Every cook should know how to prepare Fergana pilaf. This is a classic, it gives a complete picture of Uzbek pilaf, because it combines the basic principles of preparing a Central Asian dish. Fragrant, ruddy to red-brown, fatty and at the same time easily digestible Fergana-style pilaf cannot but be liked. This is the most common option, which is offered in every teahouse in Uzbekistan and in every Moscow market where Uzbeks cook. Really, it’s worth studying the issue thoroughly!
Classic recipe
Classic preparation of the dish implies that the products used are selected as closely as possible to suit the Uzbek recipe.
Important! Pilaf is prepared not in a frying pan or pan with a thick bottom, but in a cast-iron cauldron with a lid and, if possible, over an open fire (although it is possible on the stove).
So, the features of Fergana pilaf:
- the best meat is fatty lamb. If the meat has a layer of lard, then use a third less oil than normal. Beef is also acceptable; veal is worse in pilaf (Uzbeks traditionally prepare pilaf from mature meat). They also put pork, but this is not the Uzbek version at all;
- fats - fat rendered from fat tail, and any clarified vegetable oil. Authentic cotton is only exotic. For most people, its taste is unusual and can be unpleasant. But adding a little sesame pilaf will be beneficial;
- carrots should be ripe, juicy, but not young. Ideally, an orange and yellow root vegetable, Uzbek;
- Pilaf is prepared from Fergana rice grown in the Fergana Valley. This is a classic devzira, reddish-colored, unpeeled rice. If you don't have it, a simple round Krasnodar one will do;
- any onion, onion;
- The only spices for Fergana pilaf are cumin, saffron or turmeric in extreme cases. Plus whole heads of garlic and definitely a whole pepper pod.
Tip: You should not buy bags of ready-made store-bought spices for pilaf. The composition includes a variety of seasonings that are not entirely suitable for pilaf. It is better to buy spices separately, and if in ready mixture, then the Uzbeks have it on the market.
Product weight - 1.5 kg good meat take the same amount of rice, 1 kg of carrots, 0.5 kg of onions, 450 g of fat. Spices about 50 g.
Fergana pilaf is prepared like this.
- Wash and soak the rice well.
- The meat is usually not cut too large.
- We cut the onion randomly, there will be practically none left in the pilaf, but the carrots - into beautiful cubes or strips.
- Heat a cauldron, pour oil into it and wait until a faint smoke appears. Add the onion rings and fry over high heat, stirring until the onion is well fried. The color of the pilaf and its taste depend on its roasting. But you shouldn’t overcook it, so as not to impart the taste of overcooked onions to the dish.
- Place the meat in the fried onion and, stirring from time to time, fry for a quarter of an hour over high heat until crusty.
- Add salt (a total of 2 tablespoons of salt will be needed for the pilaf), stir, add the carrots and fry again for about 10 minutes.
- Add spices, pour in boiling water to just cover the vegetables, turn the heat to low and simmer the zirvak for another 30 minutes, until the meat is half cooked. If it is young, then 15 minutes is enough; if it is mature, it needs to be cooked longer.
- Before adding rice, put two or three heads of garlic in the husks, pepper, try the zirvak again for salt - it should be strongly salted, even over-salted, so that the rice takes up excess salt.
- Use a slotted spoon to add rice and smooth it out. Pour boiling water one and a half centimeters over the rice. All at a sufficient boil.
- Cook, covered, until the liquid has evaporated to where the rice begins. At this point, the half-cooked rice will be steamed. The liquid remains in the zirvak, and the pilaf will arrive on it. The heat must be reduced to a minimum and, having collected the pilaf in a slide toward the center, cover it with a bowl slightly smaller than the diameter of the cauldron. Cover the top with a lid and leave on low heat for another 10-15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and leave the pilaf covered for another quarter of an hour. To prevent moisture from getting back into the pilaf, you can remove the bowl and cover the cauldron with a dry towel and close the lid.
- Serve on a flat dish, garnished with whole heads of garlic and peppers removed from the pilaf. It is recommended to additionally prepare a salad of onions and tomatoes.
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With barberry
Often, some products are added to Fergana pilaf, which do not significantly affect the taste of the dish, they simply give shades. These are, for example, raisins or barberries. To add or not is a matter of taste. Barberry adds a little sourness to the pilaf, but in general it is not recommended to put a lot of it - so, a small handful at the time of adding other spices to the zirvak. Everything else is prepared in the classic way.
