How to cook crumbly pilaf. How to properly cook crumbly pilaf? Step-by-step recipe with photos

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

You should start with this type of pilaf, since it can be considered a classic example, and is also extremely common both in any cafes with an Uzbek bias, and in Russian kitchens in general.

So, Uzbek pilaf (it is also often called Fergana pilaf) is prepared in such a way that the rice turns out crumbly, and rice does not stick to rice. How to achieve this?

As the famous culinary specialist and expert on national cuisine Stalik Khadzhiev assures, the volume of products is calculated based on the availability of rice.

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

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

Important! If you want to cook real, even authentic Fergana pilaf, then look for yellow carrots, which you combine with a regular orange vegetable in a ratio of one to three. It roasts beautifully and looks good in the finished dish. If there are no yellow ones, then take the entire volume of regular carrots.

This pilaf is prepared in a cauldron, but in your home kitchen you can use a thick-walled cast iron pan. A duck dish will also do.

Preparation:

Melt lard in a thick-walled cast-iron pan or cauldron over low heat.
Heat it well and put in a couple of pieces of chopped meat. (For Uzbek pilaf it is cut into small pieces so that it fits in the mouth for one bite).
After a minute, these pieces will fry well in hot oil, imparting the aroma of meat to the fat. Now they need to be taken out for now.
Next, add the onion, cut into half rings, into the fat and fry over high heat until the water evaporates. After this, add the rest of the meat, add salt and lay out some of the carrots cut into cubes - first yellow. Salt it too and sprinkle with cumin (cumin is a mandatory ingredient in Uzbek pilaf).
As soon as the carrots begin to fry, add the rest of them and mix everything. Let it fry a little. Next add the remaining vegetables and spices. In general, everything except rice, including those pieces of meat that were fried first.
Salt again, add a small pod of hot pepper, and also add a teaspoon of barberry, it will add the necessary sourness.
Carefully pour hot boiled water along the edge of the cauldron or duckling pan, covering the meat and vegetables with it. Then, cover with a lid, leave for 40 minutes on the lowest heat.
While zirvak is preparing (this is the name of this seasoning for rice, it is the same for all kitchens where pilaf is prepared), wash the rice. It is better to do this under running water to wash off the flour. If you don't wash it off, you won't get crumbly pilaf.
Place clean rice in a zirvak with a slotted spoon, add salt at the rate of 1 tbsp. a level spoonful of salt per kilogram of rice.
Place a washed whole head of garlic in the rice.
Pour boiling water so that the water covers the rice on your finger.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and wait for the water to evaporate. When the rice is almost ready, turn off the heat, cover the pan or cauldron with a warm towel or blanket and leave for another hour.
Open the lid, place in an Uzbek flat plate, place a salad of thinly sliced tomatoes with onions next to it and enjoy!

Crumbly 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 proportions and prepared in the same sequence. The only difference is that the almost finished 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 oven; the bricks give off their heat to the rice layer, bringing it to condition. The lid of the cauldron is covered with a blanket and therefore itself is an additional source of heat. In this form, the pilaf arrives and turns out well stewed - almost as if you were cooking it in a Russian oven.

In Azerbaijani

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

Here's how pilaf is prepared in Azerbaijan:

Select products - 700 g of lamb, 200 g of pumpkin, five onions, 100 g of ghee, half a pomegranate, half a glass of raisins, a little water, turmeric and salt to taste. You also need to take an egg and 220 g of flour for the flatbread dough.
We deliberately do not indicate the dosage of rice - it is cooked separately, so you can take it at your own discretion. We wash it under running water or changing the water several times. Place in salted boiling water and cook until almost done. After that, fold it back and rinse with cold water.
We make gazmah: add an egg and very cold water to the flour, knead a very stiff dough. Roll it out into a thin cake.
We spread the cake along the walls and bottom of the cauldron.
Place half of the rice on the flatbread.
Tint the second part of the rice yellow, mixing it with turmeric diluted in a spoonful of ghee and a teaspoon of boiling water (take a pinch of turmeric).
Pour melted butter over the first part of the rice, place yellow rice on top, cover the cauldron with a lid and simmer a little more on low heat until cooked.
Meanwhile, in a thick-walled saucepan or frying pan, fry the pieces of lamb in oil or own fat. Once browned, add finely chopped pumpkin and onion, pour in pomegranate juice, add raisins, mix everything, add salt and, after pouring in half a glass of boiling water, keep for half an hour covered over low heat.
When all parts of the pilaf are ready, place rice on a large round dish, meat and vegetables on top of it, decorate everything with pomegranate seeds and immediately place the gazmah - break the flatbread with your hands.

