Pilaf is not just a dish. This is a philosophy that every nation has its own. Therefore, despite the commonality of the ingredients, Uzbek pilaf is different from Tajik, and it can also be cooked in Azerbaijani, Bukhara, it can be with poultry, meat and even dried fruits. We will tell you how to cook pilaf according to all the rules, as well as adapt old national recipes for cooking in conditions and from products of traditional Russian cuisine.

Uzbek loose pilaf

You should start with this type of pilaf, as it can be considered a classic example, and is also extremely common in any cafe with an Uzbek slant, and in general in Russian cuisines.

So, the Uzbek pilaf (it is also often called Ferghana pilaf) is prepared so that the rice is crumbly, the picture does not stick to the picture. How to achieve this?

According to the famous culinary specialist and connoisseur of national cuisine, Stalik Hadzhiev, the volume of products is calculated based on the presence of rice.

Although an experienced chef usually does everything by eye, there is an exact recipe for Ferghana pilaf:

  • 1 kg of rice;
  • 350 g unsalted lard;
  • 800 g of meat;
  • 800 g of carrots;
  • 150 g of onions.

Important! If you want to cook a real, even say, authentic Ferghana pilaf, then look for yellow carrots, which are combined with an ordinary orange vegetable in a ratio of one to three. It is perfectly fried and looks good in the finished dish. If there is no yellow, then take the entire volume of ordinary carrots.

Such a pilaf is prepared in a cauldron, but in a home kitchen you can take a thick-walled pot made of cast iron. The ducklings will do.

Cooking:

  1. In a thick-walled cast-iron pot or cauldron, over low heat, melt fat.
  2. Heat it well and put a couple pieces of chopped meat. (For Uzbek pilaf, it is cut into small pieces so that it fits in the mouth for one bite).
  3. After a minute in hot oil these pieces are well fried, giving the fat the flavor of meat. Now they still need to be removed.
  4. Next, put onion chopped in half rings in fat and fry over high heat to evaporate water. After that, report the rest of the meat, salt and lay out part of the carrots chopped into cubes - first yellow. It is also salted and sprinkled with zira (zira is an essential ingredient of Uzbek pilaf).
  5. As soon as the carrots begin to fry, add the rest of it and mix everything. Allow a little toast. Then lay out the remaining vegetable, spices. In general, everything except rice, including those pieces of meat that were fried very first.
  6. Salt again, put a small pod of hot pepper, and add a teaspoon with top of barberry, it will give the necessary acidity.
  7. Gently pour hot boiled water along the edge of the cauldron or ducklings, covering it with meat and vegetables. Next, cover, leave for 40 minutes on the slowest fire.
  8. While preparing a zirvak (this is the name of this rice dressing, it is the same for all kitchens where pilaf is cooked), we wash the rice. This is best done under running water to rinse the flour. If you don’t wash it, you won’t get loose pilaf.
  9. Put clean rice in a zirvak with a slotted spoon, add salt at the rate of 1 tbsp. spoon without a slice of salt per kilogram of rice.
  10. In the rice, put the washed whole head of garlic.
  11. Pour boiling water so that water covers the rice on your finger.
  12. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a minimum, cover the pan with a lid and wait for the water to evaporate. When the rice is almost ready, turn off the fire, cover the pot or cauldron with a warm towel or blanket and leave for another hour to reach.
  13. Open the lid, put in an Uzbek flat plate, put a salad of thinly sliced ​​tomatoes with onions nearby and enjoy!

Loose pilaf in a cauldron

In principle, the previous recipe is also suitable for a cauldron. All components of the dish are taken in the same proportion, prepared in the same sequence. The only difference is that the almost ready pilaf is covered with a lid, and after that the fire under the cauldron is completely extinguished. But the cauldron remains lying on the bricks of the furnace, the bricks give their heat to the rice layer, bringing it to condition. The cover of the cauldron is covered with a blanket and therefore in itself is an additional source of heat. In this form, pilaf comes, and it turns out well-cooked - approximately as if you were cooking it in a Russian oven.

Azerbaijani

The difference between Azerbaijani pilaf and Uzbek pilaf is that the meat is cooked separately from rice, and a special cake called gazmakh is used to prepare the rice portion.