How to cook with raisins
Raisins are also placed solely as an additional decoration, for everyone.
For this type we will prepare:
- 1 kg each of carrots, rice and meat (you can have lamb, beef, chicken);
- 0.5 kg of onion;
- 0.3 l vegetable oil;
- salt 2 tbsp. l., including 1 liter for soaking, half a spoon for zirvak and another half for rice during cooking;
- spices - 2 tsp. cumin, 0.5 tsp. ground black pepper, turmeric 2 tsp, barberry optional - 1 tsp;
- water.
This is how we prepare pilaf with raisins.
- Soak the washed rice in salted water.
- Heat the oil in a cauldron.
- Fry the meat cut into pieces until golden brown and remove. Place onion half rings in a cauldron and fry until beautifully tanned.
- Add carrot sticks and fry until their volume reduces.
- Add half the spices, salt and pour cold water to cover the contents of the cauldron, this is zirvak. Leave to simmer for an hour, covered, over low heat.
- Meanwhile, drain the rice, rinse again and let dry a little in a colander. Prepare boiling water.
- Add raisins, barberries, if desired, to the zirvak, spread the rice with a slotted spoon and pour boiling water to 2 cm or a little higher. Add turmeric. Turn the heat up to maximum so that the rice gurgles - this is necessary to absorb liquid.
- As soon as the water leaves the surface, reduce the heat, place under a lid, wrapped in a towel, and cook for 5 minutes.
- Open, make holes in the rice to the bottom with the end of a long spoon or the handle of a slotted spoon. Close again for 5 minutes. Ultimately, the simmering time is approximately 25 minutes.
Fergana style pilaf from Stalik Khankishiev
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Everything that Stalik Khankishiev cooks has its own peculiarity, a characteristic feature. So the pilaf in his performance has tangible Uzbek notes. For example, he advises to still find at least a piece of fat tail and use lamb fat along with vegetable oil. The second condition is that there should be a lot of carrots, about as much as rice. But you can have less meat. Usually they take a kilogram of meat and carrots, 1.2 kg of rice, and two large heads of onions, fat, fat tail or mixed with vegetable fat, 350 ml.
The only spices are cumin and saffron, plus generous heads of garlic and pepper. Everything is as in the classic version.
Cooking according to Stalik.
- In a cauldron, throw finely chopped fat tail and heat until cracklings are formed. We remove them, salt them and eat them with onions and enjoyment. If there is no fat tail, just pour 350 g of oil and heat it up.
- Place onion half rings in the oil and fry until very hot.
- Place pieces of meat along the edges. Let it brown.
- Add salt and cumin and mix.
- Add carrots, then more salt and cumin. Add barberry and add a head of garlic and pepper. Now Stalik’s secret: it would be good to take half yellow and red carrots. Fill the bottom, yellow, with water, salt it, and leave the top, sweet, red, sweet. Half the water is enough for the bottom to be fried in oil, simmered, and the top to be steamed.
- We lay in the rice and fill it with water to barely cover it, it’s well soaked, it’s better to add it later if it’s not enough. Cook at a high boil until it gurgles, periodically lifting the rice in a heap so that the mass, sticky at the edges from the starch, sinks to the bottom and does not mix with the rice.
- The water has boiled, is the rice almost ready? Place on low heat and close with a lid. Another thirty minutes and the pilaf can be served!
Stalik Khankishiev. Pilaf
I prepared the first pilaf in my life according to the recipe of Stalik Khankishiev. Stalik’s first book, ““, became one of the first in my now impressive collection cookbooks. I missed the subsequent creations of this author: pilaf, whatever one may say, is not the most frequent guest on my table, and the bookcase is not rubber - and what new can I learn about pilaf if I already have a wonderful “Cauldron, Grill”? .
My family asked me about the same question when they saw me with Stalik Khankishiev’s new book “Pilaf”: they say, how is it possible that a whole book, and such a thick one, is all about pilaf? What can you write there? It turns out that it is possible, and quite a lot. The subtitle of the book - “Culinary Research” - comprehensively describes its essence and content: this is not a collection of recipes, or even a description of advanced culinary techniques, but a fundamental work that finally dots all the i’s when it comes to preparing pilaf.