If you're wary of unconventional flavors, you can skip the pumpkin.

Tajik pilaf with lamb

The main ingredients in this pilaf are traditional: rice, onions and carrots. But the meat is only lamb. In addition, Tajik pilaf is prepared from special rice - this red grain is called devzira, it is the best and highest quality of all “pilaf” types. However, you can also make quite good Tajik pilaf from ordinary Krasnodar short-grain rice.

The peculiarity of the preparation is that first, onion (2 heads) cut into half rings is fried in vegetable oil, achieving deep frying, then meat (600 g) is added. It is also fried to a noticeable crust. After this, add carrots in sticks (600 g), fry again and then pour in half a liter of boiling water. The meat should be half-cooked, then add rice (600g) soaked in salted water and pour boiling water over it so that the water slightly covers the surface. Spices - cumin and garlic. Under the lid, the pilaf is cooked for another half hour.

How to cook pilaf - basic recipe with pork

If there is no cauldron on an open fire, lamb and barberry, this does not mean that you will not get delicious pilaf for dinner. The basic recipe that always turns out is pork pilaf. It is prepared quickly and simply; it requires 400 g of meat in pieces, a couple of large onions and carrots, 2 cups of rice and five glasses of water. And also salt, bay leaf, a few cloves of garlic, a pinch of cumin and a few peas of allspice.

You need to take enough vegetable oil to fry the meat. After quickly frying the pieces, add the onion. Reducing the heat slightly, fry it and add the carrots. After frying the carrots a little, pour in a glass of water and simmer for about ten minutes under the lid. Put some spices and salt. The broth should be slightly salted - later the rice will absorb the salt. Next is washed rice. Fill it with water through a slotted spoon at the rate of twice as many glasses of water for 2 cups of rice. Bring to a vigorous boil, add the garlic cloves, reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer under the lid for 40 minutes. Then turn off the heat and wait the same amount of time for the rice to cook.

How to properly cook pilaf with chicken?

In the same way, you can use chicken instead of pork. You can cook chicken pilaf even faster, because it takes very little time to stew the meat and vegetables. You need to fry medium pieces of chicken in oil and add salt. Separately, fry finely chopped onion and a little garlic, add grated carrots, simmer for a little while and add to the meat. Sprinkle washed rice, bay leaves, peppercorns on top, salt thoroughly again and pour boiling water over it. Cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes until the rice is soft. If necessary, you can add boiling water.

Multicooker recipe

Pilaf in a multicooker is the signature dish of many; usually the multicooker even has a separate program for preparing pilaf, and therefore the time is predetermined by the microprocessor.

The recipe below is for 4 servings:

Cut 250 g of any meat into small pieces, chop 1 carrot into bars, and chop an onion into cubes;
Pour steam into the open multicooker. spoons of vegetable oil, set the frying program with a time of 25 minutes;
When the oil heats up, add the meat one piece at a time. There is no need to put everything in at once, otherwise it will not fry, but will be stewed;
After 10 minutes, add carrots and onions;
When the frying is over, add salt, spices for pilaf, a couple of cloves of garlic, and place washed rice on top;
Pour about half a liter of boiling water (the water should cover the rice a little, one and a half to two cm);
Set up the program “Pilaf”;
When the task is completed, open the lid, stick in a couple of fresh cloves of garlic, pierce the rice to the bottom with a wooden stick and leave the pilaf to cook for another twenty minutes in the heating program.

In a slow cooker you can perfectly make 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.

Every housewife, when planning to cook delicious pilaf, worries about its crumbliness. Indeed, we all have probably at least once encountered such an unpleasant phenomenon as rice porridge with meat instead of a dish expected and loved in many countries around the world. And then the experiments begin: we try to cook from different varieties of rice, several types of meat, we try to cook as our mothers advise, and so on. And often we simply give up, because the result is not pleasing.

What do the professionals say? Some people, even real chefs, know exactly how to prepare delicious pilaf, and they will certainly tell you how to prepare such a dish correctly. This article will reveal to you some secrets that will allow you to never again worry about the unpredictability of this oriental food. In addition, by choosing the recipe described in it from several suggested, you can avoid most of the most common mistakes.

