Pilaf is a national dish of Armenian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Arab cuisines. But no less he is loved in Russia. Every Russian woman has her own signature recipe for pilaf, however, each nation has its own peculiarities of cooking this dish.

Classic crumbly pilaf with pork

Still, this recipe for pilaf cannot be called an absolutely Russian version, it uses oriental spices and special cooking technology. However, a different kind of meat and some additives (mushrooms, for example) make the taste of pilaf completely different, but no less remarkable than the Central Asian options.

What is needed:

  • pork meat (neck, ham or scapula) - 500 g;
  • rice (long-grain or round) - 500 g;
  • carrots - 400 g;
  • onion - 1 pc.;
  • mushrooms (fresh) - 300g;
  • tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • spices: turmeric, paprika, peppers (bitter and allspice), sour (barberry) - ¼ tsp each. each;
  • sunflower oil - 120 mg;
  • unpeeled garlic head - 1 pc.;
  • butter - 30 g;
  • a pinch of salt.

How to cook:

  1. The meat is cut, as for goulash, salted, seasoned with spices.
  2. Cut fat from it (if the pork is fat), cut it thinly into plates and drown in a cauldron. Greaves are removed. If lean pork - pour sunflower oil.
  3. The cauldron is heated until the fat crackles slightly.
  4. Carefully place the meat in it and lightly brown.
  5. Add onion chopped in half rings and fry until caramel color.
  6. Put the carrots cut into small squares and continue the frying process.
  7. A cauldron is filled with the contents of almost boiling water. Pour enough to lightly cover the meat surface.
  8. Leave a low heat so that the meat languishes until cooked under a closed lid.
  9. Mushrooms are cut not very large and fried in oil, then salted.
  10. Remove from the head of garlic the dry top husk (where possible), wash it and lay it on the meat.
  11. Rice is washed several times until clean water, put on top and level the surface.
  12. A cup of water is poured into a separate bowl, the tomato paste is stirred in it, and salted.
  13. Rice is seasoned with dried ground paprika, turmeric, put the mushrooms in an even layer and pour water with pasta through a colander, hoping to cover the rice no more than 1 cm
  14. They intensify the fire and wait until the water disappears from the rice-mushroom surface. As soon as this happens, carefully pick rice from the edges to the center, covering the mushrooms to make a small dome.
  15. They cover the cauldron as tightly as possible, make the fire minimally weak and simmer pilaf for 35 minutes.
  16. Turn off the fire, open the lid and, trying not to break the rice grains, mix the pilaf, removing the garlic.

If guests are suddenly about to rush in, there is a great opportunity to cook pilaf in a slow cooker with pork, which will greatly speed up the process.

Cooking in Azerbaijan

Properly preparing pilaf in Central Asian means cooking a single dish: rice, meat, vegetables - all in one pan.

In Azerbaijan or India, all products are prepared separately. According to their culinary canons, pilaf is a dish consisting of rice and gara (a combination of hot meat with dried fruits, herbs and spices).

A cauldron is meant for pilaf. There are also features in the technology of its preparation.

What is needed:

  • lamb slices - 500 g;
  • butter - 130 g;
  • onions - 4 heads;
  • pomegranate juice - 250 mg;
  • raisins - 150 g;
  • cherry plum (dried apricots) - 200 g;
  • allspice, caraway seeds, cilantro - ½ tsp.
  • rice - 500 g;
  • turmeric (better, of course, saffron) - 2 g;
  • salt to taste;

How to cook:

  1. Lamb meat sliced ​​into pieces is fried in its own fat until browned.
  2. Stack the cuts in a cauldron, salt, flavored with caraway seeds, pepper, cilantro.
  3. Coarsely chopped onion, a glass of pomegranate juice, raisins, dried apricots are added.
  4. Pour meat with 1 liter of boiling water and simmer for 1.5 hours on low heat.
  5. Pour water into a large stewpan, add salt to it, add a spoonful of lemon juice or acid. Rice is poured into boiling water, boiling it until half ready. The foam is periodically removed.
  6. Rice is thrown into a colander and washed well with water.
  7. A flat cake with a fresh dough (kazmag) covers the bottom and bottom of the walls of the cauldron, after having lubricated everything with oil.
  8. Spread rice on the cake, sprinkling it in layers and spraying with pre-melted butter.
  9. Then they make a rice hill and little by little saffron or turmeric, diluted in 1/3 cup of water, is poured onto it.
  10. They grind the cauldron more tightly with a lid and simmer the rice on a minimum fire for 1.5 hours.