The book surprises you right away, as soon as you open it. Despite the “normal” orientation of the cover, all pages of the book are laid out in a horizontal, landscape format. The author motivates this by the fact that for most of his readers, opening a laptop has long become much more familiar than a book, and cooking with a book on the kitchen table and leaning it against the wall will also be more convenient. I, never a fan of laptops (I can’t stand the feeling of heaviness on my knees, nor the short keyboard, nor the lack of a normal mouse), did not appreciate the innovation, since reading it while lying down is simply inconvenient, but I believe that this approach also has a right to exist.
However, the innovations are not limited to this. For example, all the recipes in the book are written on several levels at once - there are pictograms showing you at what stage which products are time to use, and a graphic description of each stage, indicating the time, temperature and even the location of heat sources under the cauldron and the intensity of boiling inside it, and a brief, literally one or two sentences, description of the main actions that are included in each stage. It is clear that step by step photos each stage of preparation and its detailed description are also not forgotten. It’s intelligently thought out, you can’t say anything: if you read the recipe for the first time, properly, with arrangement, then you’ll find out all the details - and if you’re not cooking for the first time, then it’s enough to look at the book once to clarify when to add spices or increase the heat.
But the whole charm of this book is not in the recipes, not in them at all! The main thing in it is a thorough analysis of everything that happens to the products at all stages of preparing pilaf, and what usually remains outside the scope of 95% of all recipes. How to choose carrots and cut onions? What temperature water should you soak rice in and how should you fry meat? How to render fat and stir pilaf? A bunch of subtleties that can either be comprehended through many years of practice, or obtained in a ready-to-use form, under one cover. The most important thing here is that the author does not simply write “do it this way and nothing else” - no, he re-masters, together with the reader, everything that he already knows. By studying the experiments carried out by Stalik Khankishiev, you can not only find out that rice is best soaked in water at a temperature of 60 degrees, but also understand why such water is better than cold or boiling water - and thanks to this, take confident steps towards preparing the perfect pilaf.
There are many different ones in this book perfect pilaf. Someone will even argue with the author - they say, how can Chinese pilaf be considered a type of pilaf? fried rice with vegetables or Italian risotto? But this approach is understandable and useful - having studied various products and the ways in which pilaf or dishes similar to it are prepared all over the globe, you can figure out why this particular recipe appeared in this particular geographic location, which rice is best suited for each type of pilaf, and what to pay attention to if for some reason you have to replace one rice with something completely different.
In general, to summarize, the book “Pilaf” turned out to be interesting, innovative, thoughtful and very useful. I am far from saying that everyone who reads this book will immediately be able to cook impeccable pilaf, but here is what the author managed to do in an accessible and pleasing way (these photographs are useless to look at on a monitor screen, they need to be seen on paper) form to decompose the entire process of preparing pilaf literally into molecules - undoubtedly. This book will be an invaluable source of knowledge for any novice cook, and if anyone you know cooks pilaf at least twice a year - best gift you won't find it.
Firstly, you must understand that I have nothing to do with the Danilovsky market or any other retail outlet in the city of Moscow. Therefore, I am not responsible for what they put in the cauldron there.
Secondly, I’m not sure that the pilaf they sell there is in any way reminiscent of mine.
Because I can’t give anyone a guarantee of note-to-note repeatability of a recipe, unless we’re talking about recipes from the book “PLOV, Culinary Research” - http://shop.stalic.ru/books/knigi-stalika-hankishieva
Thirdly, it’s one thing when the owner of the house, greeting guests, announces “And now pilaf according to the recipe of Stalik Khankishiev” and a completely different degree of impudence when a commercial outlet decides to promote its products only on the basis that they once sold my book bought.
My lawyer will write you a letter, Danilovsky Market.
Once upon a time, it was with this text that I began publishing on the topic of Uzbek cooking on the Internet. It's been eleven years, but so what? So, or approximately so, this dish has been prepared for centuries and pilaf, like any real phenomenon, does not get worse because of it!
Today I am pleased to offer you, in addition to texts and pictures, a video.
Watch, read (read, read, read) and ask questions!