Firstly, any rice can be made crumbly, regardless of whether it is long or round. But it is the steamed one that absorbs meat broth better than others, so preparing it is easier for many housewives. Secondly, in no case should you neglect washing the cereal. This must be done at least 8-10 times until the drained water becomes clear. Be sure to pour cold water over the rice and let it get thoroughly wet. The cereal should be placed in the zirvak using a slotted spoon so that excess liquid does not get there.

And most importantly, learn to cook rice correctly. It needs to be steamed, but a steamer has nothing to do with it. You just need to keep the fire under the cauldron to a minimum, pierce the layer of cereal in several places to the very bottom and close the lid tightly. Check the readiness of the rice once every 10-15 minutes, adding a little boiling water if necessary. At the last stage, when the cauldron has already been removed from the stove, you need to wrap it in a blanket and leave it like that for a while. Our great-grandmothers knew this secret of preparing any crumbly porridge, and now you know it too. Below we describe several options for how to make crumbly pilaf, aromatic and truly tasty. Choose any recipe and improve your culinary skills!

Crumbly pilaf from lamb and pork

There is a lot of debate about which meat is best to use to properly prepare delicious pilaf. Almost as much as there is around the question: “Which rice is best?” Every Eastern or Asian country has its own opinion on this matter. It is clear that Muslims, due to religious beliefs, cannot cook pork, so it is customary for them to cook rice with lamb or chicken. But if there are no such restrictions in your family, then be sure to try the recipe described below and you will definitely be able to make delicious pilaf.

Ingredients:

pork (pulp) - 500 g
lamb (pulp) - 500 g
long grain rice - 1 kg
sunflower oil for frying
onions (large) - 4 pieces
carrots (large) - 4 pieces
garlic - 2 heads
bay leaf - 5 pieces
salt, ground black pepper - to taste
turmeric - 1 tablespoon

This recipe, judging by the number of its ingredients, is designed for a large company. But such pilaf can be prepared in smaller quantities. Just follow the indicated proportions, trimming the grams. Remember that rice, meat, and vegetables should be taken in the same ratio - 1:1:1. Then you will be able to make crumbly pilaf that is tasty, rich and has an extremely appetizing appearance. No less important is the utensils in which you will cook. It is better to take a cast iron cauldron; a large deep frying pan will also do.

So, first, rinse the rice thoroughly, cover it with water and leave for about an hour. Peel the onions and carrots, rinse and cut into half rings and thin strips, respectively. Wash the meat, dry it and cut it into equal medium-sized pieces. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat it until white smoke appears. Place the meat, quickly fry on all sides until brown and pour it into the cauldron. Place the onion slices in the frying pan, and when they turn golden, place them with the meat. You don’t have to fry the carrots, but put them in the cauldron right away. Salt your zirvak well, season with spices and stir.

Drain the rice and place it in an even layer on top of the meat and vegetables. Now carefully pour water along the wall of the cauldron; it should cover everything by about 1 centimeter. Turn the heat to maximum, wait until the pilaf boils, then reduce the heat on the burner to medium, pierce the rice to the very bottom in several places and cover with a lid. You need to cook for 20-30 minutes, then turn off the heat, stick more cloves of garlic into the top layer, cover the cauldron with a blanket or blanket and let the pilaf “finish”, as they said in the old days.

Friable pilaf with chicken

In the summer, you want to eat something light, tasty and nutritious at the same time. And if we women can be content with a vegetable salad and a sandwich with cheese, then men will not be delighted with such a menu. Children also need good nutrition. The recipe described below will satisfy all these requirements and will not take much of your time.

Ingredients:

chicken fillet - 400 g
steamed rice - 1.5 cups
carrots (medium) - 2 pieces
onions - 2 pieces
sunflower oil for frying
garlic - 4 cloves
seasoning for pilaf - to taste
salt - to taste
greens - 1 small bunch

Cooking method:

As always, any recipe begins with preparing the ingredients. Rinse the rice under running water until it turns white and soak. Cut clean, dried meat into small pieces. Peel, wash and cut the vegetables into any shape. It is preferable, of course, to have onions in half rings and carrots in strips. But if you don’t have time, then you can use any other method, even grind it using a grater. Pour vegetable oil into the cauldron, heat it properly and place the meat along with the onions. Sauté until the onion becomes translucent and add the carrots. You need to cook until golden brown.