The meat is served with young garlic, peppermint and onion. Rice is placed on a separate plate.

Seafood Recipe in a Multicooker

We offer the right recipe for a tasty, healthy and satisfying dish. It is available to families, even with a very modest income. It may be dietary, but it easily turns into a royal treat, it is worth adding a little fish of valuable varieties. The taste is excellent, the dish looks extremely appetizing, suitable for everyday life, and for the festive feast.

 

What is needed:

  • rice (steamed, devzira, basmati) - 500 g;
  • fish broth - 0.5 l;
  • salmon fillet (pink salmon) - 150 g;
  • sea ​​cocktail (mussel meat, shrimp, squid - 430 g;
  • bulbs - 2 pcs.;
  • sweet bell pepper - 1 pod;
  • tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • garlic - 2 prongs;
  • ground black pepper (bitter and allspice) - 0.5 tsp;
  • turmeric - ½ tsp;
  • butter - 30 g;
  • lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • salt and greens are optional.

How to cook:

  1. Prepared fish and seafood cut into small pieces, a little salt.
  2. Chop the garlic with a knife.
  3. Place seafood, chopped peppers and onions in a multicooker bowl.
  4. Put washed rice, add garlic and spices (pepper and turmeric)
  5. In the broth, dilute the tomato paste, salt, pour them seafood and rice.
  6. Cook in Pilaf mode. If there is no such function, an excellent result is obtained by preparing a dish in the “Porridge” mode for 25 minutes.
  7. The cooked pilaf is turned upside down on a serving dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice and decorate with herbs.

Crumbly pilaf with chicken in a cauldron

Pilaf for eastern peoples has always been considered not only a hearty and tasty food. He was offered after hard work or a long illness as a means that can quickly restore strength, relieve mental pain, depression, and restore a healthy and flowering appearance to a person.

For such cases, pilaf with chicken is a win-win option.

What is needed:

  • chicken fillet - 500 g;
  • sunflower oil - 120 ml;
  • carrots (large) - 2 root crops;
  • onions - 2 heads;
  • rice (any) - 400 g;
  • garlic, salt;
  • condiments (minced barberry, turmeric, paprika, zira, bitter pepper, coriander, basil) - ¼ tsp each. each.

How to cook:

  1. Sunflower oil is calcined in a cauldron, chicken fillet is cut into slices and everything is fried.
  2. Add onion rings and carrot squares. While roasting, add salt and season the chicken pieces with spices.
  3. Pour water into the cauldron (preferably chicken broth) to only cover the surface of the chicken. Lay 1 bay leaf, close the lid and cook until tenderloin. They also add salt so that the zirvak is a little saltier than usual.
  4. Rice is placed on a dry towel and wiped several times. You do not need to wash it, it must be dry. It is not worth worrying about germs and other micro-viability. High temperature and prolonged heat treatment will not leave them a single chance.
  5. Put rice groats in zirvak, add broth so that rice is covered by 1 cm. Add gas to the maximum and wait until the liquid disappears from the surface of the rice. Then put in the center a head of garlic, collect rice from the edges into a pot and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes under a tightly closed lid.

You can make several punctures to the bottom, so that the outgoing steam warms up the rice evenly. After the pilaf is ready, the cauldron is covered with a thick cloth for several minutes. Before serving, rice is mixed with chicken.

With the addition of dried fruit

Pilaf with dried fruits is a healthy and deliciously delicious family dish. Pilaf with dates, figs, cherry plum is fragrant and saturated. And yet, most of the time the housewives use the dried fruits available in the refrigerator - raisins, dried plums, apples, dried apricots.

What is needed:

  • rice - 500 g;
  • dried fruits - 80 g each;
  • light honey - 100 g;
  • nuts (optional) - 50 g;
  • cardamom, cinnamon, vanillin - ¼ tsp each;
  • butter - 300g

How to cook:

  1. Rinse thoroughly.
  2. 250 g of oil are dissolved in a liter of boiling water, salt and cereal are laid there. Fire is at a minimum.
  3. While the rice is being cooked, dried fruits and nuts are fried in a saucepan. As soon as the fruit softens, add honey and almost boiling water so that the liquid covers the fruit by 2 cm. Boil no more than 5 minutes.

Ready rice is laid out on a serving dish and poured with a sweet, spicy dried fruit sauce.