It is unlikely that anyone will be able to name the exact number of dishes united by one common
title " Uzbek pilaf" Pilaf, which is prepared in Bukhara and which is prepared, say, in
Andijan or Tashkent are completely different in the method of preparation, in appearance and by
taste characteristics. Moreover, even two neighbors' pilaf can look completely
differently, even if they use the same products. At the same time, everyone thinks
that it is he who prepares the “correct pilaf”. In this case, we are no exception; moreover,
we will tell you more correctly about how to prepare it!
Ingredients:
Lamb - 1 kg of pulp and 3-4 pcs. back slices with ribs (can be replaced with good
beef or veal), fat tail lard - 300-350 g 1) (can be replaced with the same
amount of vegetable oil, preferably olive), Dev-zera rice. - 1 kg (can be
replace with good medium grain rice), red carrots - 1 kg 2), 2-3 medium heads
onions, 2-3 heads of garlic, 1-3 capsicums (either red or green), cumin3),
salt. 4)
First, we cut red, ripe, not young carrots. Let's not rub it on coarse grater, Not
grind with a food processor, namely cut - take a well-sharpened knife, board,
Let's be patient and cut into long strips 0.3 X 0.3 cm. Note that carrots are
The soul of Uzbek pilaf! There are many varieties of this red-sided Soul, but two requirements
mandatory - it should not be too juicy, like the early one, spring carrots. If not
have a nice carrot at hand, don't be sad or upset, you just have
a great reason to abandon the creation of pilaf!
This is roughly how we cut carrots
Let's prepare the meat: cut it into 1.5-centimeter cubes, put the bone aside,
and the back slices with ribs, sprinkled with a little salt, lightly beat them and put them aside
marinate. 5) And if you don’t have such slices, then you can use any
The brain bones remaining after cutting the meat, of course, we no longer marinate them.
This - good lamb for pilaf. Not too young, ripe,
with fat.
Sort through and thoroughly rinse the rice until perfectly clean water flows from it.
Soak the rice in large quantities warm (but not hot) water. Believe me - this is a lot
depends. Heat the cauldron very well. Before it warms up, a few words about it.
The louder the cauldron, the better. This is in content, but in form - it’s like a stove in the kitchen.
If there is gas, then a semicircular one is better; if the stove is electric, then a flat cauldron is better.
bottom, and if you cook in the forest or at the dacha over a fire, then it is better to have a spherical one, with
widely diverging walls. 6) Fire - at maximum. When you need to turn it down -
let's say! Place the lard, cut into 0.5 cm cubes, into a cauldron and melt the fat, and
Remove the golden browned pieces with a slotted spoon. 7) By the way, they need to be eaten - the ritual obliges,
otherwise the pilaf won’t work! Moreover, they go well lightly salted, with thin
chopped onions, or you can also try with pomegranate seeds and always with
flatbread. A little fire water won't hurt. But getting carried away by this is certainly pleasant
from any point of the recipe, it is not worth it. Honestly - 100 grams of vodka-cognac
For now it’s enough even for us, the heroes! And no women, please! Pilaf, business, you know
or not feminine. From time immemorial, this has been a traditionally male occupation.”
All the oil has been thoroughly rendered from these fryings, they are dry and light,
nicely crispy. The perfect snack!
If you cook with oil, then pour in the oil and heat it well until there is bluish smoke, and
then we put one whole but peeled onion in there and fry it until black -
this will remove foreign odors from the oil. 8) Now in very hot oil (or melted
lard) lower the slices from the back. Be careful - it may splash and burn! They are very fried
quickly - they turned it over once or twice, about five or six minutes, and they became beautiful, golden
Brown color! And if you cook with a bone, then the bone should acquire
golden color. Remove them from the cauldron and set them aside.
Is it ribs, almost bare bones from a shank or shank?
ram, or even “sugar” bones from the hip joint, this is how you need them
fry!
Once again we wait for the oil to heat up and lower the onion cut into rings. Carefully
fry it, stirring occasionally until red-golden, plus all the water,
which was in the onion will almost evaporate. Let's not turn down the fire yet! Now let's lower it into
cauldron meat and fry it, stirring occasionally, along with the onion. If it remains in the bow
water, then the meat will be stewed, not fried, you understand?