That's it, now pour a little water and simmer the zirvak until cooked, not forgetting to properly salt and season it. You can add greens either immediately or just before serving. Place the pre-strained rice into the cauldron and smooth it out. Be sure to use a spatula to make holes all the way to the bottom, as any recipe calls for, so that the water boils away faster. You need to cook over medium heat until the liquid goes inside the cauldron from the surface. Now stick a few cloves of garlic into the rice, cover the cauldron with a lid and wrap it in something warm. After 10-15 minutes, the rice will absorb excess moisture and become crumbly and very appetizing. You can mix and serve.

Homemade crumbly Uzbek pilaf

Oh, how beautiful pilaf looks if you cook it according to all the rules of Uzbek national cuisine! And how wonderful it smells! There is no hint of the notorious lumps, the rice is incredibly crumbly, almost amber. Yes, competing with professionals is a losing proposition. But even at home, you can prepare excellent tasty pilaf if you use this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

lamb (veal) - 500 g
onion - 500 g
carrots - 500 g
long grain rice - 500 g
vegetable oil - 150 g
garlic - 1 head
salt, spices - to taste

Cooking method:

Rinse the rice and soak in cold water. Cut clean and dry meat into small equal pieces. Peel and wash the vegetables, except for the head of garlic. Cut the onion into large cubes, and simply grate the carrots on a coarse grater if you don’t want to bother with cutting into strips. Pour the required amount of vegetable oil into the frying pan, heat it properly and fry the meat until golden brown for 20 minutes, remembering to stir in time so as not to burn.

Then add the onion and continue frying for another 5 minutes. After the specified time, you can add the carrots, season the vegetables and meat with spices and cook the zirvak for 5-7 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat and carefully transfer its contents into a cauldron with a thick bottom. Place rice on top of the zirvak in an even layer, do not forget to drain the water. Add 2-3 teaspoons of salt, some people like it more, and others like it less, so be guided by your own preferences.

Now carefully, in a thin stream, pour water over everything; it should cover the rice by about 1 centimeter. If you pour less, the pilaf will come out too dry, and if you overdo it, then instead of crumbling you will get those same notorious sticky lumps. Place the cauldron on the fire, wait until its contents boil, and cover with a lid. The heating temperature of the burner must be kept to a minimum, because to prepare crumbly pilaf you need steam, not bubbling liquid. After 20 minutes, you can turn off the heat; the rice will reach the desired state under the lid in a quarter of an hour. Mix everything and serve. Pilaf is delicious while it's hot.

Crumbly pilaf with beef

“Well, this is generally impossible to do!” - many housewives will exclaim and they will be wrong. The recipe that follows will completely disprove your beliefs if you dare to try it. Indeed, this type of meat is not favored by chefs, because it requires patience and time to cook it correctly. But pilaf with beef is always very tasty, it turns out crumbly and moderately fatty. And its aroma will make the whole family run to the kitchen and impatiently wait for an invitation to the table. The recipe does not contain any special secrets, so you can safely cook and conquer culinary heights!

Ingredients:

boneless beef - 300 g
round grain rice - 2/3 cup
carrots (medium) - 1 piece
onion (large) - 1 piece
refined sunflower oil
salt, ground black pepper, bay leaf - to taste

Cooking method:

If the amount of ingredients seems too small to you, you can increase it, but only in compliance with the specified proportions. Otherwise, the recipe will be broken, and it is unlikely that you will be able to prepare truly crumbly and tasty pilaf. So, cut the washed and dried meat into small identical cubes, place in a small saucepan and add 1 liter of water. It should be cooked over medium heat. As soon as the foam appears, carefully remove it, salt the broth, season with pepper and bay leaf. You need to cook for half an hour. Then remove the meat to a plate and pour the remaining liquid into a cup, you will need it later.

Peel, wash and cut the vegetables: onions into half rings and carrots into strips. Take a deep, thick-walled frying pan, heat vegetable oil in it, add meat, add carrots and sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes. Then add the onion and cook for another 3 minutes. At the same time, boil water on another burner. Quickly rinse the rice under running water, drain thoroughly and add to the meat and vegetables for frying. This will take 3-4 minutes.

