It takes 1 hour to prepare the pilaf . Half an hour is needed to fry the meat with carrots and onions, and about an hour of cooking is needed after the rice is added to the pan. Rice needs to be literally “tormented” by the top layer, so keep pilaf for at least 40 minutes after boiling water in a cauldron, but if there is a lot of pilaf, then an hour. After cooking, pilaf must be mixed and insisted for at least 15 minutes.
How to cook pilaf
Meat for pilaf
in a cauldron or pan 5 liters
Meat – half a kilo / lamb is used in the classic recipe, which, if necessary, can be replaced with beef, veal and, in extreme cases, lean pork or chicken
Rice for pilaf
Steamed rice – half a kilo
Spices for pilaf
Carrots – 250 grams
Onion – 2 large
Garlic – 1 head
Zira – 1 tablespoon
Barberry – 1 tablespoon
Turmeric – half a tablespoon
Red ground pepper – 1 teaspoon
Ground black pepper – half a teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon with slide
Vegetable oil – 1/8 cup (or tail fat – 150 grams)
How to cook pilaf
1. Peel the onion and cut into half rings.
2. Heat up a thick-walled pan or cauldron, pour in oil (or melt fat from tail fat) and put onions; fry with occasional stirring over medium heat for 5 minutes.
3. Cut the meat into slices with a side of 2-4 centimeters, add to the onion and fry until golden brown for 7 minutes.
4. Cut the carrots into long sticks 0.5 cm thick, add to the meat.
5. Add cumin and salt, all spices and seasonings, mix meat and vegetables.
6. Level the meat and vegetables on 1 level, pour rice on top in an even layer.
7. Pour boiling water – so that the water covers the rice 3 centimeters higher, put a whole head of garlic in the center.
8. Cover the cauldron with a lid, simmer pilaf for 40 minutes – 1 hour over low heat until the meat is fully cooked.
9. Stir the pilaf, cover with a lid, wrap with a blanket and leave for 15 minutes to soak.
Pilaf on a fire in a cauldron
it is recommended to increase the amount of products by 2 times
1. Make a fire, take care of a sufficient amount of firewood and a long spatula for mixing. Firewood must be small so that the flame is strong.
2. Install a cauldron over the firewood – it should be exactly above the firewood, parallel to the ground. The cauldron should be large so that it is convenient to stir in it.
3. Pour it with oil – you need three times more oil, because. pilaf burns more easily over a fire.
4. Put the meat into a well-heated oil in pieces so that the oil does not cool down. It is important to put the oil carefully so as not to burn yourself with oil splashes. You can use gloves or spread the oil with a spatula.
5. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring the pieces every minute.
6. Put the chopped onion to the meat, fry for another 5 minutes.
7. Add half a glass of boiling water and fry for another 5 minutes.
8. Remove a strong flame: zirvak should be stewed at a medium boil.
9. Add salt and spices, mix.
10. Add some small logs to make enough for cooking rice.
11. Rinse the rice, lay out in an even layer, insert a whole head of garlic on top.
12. Salt, add water so that it is flush with rice, and another 2 fingers higher.
13. Close the cauldron with a lid, open it only to control cooking.
14. Soar pilaf for 20 minutes.
15. Mix the meat with rice, cook for another 20 minutes.
Tips for cooking pilaf
Rice for pilaf
To prepare pilaf, you can use any high-quality long-grain or medium-grain durum rice (dev-zira, laser, alanga, basmati) so that it remains crumbly during cooking. Carrots for pilaf must be cut, and not grated, so that the carrots do not lose their structure during cooking (in fact, carrots in pilaf are cooked for an hour) and the pilaf remains crumbly. It is also recommended to cut the onion coarsely so that it does not boil soft. Meat and onions for pilaf must be fried until the liquid is almost completely evaporated, because. excess liquid leads to a decrease in the friability of pilaf.
What spices are put in pilaf
Traditional – zira (Indian cumin), barberry, saffron, turmeric. It is turmeric that gives the pilaf its yellow color. If you add a little raisins and paprika to meat with vegetables, pilaf will become sweet. Add raisins like this: first rinse, then pour boiling water for 15 minutes, then chop (otherwise the raisins will swell in the whole pilaf, not giving the rice sweetness). Ready-made seasoning from the store for 1 kilogram of meat should be poured 2 tablespoons.
The head of garlic is placed in the pilaf so that the garlic does not affect the consistency of the pilaf, but gives the pilaf all its flavor.
What meat is best for pilaf
The use of lamb and beef – relatively “hard” meat – in pilaf is justified not only by traditions, but also by modern ideas about taste and nutritional value. Plov due to rice is quite high in calories, so the use of fatty pork is undesirable for dietary reasons. Lamb is ideal – because soft meat, moderately absorbing spices, correctly giving rice and vegetables broth and texture is more suitable for rice than all the others. Pilaf with beef will turn out a little drier, veal will leave a deep meat imprint and risk overshadowing rice. For homemade “quick” pilaf, pork is used, from which excess fat is cut off before cooking the pilaf. Or, at the very least, chicken. Chicken meat is tender, so you should fry the chicken to a crust over high heat for just a few minutes – then add rice.
Traditions of pilaf
Pilaf is cooked on an open fire in a cauldron and mainly from lamb. The meat is fried not in oil, but in fat tail fat – this is the fat of sheep, which are bred mainly in Kazakhstan to obtain an oil replacement. However, fat tail fat can have a strong specific smell, since it is located in the region of the ram’s tail. The price of fat tail fat is from 350 rubles / 1 kilogram (on average in Moscow as of June 2020). You should look for fat tail fat in the markets of Tatar products, in meat markets and in VIP food stores.
The standard proportions of products for cooking pilaf are for each kilogram of rice 1 kilogram of meat, half a kilogram of onions and half a kilogram of carrots.
The most popular pilaf is in Uzbekistan, where the most classic version is called “Ferghana” from the name of the town in the Ferghana Valley, where it originated. In the homeland, pilaf is used daily, and it is cooked by women. For weddings, births and commemorations, special festive types of pilaf are prepared, and they are traditionally prepared by men.
How to cook pilaf
Plov is usually cooked in a cast-iron cauldron, since the temperature of an open fire is evenly distributed over the cast-iron cauldron, the pilaf does not burn and cooks evenly. By the time in the cauldron it turns out longer, but the pilaf turns out to be more crumbly. In the absence of a cauldron at home, pilaf can be cooked in an ordinary steel saucepan or a frying pan with a thick bottom.