Sprinkle carrots in an even layer. After two to three minutes, stir it around the entire perimeter
cauldron with meat and onions. You need to mix carefully so as not to break the carrot slices.
Fry it for 10-15 minutes, towards the end of frying, reduce the heat to “medium”,
add some of the cumin. The carrots should become soft and give off a “pilaf smell”, and if not,
then it only means that they didn’t fry enough.
This is how we fry it, over high heat.
Pour in hot water so that everything is covered with water by 1-1.5 cm. Lower first
whole heads of garlic peeled from the outer peel and roots and whole, without damage,
Bell pepper. If your pepper is fresh and juicy, then this can be done later. And if
the pepper is dry and hard, then right now. 9) It doesn’t matter - you like garlic and
Pepper or not, you still need to put them in. We also lower the slices from the back, or the bone,
which was fried first. After everything boils, you need to reduce the heat to just a little
above the bare minimum." Everything should boil in an open cauldron for about forty minutes, no less. Water
should gradually boil away, and the remaining broth becomes transparent and has
rich red-brown color. Add heat to “maximum” and add salt. Approximately
a tablespoon with a heap of salt usually goes away, but it’s better to try - the broth should be
slightly over-salted, some of the salt will be absorbed into Fig. 10) If you cooked with a bone -
take it out, you won't need it anymore. So we got the environment in which
the rice will “bathe” It is called zirvak.
And cook over low heat, at a gentle simmer.
11) Carefully drain the water from the rice 12) and use a slotted spoon to lower the rice evenly into the cauldron,
leveling over the surface. Now pour everything with about 1 liter of boiling water - carefully,
so as not to damage the layer of rice. It is important here not to pour too much, the volume of water every time
selected according to the quality of the rice, the strength of the flame, etc. You can pour a little
less, and top it up later, rather than pour it all at once and ruin everything. But the main thing is that all the rice
was covered with water.
We add fire to “super maximum”, it is necessary that it boils as soon as possible and throughout
surface, you can even cover it with a lid for a minute! If only it boiled, so much so that
the oil floated to the top, and then, during the process of cooking the rice and evaporating the water, it sank
through the rice, enveloping every grain of rice, then there will be pilaf, and not a sticky porridge with meat!
And under no circumstances do we interfere with anything else, we only level it in case
necessary surface of the rice. Try the rice. It shouldn't crunch on your teeth, it should
It’s great to increase in volume, become almost ready and there should be no water left in the cauldron
at all. Use a slotted spoon to move it away from the edge and look - is there only oil there, or is water also steaming?
13) And if the rice is still crunchy, then add a little more water (50 grams, otherwise it’s easy
you can ruin everything). If you still poured water, then you need to do it in the rice layer
holes, so that the water boils away more intensely, you can use a slotted spoon to move the layer of rice along
edges so that it boils away faster. But all this is “resuscitation.” - if everything was done correctly,
then there is no need for it. That's when you feel that everything is going “as it should.” and leftovers
the water is about to evaporate, reduce the heat to “medium-low”, wait until the water
boils completely and reduce the heat to very low.
There is nothing complicated here! We see rice, we can have it
try, we have the opportunity to add water or, conversely, turn up the heat, so that
rather boiled away. But the rice should look like this before closing.
14) Sprinkle the rice with lightly ground cumin and cover with the tightest lid. If none
the lid does not cover the cauldron perfectly, then cover it big dish, it doesn’t matter if it’s around the edges
There will be a small gap left, and then there will be a lid.
Wait 20-25 minutes and open. Be careful - the first jets of steam are very hot. Loosening
rice, find pepper pods and garlic. Be careful so that they do not tear or break,
remove them to a separate dish. Mix everything thoroughly, shaking the rice. Will get caught
back slices - we will also put them on a separate dish. Place the pilaf on a large round
the dish is heaped, and we put the garlic at the very top, decorate everything with pepper pods and slices
backs and - they carried it to the table!!!
Leftover rice and other foods from the table are better, of course.
put away:)))
Pilaf is eaten with spoons. Better with your hands. But not with a fork - eating pilaf with a fork - that's all
It’s the same as touching a woman with tweezers! 15) And everything will match exactly
etiquette if you eat it straight from this big common dish. In the process, if anyone likes
spicy, breaks off a piece of pepper and squeezes the contents directly onto the rice in front of him.