After the specified time, fill everything with boiling water and the broth in which the meat was cooked. In total, you should need 250 ml of liquid, no more. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat until the water has evaporated. Do not mix rice and zirvak under any circumstances. For the first 15 minutes you can’t even look under the lid, but then monitor the liquid level by making holes to the bottom of the pan. As soon as you see that there is no more gravy, turn off the burner and leave the pilaf on the warm stove for another 10 minutes. It is better to serve with cabbage salad and fresh vegetables.

Each recipe described in this article has its own characteristics that allow you to prepare delicious pilaf correctly and make the rice crumbly. If you carefully follow all the recommendations, the dish will delight you with its appetizing appearance and rich, rich taste. As you can see, you shouldn’t blame the wrong kind of rice for failures, as many housewives usually do. Of much greater importance is compliance with the algorithm for preparing pilaf and choosing the correct ratio of meat, cereals and vegetables.

But you can and even need to experiment with spices. If you want to get a beautiful golden color to your rice, add a little saffron, as is customary in Asia. The chefs there also add cumin and barberry. The seasoning, traditionally used in Europe, contains paprika, black pepper, cumin, onion and garlic. A dish with it will taste different from an Asian one. Try it, look for your own combinations of spices, don’t be afraid to experiment, and then delicious pilaf will become your culinary strong point!

Pilaf is a flavorful oriental dish prepared from rice and meat or fish. There are recipes where animal products are completely replaced with vegetables or fruits. How to cook a meat dish at home? What should be the ratio of water and rice in pilaf? Methods and nuances of preparing oriental dishes are given below.

What kind of meat is suitable for cooking?

In order for the pilaf to be tasty and aromatic, you need to use juicy and fresh meat. Beef, pork and lamb are products often used in Chicken and rabbit are also not inferior in taste to the above types of meat. However, rabbit meat is added to pilaf less often than chicken, since rabbit meat is quite dry.

How to choose rice for pilaf

The grain should not be too small and transparent. To prepare the dish, use long-grain white rice, as it is less boiled. If you use steamed rice in cooking, then you must be sure to monitor the process of cooking the pilaf, since such grains cook faster and, therefore, can boil, turning the pilaf into porridge with meat.

How to get crumbly pilaf as a result?

The ratio of water and rice in pilaf to obtain a crumbly dish is calculated as follows: there should be much less liquid than all the ingredients. For example, for 300 g of meat, 300 g of rice and 300 g of carrots, take 600-700 ml. water, taking into account zirvak - broth, the basis of an oriental dish.

What is considered wrong in pilaf? If you put twice as much rice as there is liquid in the dish, then the pilaf will simply be either dry or undercooked. During cooking, it is important to remember that rice increases in size and absorbs moisture, so the correct ratio of liquid to grain should be 2/1.

Pilaf in a slow cooker

The ratio of rice and water when cooking pilaf in a multicooker is calculated in the same way as for cooking. The secret of successful pilaf is in correct proportions. The main components in the dish should be equal.

Ingredients for pilaf in a slow cooker:

beef or pork - 500 g;
carrots - 6-7 pcs.;
long grain rice - 500 g;
three onions;
two heads of garlic;
spices: salt, ginger, paprika, cumin, black pepper - to taste;
1 liter of boiling water.

For crumbly pilaf, the ratio of water and rice when cooking in a slow cooker should be 2 to 1, otherwise the pilaf will be too dry, or instead of an oriental dish you will end up with rice meat porridge.

The meat is washed and the film is removed from it. Peel carrots and onions. Sunflower oil is poured into the bowl of the device and the “Frying” mode is turned on. Add semicircular onions and carrots, cut into large cubes, into the heated oil. While the vegetables are fried, the meat is chopped into cubes and then placed in the multicooker bowl.

The ingredients are thoroughly mixed and cooked for another 5-10 minutes until a crust forms on the pieces of meat. The rice is washed and set aside to drain excess liquid. The meat and vegetables are salted and poured with 0.5 liters of boiling water. Spices are placed in the prepared zirvak and the bowl is closed with a lid. As soon as some water has evaporated, rice is placed in the bowl and 0.5 liters of hot water is also poured. Without stirring the pilaf, place garlic in the middle. The heads can be slightly cut. Then the multicooker lid is closed and the “Pilaf” program is set for 1-1.5 hours.

It is worth noting that the ratio of rice and water when cooking pilaf in a multicooker looks like this: the liquid should cover the cereal by no more than 2 fingers.

chicken and pork

The dish, prepared from different types of meat, is not inferior in taste to pilaf cooked from beef or lamb.

