The Tatarstan Table : A visit with a California Tatar cook who is trying to keep the cuisine of his ancestors a living tradition.

The house, surrounded by California live oaks and cooled by a Santa Barbara sea breeze, is full of crafts from halfway around the world. Central Asian carpets. Brilliant Uzbek silks. Chased copper trays and carved wooden soup bowls. An antique woman’s headdress, something between a cap and a tiara, stitched with masses of pearls.

And more serious crafts, reflecting central Asia’s stormy history. Ancient scimitars and chain mail. A Tatar shield of watered steel, circled by floral patterns worked in gold. Armor from the Caucasus, with gilt inscriptions in Georgian and Chechen.

The owner, Turan-Mirza Kamal, belongs to one of the smallest and least-known ethnic groups in the country, the Tatars. But his family aren’t recent immigrants--on his father’s side, they’ve lived here for more than 120 years, which is a story in itself. Tonight, he’s made the sort of meal that might be served on the Muslim festival of Kurban Bayram in what is now officially known as Tatarstan, an area 500 miles east of Moscow.

Kurban Bayram, which marks the high point of the Mecca pilgrimage, this year falls on Friday, May 12. An essential element of the festival is the sacrifice of an animal (usually a lamb) in memory of Abraham’s faithful readiness to sacrifice his son at God’s command. Muslims believe that the son was Ismail (Ishmael), rather than Isaac.

The lamb for Kurban Bayram is traditionally marinated overnight in garlic and lemon juice and made into shish kebab, Kamal explains. Tonight’s table is loaded with more distinctively Tatar dishes that might accompany the roasted meat, including a couple of the large, rectangular savory pies ( belish ) the Tatars are known for, and Tatar sweets such as kosh tili and chekchek (see “Chekchek? Check” H19).

“Can we go straight to the chekchek ?” asks guest Salisha Abdool with an infectious giggle.

At a Tatar banquet, you certainly can. “Traditionally everything is set on the table at once,” says Kamal, “except for sumsa and peremech , which come out from the kitchen when they’re hot.”

Sumsa is an egg-shaped dumpling, the Tatar cousin of the Indian samosa , often made with a puffy leavened wrapping like the Russian piroshki. At this meal some of the sumsas are stuffed with beef, some with a mellow mixture of cabbage and egg.

Peremeches are unique little meat pies, distinguished by a round hole in the dough that forms a sort of window on the filling. The dough, whether leavened or unleavened, is attractively pleated around this little porthole. To serve a peremech , you garnish it with some thick onion soup ( shurpa ) and then spoon tart yogurt on top. The hot peremeches disappear as fast as they are served.

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There are two belishes on this table, one filled with beef and the other with fish. “ Belish is made differently in the various Tatar areas,” says Kamal. “In the area of Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan), they put potato in it instead of noodles. In some places they put onions with the meat, in some places they make it without onion. And in some places, it’s just onions and noodles.”

The noodles he’s referring to are, a little surprisingly, the Chinese-style transparent vermicelli, made from mung beans, often called cellophane noodles or bean threads (the Tatars call them fintior or fintioza , from the Chinese name fen tiao ). They were introduced into Central Asia about 120 years ago by Muslim refugees from China and have become an integral part of the local cuisines. They add a welcome elegance and delicacy to these substantial meat pies.

The table also holds fresh cucumber pickles and some dishes more characteristic of areas farther to the south than the Kazan area: a salad of cucumbers in yogurt, an impressively garlicky dish of fried eggplant dressed with yogurt, and ayran , a yogurt drink like the Indian lassi or the Armenian tahn , but flavored with herbs and red pepper. Melons and grapes round out the meal.

Kamal hastens to mention that he checked his recipes with a woman named Naile living in Burlingame, Calif., who also made the chekchek for him. Burlingame has the country’s chief Tatar community.

The name Tatar has been applied to many central Asian peoples throughout history, and even today ethnologists recognize groups such as Siberian Tatars and Crimean Tatars as well as the Kazan Tatars. Kamal tends to refer to all Central Asians as Tatars on the ground that the distinction between Kazakhs, Kirgizes, Bashkirs and so forth was really a Soviet tactic for dividing and conquering people who didn’t consider themselves separate nationalities. His father’s side of the family is predominantly Nogai Tatar, a group that has lived mostly in the northern Caucasus, but his cookery basically reflects his mother’s side of the family, a Kazan merchant dynasty.