Uzbek pilaf with lamb

Lamb is considered to be rather fatty meat, therefore light salads from vegetables, greens, onions or pickles are traditionally served to such pilaf. The dish is washed down, as a rule, with a cool sorbet. Most often, Russian housewives use the recipe for Uzbek pilaf in their interpretations for cooking at home.

 

What is needed:

  • lamb - 0.5 kg;
  • fat tail fat / unrefined sunflower oil - 150 g;
  • carrots - 5 root crops;
  • bulbs - 2 pcs.;
  • garlic - 1 head;
  • rice - 2.5 cups;
  • water - 1.1 l;
  • dry seasonings (zira, anise, barberry (sour), ground black and red peppers, caraway seeds) - ¼ tsp each. each;
  • Turmeric - 1 tsp.

How to cook:

  1. Lamb is cut into slices and fried in hot fat or oil (can be mixed).
  2. Together with meat, carrots cut into strips and onion rings are sautéed.
  3. Pour water, salt, add garlic and pepper.
  4. Cover with a lid, set the minimum heat and cook for about an hour until lamb is ready.
  5. Thoroughly wash the rice, put it on the meat and add seasoning.
  6. They pierce the cereal in some places to the very bottom (so it will not burn) and after boiling add another 2 tbsp to these holes. l water.
  7. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes over minimal heat.

Ready pilaf is placed on a roomy dish and sprinkled with finely chopped onions. The meat is laid on top. If the rice is pre-soaked, then the water takes 30% of the norm.

Chickpea Option

This unusual pilaf recipe involves the use of not raw, but already prepared meat - fat lamb ham. Such a pilaf is cooked quickly, and if there is a cooked zirvak, then after 40 minutes, guests or relatives can enjoy the great taste of this dish.

What is needed:

  • rice - 500 g;
  • boneless lamb ham (fat) - 500 g;
  • carrots - 300 g;
  • garlic - 2 heads;
  • onion heads - 2 pcs.;
  • caraway seeds - 1 tbsp. l .;
  • raisins - 100 g;
  • boiled chickpeas - 100 g;
  • ghee - 100 g;
  • salt - as needed.

How to cook:

  1. In a stewpan, fatty mutton cut into cubes is fried, after which it is laid out.
  2. In the fat left over from the ham, carrots and onions chopped with straws are fried.
  3. Return the mutton to the stewpan, sprinkle with caraway seeds, add raisins, boiled chickpeas and ghee.
  4. Garlic slices or whole heads are laid out on the surface of the meat with vegetables, then a layer of rice. Salt and pour water. She should cover the rice by 1 cm.
  5. Close the pilaf as tight as possible and simmer until cooked. After cooking, pilaf is mixed.

How to cook with beef

In Central Asia, mutton meat is quite expensive, so very often pilaf is made from beef, but with fat tail fat.

Beef is more meaty in consistency and in pilaf is difficult to distinguish from young lamb. However, if sunflower oil is used, then you need to take lamb.

The main technological aspects of cooking Uzbek pilaf with beef are as follows:

  1. Pilaf should always be crumbly.
  2. There should be a lot of fat in pilaf, because it is it that prevents rice from sticking together
  3. The best fat for cooking pilaf is fat tail (not all sheep have it). If it is not, sunflower oil is also suitable.
  4. Rice can also be taken round, it is important to rinse it in several waters to wash off starch dust and prevent it from sticking together.
  5. An equal amount is taken of meat, rice and carrots, so we use scales. Guided by this, based on the amount of rice.
  6. For 0.5 kg of rice, take 150 g of tail fat.

The main spice of any Uzbek pilaf is zira. So that she opens her fragrant bouquet, it is rubbed between the fingers and only then added to the pilaf.

What you need for pilaf with beef:

  • rice - 0.5 kg;
  • meat - 0.5 kg;
  • carrots - 0.5 kg
  • Kurdyuk - 150 g;
  • onion - 1 pc.;
  • head of garlic - 1 pc.;
  • hot pepper - 1 pod.
  • Zira - 4 tsp.