Ingredients:

chicken fillet and pork - 0.5 kg each (1 kg of meat);
five onions;
four heads of garlic;
long grain rice - 1 kg;
carrots - 1 kg;
seasonings for pilaf: cumin, ginger, curry, turmeric, red hot pepper, salt - to taste.

The ratio of water and rice in pilaf should be 2 to 1, since this type of cereal “loves” liquid and quickly absorbs it. In addition, it is worth considering that zirvak for pilaf should be highly salted. When the rice is added to the zirvak, it will absorb as much salt as needed.

The meat is washed, wiped with paper napkins and cut into cubes. The peel is removed from the onion, then it is cut into large rings. The carrots are peeled and then cut into small logs. Oil is poured into a preheated cauldron, vegetables are added and lightly fried. Meat is added to the vegetables and simmered over low heat for 10-15 minutes, then 1 liter of water mixed with spices and salt is poured into the cauldron.

After boiling, the dish is simmered for another 10 minutes. Then rice and garlic are placed in it, and a liter of boiling water is poured. The cauldron is covered with a lid, and the pilaf is cooked for another hour and a half. It is important to remember that the ratio of water and rice in pilaf should not be equal. Take twice as much liquid as cereal.

You can try real pilaf and appreciate its taste only in the East. This dish requires real skill and even creativity. But having the necessary set of products on hand, it’s quite possible to prepare pilaf at home. It is worth considering some special nuances.

Selection and quantity of products for pilaf

For pilaf you will need the following products:

1 kg of meat. It is advisable to take young lamb, but pork, chicken or turkey are quite suitable.
1 kg rice. Rice needs to be long and with the least amount of starch. When stewed, such rice will be crumbly and will not turn into porridge.
1 kg of onions, but not salad varieties.
1 kg of brightly colored carrots.
500 ml vegetable oil. The best option is cottonseed or rapeseed oil. If you don't have it, sunflower will do, but it's odorless.
Additives to taste (barberry, cumin, garlic, lemon, quince, dried apricots).
Salt and ground pepper.

Dishes for pilaf

For pilaf, buy a special copper or aluminum round pan with a heavy lid and thick walls. Additionally, prepare a clean kitchen towel, which you will have to place under the lid so that it absorbs excess moisture. Take a towel of such size that its hanging ends can be tied in the area of the lid handle.

Stages of preparing real pilaf

Prepare pilaf this way:

Wash the rice in six to seven waters and place it in a sieve one last time to drain all the water.
Cut the meat into medium-sized pieces. Before doing this, be sure to rinse it with water and dry it with paper or linen napkins.
Peel the onion and cut it into half rings.
Remove the skin from the carrots and chop it into long, rather wide strips. Do not grate carrots under any circumstances, because when simmering they will turn into mush.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and while it is heating up, fry one small onion without the husk. Add it whole and as soon as the onion turns dark in color, remove it and throw it away. The onion will add a pleasant aroma to the oil and will indicate when the oil is well heated.
Place the meat in very hot oil and let it brown. If necessary, stir it a couple of times.
Add the onion to the fried meat and wait until it turns golden.
Add carrots to the meat and onions and let them brown too.
Pour enough boiling water into the cauldron so that there is 2 fingers above the contents.
Add salt, pepper and additives to the pan: barberry or cumin. Use the latter dry and grind a little in a mortar before doing this. Taste the broth for salt – it should be sufficiently salted.
Cover the pan with a lid and turn the heat to medium. Simmer the so-called “zirvak” (meat with vegetables, spices and hot water) for 40 minutes to 1.5 hours. The time depends on the quality of the meat: simmer softer meat less, larger tough meat longer.
Place all the rice on top of the meat and vegetables and smooth it out with a spatula. Form a very small mound in the middle, into which stick a head of garlic, a few cloves of quince, dried apricots or a small whole lemon.
Pour the rice with so much hot water that it covers the very top of the future pilaf by 2 cm. Pour the water along the wall of the pan - this way the liquid will not damage the integrity of the formed mound.
Bring the pilaf to a boil and only then cover it with a lid. Place a towel under the lid and tie the hanging ends at the top.
Simmer the pilaf over very low heat for 40 minutes. When cooking, do not stir the dish under any circumstances.

