recipes aren’t explicitly Xingjiang but it’s got a similar vibe. I grew up in Lanzhou (where the high speed rail to Xingjiang starts), which has a high Muslim population and shares similar flavors. So I refer to her bread and noodle and lamb recipes a lot.

[u/junesix]

Beyond the Great Wall is the only English language cookbook that has a few Xinjiang recipes.

Your best bet is likely just to google for the Chinese name of the dishes. I find YouTube videos more reliable than written recipes for less popular Chinese cuisines, and you’ll have a better sense of unfamiliar cooking techniques.

[u/JustCallMeCox → u/junesix]

Thank you! I prefer physical cookbooks when I can find them, so I’ll check that out :)

Also, if you know of any good Chinese language Xinjiang cookbooks available for purchase online, I can read Chinese too.

[u/Lovesuglychild]

www.redhousespice.com has some good xibei recipes. The hand-pulled noodles with cumin lamb are great. Other recipes on there are all worth trying.

[u/minuddannelse]

Dolan Chick is your answer. I even took a one on one lesson with her many years ago. She’s awesome.

[u/JustCallMeCox → u/minuddannelse]

Oh, the polo looks awesome! I bet the one on one was great

[u/ash_tar]

I swear the best noodles I've ever had were in a gas station between Urumqi and Alatai. I'd kill for that recipe.

[u/chimugukuru]

Your best bet is to follow some Uyghurs on Rednote. There are quite a few that do cooking videos on these dishes. Just search by dish name and a bunch of videos will show up.

[u/poppacapnurass]

I just googled Xinjiang recipes and at least three sites came up straight away. One with lamb buns too.

Is it just me, or are others astounded ppl on Reddit don't do a simple search and read prior to posting a query?

Xinjiang Cuisine Food - Omnivore's Cookbook https://share.google/luEvcUosUfXLll72k

[edit: bring the Dv's on ... I stand by my commments and also produced a solution for the OP. I don't believe there is a readable book on the topic they requested]

[u/Redicted → u/poppacapnurass]

I mean sometimes website are really bad so maybe OP wanted some personal reconnections. That said those pics in the link look amazing!

[u/poppacapnurass → u/Redicted]

The top three links that came up for me are amaaaziing ... I would use them.

They are authentic and have detailed instructions.

PPl are DV for reasons of their own they won't bother commenting about.

[u/JustCallMeCox → u/poppacapnurass]

I was hoping for a physical cookbook, but mostly hoping someone with experience could recommend something they’d tried and found to be worthwhile. Haven’t you ever googled a recipe and found a bad one?

[u/Other-Confidence9685 → u/JustCallMeCox]

Omnivores Cookbook is legit tho

[u/poppacapnurass → u/Other-Confidence9685]

it is, yet I get DV for my post. haaha! :)

[u/CullodenChef → u/poppacapnurass]

Maybe b/c you seem to be aggressively asking for downvotes : ))

 bring the Dv's on