The garlic turns out unexpectedly tasty; we break it into cloves when it is slightly
cools down, and the contents of the cloves are squeezed onto the rice - this will support your appetite when
For the first time you will feel like you are already full! After pilaf we don’t drink anything anymore
alcoholic drinks, no soft drinks 16) during meals, only hot
tea - green, of course! 17)
MARGINAL NOTES FOR THE RECIPE FOR FERGANA-STYLE PILOW
I can’t stop myself from showing you one of the latest photos of Fergana pilaf
Indeed, I never get tired of photographing him, just as an artist never gets tired of painting his beloved woman, or a musician never gets tired of playing his favorite melody)
A traditional Uzbek dish or everything will be “smooth”
Of course, pilaf can be considered the main national dish Uzbek cuisine. This dish takes its origins from ancient times. The first mentions date back to the 2nd - 3rd centuries BC in India and neighboring countries of the East, but in these countries it was prepared without meat, so pilaf there was considered vegetarian dish. Translated from Persian, pilaf was called “ boiled rice" And it was the Persians who made pilaf meat dish. A little later, around the Middle Ages, pilaf is mentioned in Arab chronicles as a festive table dish. The recipe for pilaf, which was mentioned by the Arabs, has survived to this day, although it has undergone some changes, but the essence of its main ingredients remains the same. This dish has especially taken root among the Central Asian peoples, and among them it is not only extremely popular, but is also a national dish.
There are countless recipes for preparing pilaf, but Central Asian chefs have added their own flavor and are convinced that pilaf will not be a real national dish without two components: rice cereal and zirvak. Zirvak includes meat, onions, carrots, various spices and herbs, as well as dried fruits. The taste and consistency are directly proportional to factors such as the order in which the ingredients were added and distributed, the stewing temperature, cooking time, and much more. So, for example, according to the Uzbek variations of preparing pilaf, zirvak is prepared first, and then sent to it rice cereal. But even after adding cereal, it is important to maintain the correct temperature regime so that the rice is not boiled, but stewed, and the end result has the correct dense consistency. Undoubtedly, the type of rice also affects final result dishes. In different Asian countries, regions, regions, pilaf is prepared from different varieties rice Of course, it is very difficult to call this dish dietary, but it is not for nothing that the Uzbeks have a saying: “Whoever has not tasted pilaf was born in vain.”
In the homeland of Uzbek pilaf, since the 10th century, pilaf has been the main dish at large ceremonial events, such as weddings and various feasts, as well as being escorted to another world and joyfully greeting new lives. Doctors of that time also recommended containing pilaf in their diet, especially for those whose work involved heavy work. physical activity. During military campaigns, pilaf was also the main part of the diet, because... gave a lot of strength and energy to the soldiers, was satisfying, and did not spoil for a long time. Uzbek pilaf today differs from other, for example, European varieties in that it is strictly consistent in the recipe, the ratio of ingredients, as well as the presence of natural spices and herbs. During the famine years in Uzbekistan, instead of lamb meat they put it in pilaf tail fat, horse meat or chicken meat.
There are so many options for Uzbek pilaf that it can differ not only within a country, region, city, but even between two housewives standing next to each other in the same kitchen. And each of them is absolutely sure that it is he who prepares that very unique recipe. proper pilaf. To cook the most real pilaf in Uzbek, it must contain lamb. Pilaf cooked with lamb turns out very tender and crumbly, the carrots are soft and sweet, and the lamb itself is juicy. One of the admirers of traditional oriental, particularly Uzbek, cuisine is non-professional culinary chef Stalik Khankishiev. He surprised his fans culinary masterpieces accessibility of the dish and full detail of the sequence of the cooking process, breadth of soul, as well as a collection unique recipes, collected from all over East Asia and, in particular, Uzbekistan. His books are beautifully illustrated with his own photographs, his designs are published in the best publishing houses, he maintains his own microblog, conducts master classes on oriental cuisine and your own copyright.
So, today we will learn the recipe for pilaf from Stalik Khankishiev.
Ingredients:
-
Cooking method:
No real pilaf can be imagined without its soul - the carrot! It is very important to use red-sided carrots, not early varieties, to prepare Fergana pilaf from Stalik Khankishiev. The recipe calls for red carrots - this is a requirement, otherwise you shouldn’t start cooking this dish. You can, of course, save on red carrots and buy yellow carrots, but in order to prepare a real national Uzbek dish It's worth buying red carrots.