How to serve pilaf

Serve the pilaf hot, 15-20 minutes after you turn off the stove. During this time, it will finally reach, and the rice will become very crumbly. Place the pilaf on a wide flat dish. First, use a spatula to remove all the rice and place it in a mound. Place pieces of meat on top of the rice. Also don’t forget about garlic, quince, dried apricots and lemon - they can be placed next to the rice. Fresh vegetables, cut into large pieces, will be an excellent addition to pilaf. You can also offer your guests onions pickled in vinegar. It needs to be cut into thin rings and kept in the marinade for 1 hour (0.5 cups of boiled water, 0.5 cups of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt).

In the East, you will definitely be offered hot, strong tea with pilaf. Try this option too - you and your guests will surely love this combination. Tea neutralizes the fatty, rich taste of pilaf and you can eat a huge amount of it.

It is good and joyful to gather with friends and family at a common table. Chat, laugh, talk to your heart's content with people near and dear to your heart. And while enjoying pleasant conversations, you just need to treat yourself to delicious homemade dishes.

But when expecting guests, you always have to cook a lot. Admit it, it often happens like this: you stand all day at a hot stove, conjuring over hot food, making complex sandwiches and canapés, cutting a bunch of different salads, and as a result, by the time of the holiday you no longer have any strength to smile and play the role of a hospitable hostess. Sound familiar?

But when planning to invite guests, it is not at all necessary to plan many different dishes. Sometimes it is better to serve only one dish on the table, but such that all your loved ones will gasp with delight after trying it, and in the end they will be full, satisfied and happy. The well-known pilaf is exactly such a signature dish. One is enough for a full-fledged holiday.

Therefore, on the next warm and sunny day, call everyone to the dacha. Stock up on rice, meat, patience and a good mood in advance. We will carefully and thoughtfully conjure up a dish that will definitely delight your guests.

The most correct recipe is the classic one with lamb. And there are many subtleties and tricks here. So let's get started:

How to cook real Uzbek pilaf

What do we know about real pilaf? Perhaps everyone knows only that cooking it is an art that requires considerable skill, training and experience. However, like other complex dishes, it has its own secrets and subtleties of preparation, which ensure the transformation of rice, meat and vegetables into a delicious and unique dish.

First of all, check if you have the necessary utensils. Today it is no longer a secret to anyone that it is cooked in a cauldron - a pot with thick walls. The cauldron can be either cast iron or thick aluminum. The main thing is to buy a container with a larger volume, you won’t go wrong. Just don't take the ducklings. The cooking utensil must be round and have a convex bottom.

Now let's talk about the necessary products:

Prepare about half a kilo of lamb. Yes, traditional Uzbek pilaf is prepared only from it. Lamb should be fatty, so when buying at the market, take a lamb ham. Although the shoulder blade is also suitable, this part of the meat is leaner.

Instead of lamb, you can take beef or pork, but this will no longer be a classic option.

Now we need half a kilo of rice. Naturally, long-grain, the higher the grade, the better.
Half a kilo of onions
Half a kilo of carrots
3-4 cloves of garlic
Ground spices. You will also need a lot of them, about 5 teaspoons. This is a mixture of ground black pepper, paprika, and cumin. You can also take barberry.
Fat for frying. It should be noted here that for the classic dish, only fat tail - lamb fat - is used. But since this product is a rare guest in our kitchen, we will replace it with sunflower oil. You will need a lot of oil - at least a glass. If you are still determined to get fat tail, then you will need much less of it - 70-80 grams.

If you want to enhance the bright and unique taste of pilaf, be sure to add cumin. It perfectly emphasizes the aroma of lamb, and in its absence even imitates its taste (so you can use a trick and take beef instead of lamb, but be sure to use cumin).

And a few more words about rice. We only need long grain, ideally the Jasmine or Basmati varieties. Round is suitable exclusively for porridges, casseroles and sushi. It must be rinsed very well with cold water, it should become clean and transparent. Usually you have to change the water 7-8 times. I wrote all the secrets of preparing fluffy rice in a previous article, be sure to read it.

Be sure to try raw carrots before cooking - we only need sweet ones; if they are bitter, they will ruin the taste of the whole dish.

Step-by-step cooking recipe:

There are 3 key stages of cooking that you need to focus on and these stages need to be completed according to all the rules.

Prepare butter or tail fat

At the first stage, we will begin to heat the fat. Yes, such a seemingly banal action must be performed very precisely. This is the foundation for preparing proper pilaf.

Place the cauldron on the stove. The first step is to warm it up properly, so don't rush it.