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With its kebabs and pilafs, Kazan Tatar cuisine has clear affinities with Near Eastern food, but it also reflects the severe climate of Tatarstan, the northernmost Muslim nation. It is heavier and meatier than many Muslim cuisines, and the meat is often beef or goose, rather than lamb or chicken. With its use of dill, buckwheat and horseradish, Tatar food sometimes recalls Russian food.

That should be no surprise. The Russians and the Tatars have known each other a long time. For centuries, the princes of Russia were basically tax collection agents for the Tatar khans , whom the Russians called czars --technically, the first Russian czar was Ivan the Terrible, who won the title by conquering Kazan in 1552. After the defeat, the Kazan Tatar aristocracy retained many of its privileges. Part of it even converted to Christianity and intermarried with the Russian aristocracy.

But not all Tatars acquiesced to Russian rule. In 1794, Kamal’s father’s family was involved in a plan to restore another former Tatar khanate, this one located at Astrakhan on the Black Sea. The Russian government got wind of the plan and the family fled to Hungary, where they lived for 80 years. Turan-Mirza’s grandfather moved to the United States in 1874. The unusual consequence is that his father, Ahmad Kamal, was raised on Indian reservations, where the grandparents, both anthropologists, were studying Native American languages.

The family has kept to its program of fighting for Tatar independence. The anthropologist grandfather went back to Russia and participated in the 1905 rebellion against the Czar. Ahmad Kamal spent much of his life working for Tatar causes and recorded his adventures in several books. “It is unfortunate that my father died when he did,” says Turan-Mirza Kamal. “He didn’t live to see the arrival of independence.”

In later life, Ahmad Kamal also devoted much of his effort to the cause of Islamic unity. In 1951 he wrote a book about the Mecca pilgrimage, “The Sacred Journey,” which endeavored to overcome the conflict between Sunnites and Shiites. It was translated into Arabic and made available to the pilgrims in Mecca.

This year, someone in Mecca may be reading it while the tiny Tatar community of California roasts its lambs and makes its pilafs and belishes .

FRITTERS (KOSH TILI)

3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups sifted flour

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3 tablespoons yogurt

1/2 cup milk

Vanilla or rosewater, optional

Oil for deep-frying

Powdered sugar

Kosh tili means “birds’ tongues,” though in this case the birds would have to be pretty big.

Sift together flour, granulated sugar and salt. Add eggs, yogurt, milk and optional dash of vanilla or rosewater. Mix well with spoon, then pour out onto work surface and knead until smooth.

Divide dough into 4 parts. Place 1 piece of dough on floured board and roll out 1/8 thick. Using knife or crimp-edged cutter, cut into strips about 1 1/2 or 2 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches long.

Using knife, cut 1 1/2-inch slit in middle of each strip. Take 1 end of each strip, fold it through slit and pull out on other side. Repeat with remaining dough strips.

Heat oil for deep frying. Fry 1 or 2 dough strips at time, holding under surface of oil with slotted spoon until puffed and golden brown. Drain finished fritters in colander, then place on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 8 to 12 servings. Each of 8 servings contains about:

247 calories; 324 mg sodium; 55 mg cholesterol; 3 grams fat; 46 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.14 gram fiber.

FRIED DUMPLINGS (PEREMECH)

2 cups yogurt

Water

3 1/2 tablespoons oil or butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 eggs

4 1/2 to 5 cups flour

2 large onions

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 pound ground beef

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper

Oil for cooking, about 1 cup

Combine 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup water, oil, salt, sugar and eggs in food processor or mixing bowl. Add enough flour to make workable, slightly stiff dough. Knead 7 to 8 minutes. Cover and let rest 1 hour.

Peel and dice 1 onion. Put onion and chicken stock in saucepan and simmer until onion is soft. Set aside.

Peel remaining 1 onion and mince fine. Mix onion with ground beef, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup water.