So, having decided on the choice of red carrots, we proceed to cutting them. Under no circumstances should you chop carrots using electrical appliances; we do everything with a well-sharpened knife. Shred the carrots into strips approximately 20-30 mm in size.
Meat on beef ribs wash thoroughly, trim and cut into cubes of approximately 15-20 mm. Salt the remaining bones from the ribs, lightly beat them and leave them aside for a while. We approach the choice of lamb tenderloin very scrupulously. We choose lamb that is not very young, perhaps with small layers of fat. Wash the rice very well until the water becomes completely clear. Drain the water and add rice again warm water and leave it for a while.To prepare pilaf from Stalik, use one more important nuance is the choice of cauldron. It should be chosen taking into account the characteristics of your stove. It can be spherical, semicircular or flat. After choosing a cauldron, we put it on the stove and warm it up very well. Lamb tail good quality can be obtained from the back of a Karabakh fat-tailed sheep. After the cauldron has warmed up well, add chopped lard or fat tail fat, previously cut into small cubes, into it. It is very important that when frying fat, do not touch it under any circumstances! You just have to turn it over once on the other side, when the side down is completely golden, and don’t touch it again. If the fat is constantly turned from side to side, the greaves quickly change their color to a darker one, and at the same time the color of the released fat also changes. In the future, this dark color of fat will give the finished dish unnecessary rancidity. And then, the less often we turn the cracklings, the more fat they will give up from their total mass. So, melt the fat until you get cracklings. Then the cracklings are removed from the cauldron. If there is no fat, pour olive oil into the cauldron or sunflower oil and heat it almost to acrid smoke. Then we put the whole pre-peeled onion into the cauldron and fry it dark brown. After the onions, the ribs or baby backs are sent to the cauldron, with meat trimmings from the ribs and fried until bright golden brown. This procedure will take no more than five minutes. Next, the fried meat with bones is removed from the cauldron and chopped onions are sent there. Fry the onion until it has a beautiful rich golden color. Add the chopped lamb meat to the onion and fry, stirring occasionally. The meat should acquire a beautiful golden color during cooking.
Then, chopped carrots are sent to Fergana pilaf from Stalik Khankishiev. It sautes for about 15 minutes, also acquiring a beautiful rich orange-golden hue. You will understand that it is ready when a pleasant aroma of pilaf emanates from the carrots, namely pilaf! Then water is poured into the container 2 cm above the level of the ingredients in the cauldron. Afterwards, garlic is placed in the cauldron whole head, from which the top husk is removed (but not completely) and the capsicum. A prerequisite is that the pepper should not have the slightest damage! If you forgot about the pepper and did not add it in a timely manner, the situation can be corrected. At the end of preparing the dish, you need to remove the seeds from the pepper and insert it into the rice, resting the sharp end against the bottom of the cauldron. Pour pepper into the open part hot water and give it time to evaporate. If everything goes as usual, then after the pepper and garlic, ribs, bones, etc. are put into the cauldron. At the same time, the fire is reduced to a minimum and the dish is cooked in a little more than half an hour. We periodically observe the process, and we see the following picture - the water turns from transparent to a bright brown-red color, and slowly evaporates. Then add salt to the half-ready dish and immediately increase the heat temperature to maximum. Pilaf needs to be slightly salted, because... During the cooking process, the rice will absorb some of the salt. If the pilaf turns out to be over-salted, then regular potatoes will help correct the situation. At the time of preparing zirvak, you need to put in a pile of peeled potatoes and after they are ready, remove them. The finished potatoes will turn out unusually tasty and will absorb unnecessary salt. If at the time of cooking you added any bones to the dish, then now is the time to get rid of them and remove them from the cauldron. The resulting substance is called zirvak.
