Joshpara

Josh means "to boil" while para is a term for "bit" in Persian. Another theory about the words' etymology is that the word comes from the Turkic word düşbərə. The words tosh and dash mean "filled up" and "spill out", and berek means "food" (dishes made from dough). This alludes to the fact that düşbərə should be added in when the water is boiling and spilling out of the saucepan. A common Azerbaijani joke suggests that the word comes from “düş bəri”, which means "fall here": in other words, asking to fill the spoon with as many dumplings as possible. ==History==

Shishbarak is mentioned in 13th and 15th Century Egyptian cookbooks. According to historian Daniel Newman, it was possibly imported into Egypt by Turkic tribes from the Central Asian Steppes. Shishbarak () was described in the proceedings of the International Congress of Orientalists from 1889-1891, which cite the cookbook 1885 Ustadh al-Tabbakhin by author . The dish is described as a small dumpling filled with meat, onions and coriander, which is cooked in meat broth and sour milk. == Regional variations ==

Turkic and Persian cuisines The dish is found in Azerbaijani, Iranian, Tajik, Uzbek, Uyghur, and other Central Asian cuisines. The dough for Central Asian chuchvara or tushbera is made with flour, eggs, water, and salt. It is rolled into a thin layer, and cut into squares. A dollop of meat filling, seasoned with chopped onions, black pepper, salt and thyme, is placed at the center of each square, and the corners of the dumpling are pinched and folded. The dumplings are boiled in meat broth until they rise to the surface. Chuchvara can be served in a clear soup or on their own, with either vinegar or sauce based on finely chopped greens, tomatoes and hot peppers. Another popular way of serving chuchvara is to top the dumplings with syuzma (strained qatiq) or with smetana (sour cream). The latter is known as Russian-style. '' are served with sprinkled dried mint. Vinegar mixed with shredded garlic is added or served separately to taste. After being stuffed with ground beef and spices, thin dough parcels are cooked in yogurt and served hot in their sauce. A part of Arab cuisine for centuries, a recipe for shushbarak appears in the 15th century Arabic cookbook from Damascus, Kitab al-tibakha''. Al basha w asakro () is a Damascene dish made with kibbeh and shishbarak cooked in the same yogurt. == Related dishes ==

• Finno-Ugric peoples in Western Siberia were exposed to the dish by Iranian merchants during the Middle Ages and named it pelnan, meaning "ear bread". It was adopted in Russia in the 17th century, where the dish is referred to as pelmeni. • Manti is another type of dumpling popular in Central and West Asia. == See also ==