Divide dough into about 24 golfball-sized lumps. Roll each lump out to circle about 1/8-inch thick.

Divide filling among dough circles. Place index finger of 1 hand in center of filling and use thumb, forefinger and middle finger of other hand to fold dough up to finger, and pinch together in tight pleats. (When peremech is finished, circular area under index finger will remain uncovered by dough.)

Heat oil in frying pan and fry peremeches, 3 or 4 at time, placing them face down in oil until golden and then turning over to finish frying.

Serve hot. To serve, spoon some onion and broth onto peremech, then 1 tablespoon yogurt.

Makes 8 to 12 servings. Each of 8 servings contains about:

517 calories; 682 mg sodium; 97 mg cholesterol; 23 grams fat; 56 grams carbohydrates; 20 grams protein; 0.36 gram fiber.

EGGPLANT AND YOGURT (PATLIJAN)

This simple, powerfully garlicky eggplant dish tastes fine as soon as it’s made but gets even better in a couple of hours. The eggplant slices absorb some of the whey from the yogurt, leaving it thicker and richer. The only sort of yogurt that works in this recipe is the plain, unflavored kind with no thickeners such as gelatin or tapioca (check ingredients list on carton).

3 eggplants

Salt

Oil for frying

3 cups plain yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced fine

Dill

Slice eggplants horizontally and sprinkle slices generously with salt. Place slices in mixing bowl and set bowl of same size or slightly smaller on top of slices; put 2-to 3-pound weight in upper bowl and let eggplant sit 30 to 45 minutes.

Rinse salt from eggplant, drain and pat dry with paper towels. Dip slices in flour and fry in oil until golden. Drain slices on paper towels.

Mix yogurt and garlic. Spread some of yogurt mixture onto serving plate, cover with layer of eggplant slices, then layer of yogurt. Dust lightly with pepper and sprinkle with dill to taste. Repeat layering until eggplant is used up, ending with layer of yogurt. Let rest in cool place at least 2 hours before serving.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving contains about:

174 calories; 501 mg sodium; 14 mg cholesterol; 11 grams fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.54 gram fiber.

MEAT PIE (IT BELISH)

It (pronounced “eat”) is the Tatar word for “meat.” A similar pie with a fish filling is called balyk belish.

2 cups flour

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 ounces bean thread noodles

1/4 cup oil

3 onions, diced

1/2 to 1 leek, well washed, halved lengthwise and cut into thin slices

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 cup beef broth

Salt, pepper

1/2 teaspoon dill

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

Put flour and butter in bowl of food processor and pulse until flour resembles coarse grain. Mix eggs and milk. With machine running, add milk and egg mixture and process just until dough holds together. Turn out and wrap in plastic wrap.

Bring 1 quart water to boil. Remove from heat and put bean thread noodles in to soak until soft and transparent, about 1/2 hour. When cool, drain bean threads in fine-mesh colander. Using knife or kitchen shears, cut noodles into 1/2-inch lengths in colander.

Put oil in frying pan over medium heat. Add onions and leek and fry until golden. Using slotted spoon, remove onions and leek from pan.

Add beef to pan and cook, stirring and mashing with fork so that meat breaks up very thoroughly, until redness is gone. Add garlic and return onions and leek to pan. Stir in coriander and cumin. Add broth and cut-up bean thread noodles. Raise heat, bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook 15 to 20 minutes until no longer soupy but still moist. Season to taste with salt, pepper and dill. Remove from heat and let rest 1 hour.

Divide dough into 2 pieces, 1 slightly larger than other. On floured pastry board, roll out larger piece into roughly 16x13-inch rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Line greased metal or glass 12x9-inch baking dish with dough. Pour in meat filling. Roll out remaining dough 1/8-inch thick and use to cover filling. Fold edges of bottom crust over edges of top crust and crimp to seal. Punch holes in surface with fork.

Beat egg with milk. Brush surface with mixture. Dish can be frozen at this point.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 40 minutes. If using frozen belish, do not defrost but bake 1 hour at 375 degrees.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving contains about:

642 calories; 355 mg sodium; 157 mg cholesterol; 38 grams fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 24