Next you need to add the washed rice. It is important to pour the rice into the cauldron not dry, because... due to temperature changes, it quickly cracks and the result is not good quality pilaf, but porridge made from chopped rice. At the moment of placing rice in the cauldron, it is carefully leveled around the perimeter of the cauldron. The future pilaf is being poured hot water(about 1 liter) until the rice is covered by 1 cm. Also, it is very important not to overfill more water, otherwise the dish risks being spoiled. IN in this case The principle works: it is better to underfill than to overfill. Next, you need to add heat to the maximum level and allow the oil or fat to rise to the surface. This is important so that when the broth is evaporated, fat or oil, which will gradually fall to the bottom of the cauldron, can envelop every grain. When the broth has almost evaporated, it is worth taking a sample and making sure whether the pilaf is ready or whether it is still worth adding a little water and bringing it to the desired condition. Taste the dish; if the rice is too hard, add water little by little and cook over very low heat. Next, we adjust the heating temperature; if you need to evaporate the water faster, turn up the heat; if, on the contrary, you need to stew the rice, turn down the heat to the very minimum.
As it gets closer to readiness, add lightly crushed cumin to it. Cover the dish with a lid and wait for about half an hour. Ready dish open slowly so as not to get burned by the sharp hot steam. Carefully remove the head of garlic from the pilaf and capsicum and transfer to a separate plate. Meanwhile, take a large spoon and mix the pilaf thoroughly from top to bottom. We take a large flat plate and put Uzbek pilaf on it with a heap, put garlic in the center, put pepper along the edge of the plate, back and serve.
Recipe Note:
There is also a tradition that it is customary to eat pilaf in the East using cutlery such as spoons, or, well, with your hands. It is not customary to eat Uzbek pilaf with forks. Many will be pleased interesting taste cooked garlic and pepper. During the cooking process, they absorb the most interesting and piquant notes from the pilaf, at the same time they give off unsurpassed aromas. So, from garlic, for example, you can squeeze the juice into pilaf and experience an even more interesting taste of the dish. For spicy lovers, we do the same with pepper. Such a divine dish as pilaf is consumed with hot green tea for company.
Friends, this weekend my husband cooked Fergana pilaf for us already... legendary recipe Stalika Khankishieva. I’ll say right away that the recipe is not easy, but the result is worth the effort!
This is the most delicious pilaf of all the ones I've tried, especially if cooked over a fire.
Fergana style pilaf.
Chop the carrots into large cubes using a Burner vegetable slicer or by hand. YOU CAN ' T RUB!
Cut the beef tenderloin into 2 x 2 cm pieces.
Wash the rice in seven waters and then soak in plenty of warm water.
Cut the lard into small slices or cubes. It's better if it is fat tail fat. But in as a last resort, lard can even be replaced with odorless vegetable oil.
Step-by-step video recipe
Turn on the stove to maximum temperature. Place a cauldron on it and heat it properly. Only after this, put the lard into the cauldron and render the fat out of it. There is no need to stir the pieces of lard - just turn them over once. IT IS IMPORTANT! When ready, remove the cracklings from the cauldron.
Carefully place a whole onion head into the rendered fat. It must be fried until black so that it absorbs unnecessary odors.
Now carefully fry the almost bare bones on all sides in fat. This should not be done for long - about 5 minutes - the bones should turn golden brown! Remove them from the cauldron onto a plate.
Cut the onions into half rings or rings. Fry in a cauldron until dark golden brown.
Add pre-chopped beef to the onions and fry them together.
When a crust appears on the meat, add carrots and fry for about 12 minutes, periodically stirring the meat with vegetables. Now you need to reduce the power of the stove to medium level and throw half the cumin into the cauldron. First, grind the cumin in your palms - you will immediately feel its magnificent aroma - and only then add it to the meat.
Pour boiling water into the cauldron - the water should cover the contents of the cauldron by 1.5 cm. Carefully lower 2 whole heads of garlic and 1 dry chili pepper into the water. And then put the bones here, which were fried a little earlier. Let the broth boil. Then reduce the heat to low and leave the sour mixture to simmer for 40 minutes. DO NOT close the lid!
Remove the bones. Salt the broth - maybe even a little more than necessary - extra salt will go into rice. Drain the water from the rice and transfer it evenly into the cauldron. Pour boiling water - about 1 liter. Keep in mind that it is better to add water later than to pour it at first! Turn on the stove at maximum power - the faster the pilaf boils, the better! The oil should float to the top, then the pilaf will be crumbly! When there is little water left and the rice is almost done, reduce the heat to slightly below medium.
