Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a place where 47 ethnic groups live, has its own special cuisine after a long-time integration of Han and different ethnic groups. During the integration, food and receipts are exchanged. Mutton, lamb, beef, horse meat and dairy products form the basis of Xinjiang cuisine. Eating features of Han, Uygur, Kazak, Hui, and other ethnics can all find their way in Xinjiang cuisine. On festivals, people stick to the tradition of sending home-made food as gifts. A Kazak or Uygur would kill a sheep that is brought up by him and send it as a present. Likewise, Han people often send specially made pancakes to their ethnic friends.

Let's look at what is served on the table of Xinjiang people during Chinese New Year.

Stewed mutton and cake
In the past, boiling was the most common way to cook mutton for ethnic groups. Han people invented another method to increase the flavor of the meat. Stir the mutton with ginger, spring onion and dried red pepper. Then add water and boil the meat for about 2 hours. Put 8 to 9 very thin cakes on the mutton. Each cake is brushed with oil. After steaming the cake and mutton for another 30 minutes, the dish is finished.


Hand pilaf
Hand pilaf in Xinjiang is made of rice, carrot and lamb. Raisins are sometimes added to balance the flavor of lamb and carrot. Uygur and Kazak people often put hand pilaf in a big plate and share it with families or friends. Han people also consume hand pilaf and take it as a necessary dish on Chinese New Year's dinner menu.


Camel feet
Camel feet are another classic food in Xinjiang. Rare and precious, camel feet are often served on important festivals. People stew the soft and chewy tissue of the camel feet with herbs. The stewed camel feet are often consumed with vinegar, red pepper, cucumber and turnip.


Smoked horse meat sausage
Kazak people in Xinjiang put horse meat (often with bones) and the fat on the belly of a horse in the clean horse intestine. Then the sausages are hanged in the open air and smoked by the burning pine trees for 1 hour each day. After 10-15 days, smoked sausages are finished. During Chinese New Year, the horse meat sausage is very popular. People often take it with red wine.


Big plate chicken
Big plate chicken is one of the most common food in Xinjiang. Unlike the chicken cooked by other methods, big plate chicken has more soup to consume with wide noodles. The chicken is often stirred with potato and red pepper. Wide noodles are added in the chicken later. It is difficulte to locate the accurate birthplace of the dish.


Boiled Mutton
Boiled mutton is a traditional dish of ethnic people. It also has become an important part of Han people's dinner on the Eve of Chinese New Year. Apart from making dumplings, people often boil mutton around midday and share it with the whole families in the evening. Han people add spring onions to reduce the scent of mutton, and turnip to help the digestion.
 

Butter Rolls
Butter rolls are a traditional food of Hui people in Xinjiang. Hui people add butter in the flour to create a creamy flavor. And Han people develop two categories: one is added with spring onion, the other with dried red pepper. Both two kinds of butter rolls are steamed and consumed with stir fried meat and vegetables.


Crusty pancake
Crusty pancake is the staple food of Uygur and Kazak people in Xinjiang. People cut the cake into small pieces and consume them with mutton soup or roasted mutton. Often roasted mutton was placed on a crusty pancake to let the cake be soaked with the extra oil of the meat, which makes the pancake taste better.


Baked butter pancakes
Han people living in Barkol Kazak autonomous county in Xinjiang often make this kind of pancake for Chinese New Year. They add egg, butter and sugar in the flour and baked the two sides of the cake for about 30 minutes. The pancake with many layers tastes crispy and sweet.