Our cauldron is hot enough. Pour oil into it, making sure to pour it along the sides of the pot.

Attention: now the fire under the cookware should be low! It is important here that the oil heats up well, but under no circumstances boils.

Remember an important point: if the oil is overheated, then the products that we then put in it will be stewed. And our goal is to ensure that the meat, onions and carrots are fried.

So, heat the oil over low heat. Don't go anywhere, watch carefully. When the oil begins to crackle and emit a whitish smoke, it’s time to move on to the second stage.

For those who decide to cook according to all the rules on fat tail (it must first be cut into pieces), the recommendations remain the same. The main thing is that when the fat tail is overheated and white smoke starts to appear, immediately remove the cracklings.

Preparing zirvak for pilaf

The second stage of preparation includes the preparation of zirvak. What is zirvak? This is a special “pillow” of fried meat, onions and carrots, on which rice will subsequently be cooked. Zirvak must also be correct.

So, cut the lamb into equal pieces of any size, the main thing is not too small.

Now increase the heat under the cauldron to quite high. Place the lamb in the bottom of the pot. Let it fry until light brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables.

Be sure to dry the peeled onion with a towel so that not a drop of moisture remains on it! Cut into half rings.

Add the onions to the meat and let them fry.

You will have to work hard with carrots - they should be cut into long and neat pieces. Not thick, about 0.3 cm. You cannot use a coarse grater, otherwise the carrots will release too much juice and will be stewed instead of frying.

Meanwhile, our onion has acquired a slightly golden color, so we’ll add carrots to the cauldron. Stir gently and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Salt our zirvak thoroughly; it should even be slightly salted. Later, when we put rice in the cauldron, it will no longer be possible to add salt to the dish, so try to calculate everything correctly.

Add prepared spices.

The second stage of preparing pilaf has come to an end.

The third stage - preparing fluffy rice

Now we have smoothly moved on to the third stage of preparation - cooking the rice. The peculiarity of this stage is that the rice will be steamed. In pilaf, the rice must be crumbly, and steam serves this purpose. How is rice cooked over steam here? It’s very simple: rice is cooked over a zirvak. It is a correctly made “cushion” for rice – zirvak – that ensures the crispness of the future dish.

So, very carefully place the washed rice on top of the zirvak. Gently smooth the top with a spoon. Proceed with caution, do not mix rice with zirvak under any circumstances.

By now you should already have a boiling kettle ready.

The following steps will require extreme caution and concentration on your part.

Place a flat saucer on top of the rice. Now very carefully pour boiling water onto the saucer. When the water covers the rice by one to one and a half centimeters, stop. Instead of a saucer, water can be poured onto a wooden spatula or spoon.

Very, very carefully remove the saucer from the cauldron, taking care not to touch or disturb the layer of rice in any way.

Why are such complex actions necessary? Our task is to keep all layers of pilaf unchanged and not mixed, and the rice well compacted. If you pour water without the help of a saucer, there is a high risk that it will blur the rice a little and the tightness of the layers will be broken, and then the dish will not turn out as intended.

Continue cooking over fairly high heat. Do not cover with a lid! Do not interfere with anything under any circumstances!

When the water has completely boiled away and the rice visually looks ready, arm yourself with a spoon with a long thin handle. Now very carefully, using the handle of a spoon, poke several holes from the surface of the rice to the very bottom through all the layers. Carefully pour hot water into these holes. You don't need to pour a lot, just a little. Carefully insert garlic cloves, cut in half lengthwise, on top.

Close the cauldron with a lid and immediately reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting. Let the pilaf simmer for about 20 minutes. After turning off the heat, do not open the lid for another 10-15 minutes, the dish should be completely cooked.

Tip: the lid under which the rice is cooked at the final stage should be very tight, literally without the slightest gap. If the lid of your casserole does not cover it so well, replace it with a suitable flat dish.

Now your real Uzbek pilaf is ready! We guarantee that if you were not lazy and carefully followed all the recommendations, your guests will be completely delighted with it.

Place the finished dish from the cauldron on a tray or large plate in layers arranged in the reverse order from how they were prepared: first, rice, and on top of it is zirvak, topped with pieces of juicy, crispy meat.

Well, be sure to serve it with fresh pita bread, cucumber and tomato salad and hot green tea.

I hope my recipe will help you please your family and friends. Write, I will be glad to receive feedback and comments!

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