How to cook:

  1. Meat is cut like goulash or in smaller pieces. Carrots are chopped with straws.
  2. They make fat tail fat. With a slotted spoon, the greaves are removed and heated, increasing the fire to the maximum. The fat begins to smoke heavily, and at this moment the meat is laid.
  3. While it is fried, they chop and chop the onion and put it into the meat. The sequence should be just like that, first meat, then onion. The meat should immediately crust, this is possible only at a very high temperature, and if the onion is put first, then it will be insufficient - the meat will return the juice and will be dry.
  4. Carrots are laid with an even layer on top, after a couple of minutes they are mixed with meat. Salted.
  5. Add zira, pour hot water flush with meat, reduce heat.
  6. Cover and simmer until meat is ready (about 1 hour.) Add more salt. It needs so much that it is a bit more salty than usual.
  7. Take a head of garlic and a pod of hot pepper. The upper husk is removed from the garlic, washed and placed for 15 minutes with pepper in the middle of the cauldron.
  8. Rice groats are poured onto the meat and a spoon is leveled out. Add some more water 1 cm above the rice surface.
  9. After boiling water, pilaf languish for 25 minutes under the lid. After this time, the lid is opened, the rice is gently mixed with meat, the steamed garlic, the burning pod are taken out and the pilaf is poured onto a common serving plate. Pepper and garlic are placed on top in the form of decoration.

Sometimes it happens that the rice above is damp. Then they make a puncture in the middle of the pilaf, pour a little boiling water there. Gather rice from the edges with a pot and bring to readiness.

Pilaf recipe from Stalik Khankishiyev

This is a recipe for an Azerbaijani pilaf with a pumpkin from Stalik Khankishiyev - a Russian chef, TV presenter, blogger, author of books on oriental cuisine. The recipe is simple, but the dish turns out rich, refined and bright, such as the philosophy of Stalik Khankishiyev itself.

 

In this recipe, according to tradition, rice is cooked separately from meat, and the main attention is paid to ensure that it turns out to be tasty, crumbly and well-soaked with melted butter.

What is needed:

  • rice - half a kilogram;
  • clarified butter - 150 g;
  • pumpkin - 350 g;
  • sugar - 1 tbsp. l;
  • spices (ground bitter pepper, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom) - ¼ tsp each. each;
  • salt to taste;
  • potatoes (for kazmag) - 3 - 4 tubers.

For kaurma (stew):

  • lamb (neck or shoulder blade) - 500 g;
  • garlic - 1 head;
  • onion - 2 pcs.;
  • fresh tomatoes - 4 fruits;
  • bell peppers - 1 box;
  • ground red pepper, rosemary, thyme, cilantro - a quarter of 1 tsp;
  • salt - as needed;
  • Kurdyuk (fat) - 1 tbsp. l

Cooking rice:

  1. Soak the rice for 3 to 4 hours in warm salt water. Then the rice is washed several times to get rid of starchy plaque.
  2. Boil the cereals in a large volume of water until soft, drain the water, and put the rice on a sieve to allow the remaining liquid to glass.
  3. At the bottom of the cauldron, so that the rice does not stick, put a "protective" layer - kazmag. It can be a layer of dough, a thin cake or, in our case, a layer of potatoes.
  4. Peel the potatoes, line it with circles in the bottom, salt, sprinkle with oil, and then rice is laid.
  5. Top boiled rice is abundantly flavored with melted butter. If there is saffron (turmeric) at home, it is ground with sugar or salt and sprinkled on top of rice. Cover everything and leave for 10 minutes.
  6. Pumpkin is cut into small pieces, then mixed well with sugar and spices.
  7. Spread the pumpkin on the rice, mix gently, first cover the cauldron with a waffle towel, and then the lid so that the condensate remains on the canvas and does not get into the rice. Set for 1.5 hours on the smallest fire.

Preparing meat:

  1. They make fat tail fat and fry the lamb meat (or beef) that is lightly chopped on it.
  2. Add onion, chopped with half rings, to the meat, spices, squeeze the garlic.
  3. As soon as the meat slices are browned and begin to shine and caramelize, the squares of tomatoes and bell pepper fall asleep. Then close tightly meat, vegetables and simmer for 2 hours over low heat.

Pilaf spread on a beautiful serving dish. Separately served meat, herbs, sour cream sauce (natural yogurt mixed with salted sour cream and garlic), adjika.

The offered pilaf recipes are universal. Although they are based on the traditions of oriental cuisine, but to a greater extent this applies to the technology of their preparation. In the absence of any spices or ingredients, they can be completely replaced with others. Even instead of rice, you can use another cereal, for example, buckwheat. The dish from this will not get worse, it just takes on new shades of taste.

Give it a try. Experiment!

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