Here's how to cook pilaf in Azerbaijan:

  1. Pick up products - 700 g of mutton, 200 g of pumpkin, five onions, 100 g of ghee, half a pomegranate, half a glass of raisins, some water, turmeric and salt to taste. You also need to take an egg and flour 220 g for a flat cake test.
  2. Rice is not intentionally indicated in the dosage - it is cooked separately, so you can take it at your discretion. We wash it under running water or changing water several times. We spread in salted boiling water and cook until almost done. After that we recline, rinse with cold water.
  3. We make gazmah: add the egg and very cold water to the flour, knead a very cool dough. We roll it into a thin cake.
  4. We spread the cake on the walls and bottom of the cauldron.
  5. Put half the rice on the tortilla.
  6. The second part of the rice is tinted with yellow color, mixed with turmeric diluted in a spoon of melted butter and a teaspoon (take a pinch of turmeric).
  7. Pour the first part of the rice with melted butter, put yellow rice on top, cover the cauldron with a lid and then slightly darken at minimum heat until cooked.
  8. Meanwhile, in a thick-walled stew-pan or pan, fry lamb pieces in oil or in our own fat.As it turns red, put finely chopped pumpkin and onions, pour in pomegranate juice, add raisins, mix everything with salt and, pouring half a glass of boiling water, keep for half an hour under the lid on a small fire.
  9. When all the parts of the pilaf are ready, put rice on a round large dish, on top of it - meat and vegetables, decorate everything with pomegranate seeds and immediately put gazmakh - break the cake with your hands.

If you are afraid of unconventional tastes, you can do without a pumpkin.

Tajik pilaf with lamb

The main ingredients in this pilaf are traditional: rice, onions and carrots. But meat is only lamb. In addition, Tajik pilaf is prepared from special rice - this red cereal is called devzira, it is the best and highest quality of all the "pilaf" species. However, one can cook quite good Tajik pilaf from ordinary round-grain Krasnodar rice.

The cooking feature is that first, onion (2 heads), sliced ​​in half rings, is overcooked in vegetable oil, achieving strong frying, then meat (600 g) is added. It is also fried to a noticeable crust. After that, put the carrots in whetstones (600 g), once again overcook and then pour half a liter of boiling water. The meat should be half-prepared, then put rice (600 g) soaked in salt water and pour boiling water so that the water slightly covers the surface. Spices - zira and garlic. Under the lid, the pilaf is cooked for another half hour.

How to cook pilaf - a basic recipe with pork

If there is no cauldron over an open fire, lamb and barberry, this does not mean that delicious pilaf for dinner will not work. The basic recipe that always comes out is pork pilaf. It is cooked quickly and simply, it needs 400 g of meat in slices, a pair of large onions and carrots, 2 cups of rice and five water. And also salt, bay leaf, a few cloves of garlic, a pinch of zira and a few peas of allspice.

Vegetable oil should be taken so that is enough to fry the meat. Fry the slices quickly, add the onion. Slightly reducing the heat, fry it and add the carrots. Frying a little carrot, pour a glass of water and simmer for about ten minutes under the lid. Put spices, salt. The broth should be slightly salted - in the future, the rice will absorb salt. Next is washed rice. Pour it through a slotted spoon with water at the rate of 2 cups of rice twice as many cups of water. Bring to a boil, put the cloves of garlic, reduce the heat to a minimum and leave to simmer under the lid for 40 minutes. Then we turn off the fire and wait the same amount of time for the rice to stub.

How to cook pilaf with chicken?

In the same way, chicken can be used instead of pork. You can cook chicken pilaf even faster, because it takes very little time to stew meat and vegetables. It is necessary to fry the medium pieces of chicken in oil, salt. Separately, fry finely chopped onions and a little garlic, add carrots grated on a coarse grater, still stew a little and add to the meat. Top up washed rice, lavrushka, peppercorns, salt well again and pour boiling water over it. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until rice is tender. If necessary, you can add boiling water.

Recipe for multicooker

Pilaf in a slow cooker is the crow's dish of many, usually a slow cooker even has a separate program for cooking pilaf, and therefore the time is predetermined by the microprocessor.

The recipe below is given in 4 servings:

  1. Cut 250 g of any meat into small pieces, chop 1 carrot into slices, and onion into cubes;
  2. Pour a couple of table into an open slow cooker. tablespoons of vegetable oil, set the frying program with a time of 25 minutes;
  3. The oil will warm up - put a piece of meat in a piece. It is not necessary to put everything at once, otherwise it will not be fried, but put out;
  4. After 10 minutes add carrots and onions;
  5. When the cooking is over, add salt, spices for pilaf, a couple of cloves of garlic, put washed rice on top;
  6. Pour about half a liter of boiling water (water should be a little, cover one and a half to two cm);
  7. Put the program "Pilaf";
  8. When the task is completed, open the lid, stick a couple of fresh garlic cloves, pierce the rice with a wooden stick to the bottom and leave for another twenty minutes to go to the pilaf in the heating program.

With the addition of dried fruit

In a slow cooker, you can perfectly make a vegetarian pilaf without meat, as well as a sweet dish with dried fruits. Instead of meat, you need to put only vegetables or dried apricots with raisins, and reduce the frying time to 5 minutes.

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