Uzbek pilaf in a cauldron - we bring to your attention classic recipe with photo. Eastern cuisine has given the world many delicious dishes, among which the aromatic and crumbly Uzbek pilaf occupies a worthy place. This dish of rice, vegetables and lamb has long been loved by our housewives, and it is difficult to find a family whose menu does not include this dish.
Of course, in city apartments it is quite difficult to observe all the nuances of preparing pilaf, and Uzbek chefs carefully guard the secret of its recipe. However, if you have a cast iron cauldron and the opportunity to travel out of town, you can easily try to make this amazingly tasty dish yourself. You can also cook pilaf in a cauldron at home; the pilaf will taste virtually no different.
To cook Uzbek pilaf in a cauldron, you will also need special products. These include:
Leg of lamb on the bone weighing approximately 1200 grams;
1 kg of carrots (preferably yellow Uzbek);
4 onions;
20 grams of dried barberry;
1 head of garlic;
1 kg of special rice for pilaf (can be replaced with rice for risotto);
10 grams of dried saffron and cumin;
400 ml vegetable oil.
Step 1. Before you start cooking the pilaf, prepare the meat. To do this, cut the lamb flesh from the bone and divide it into small pieces. Place the bones in a separate bowl with a large number meat on them, place the lamb fillet in another container (as shown in the photo with the ingredients).
Cooks always put a lot of carrots in real Uzbek pilaf. Of course, it is advisable to purchase real yellow carrots, called “Uzbek”, for this dish, but if you fail, you will have to use the traditional orange vegetable.
Carrots for pilaf should be washed, peeled and then cut into large strips.
Step2. Also peel the onions and cut into large rings.
Step 3. Heat the cauldron on the fire to a high temperature and pour it into it vegetable oil. When it boils, throw the bones into the container and fry them until golden brown.
Step 4. Then add the onion and, stirring, fry the food until onion rings will not turn brownish.
Step 5. Now place the lamb fillet cut into pieces into the cauldron.
Step 6. Stir the products and keep them on the fire for about 15 minutes, and then add the chopped carrots to the cauldron.
Step 7. Stir the meat and vegetables again. Fill the contents of the cauldron with water so that it completely covers the food, and place a head of garlic in the middle. Salt the dish and simmer it over low heat for 40 minutes.
Step 8. It is better to buy rice for pilaf at the market; in extreme cases, you can replace it with products for making risotto. If you want to cook classic oriental pilaf, never use steamed rice - it will not absorb the required amount of moisture.
Before using, rice should also be prepared - soak it in salted water for 40 minutes. When zirvak (the so-called meat, onions and carrots cooked in a cauldron) is stewed, add seasonings to it.
Step 9. Stir the ingredients and place a layer of rice on top.
Keep the dish on the fire until the cereal is ready. Every 10-15 minutes, the rice needs to be stirred gently, while the zirvak should remain untouched, that is, you only need to stir the rice.
Step 10. When the rice becomes soft, turn off the heat, cover the cauldron with a lid and leave it for 10 minutes. Then mix all the products in a cauldron and serve the finished pilaf on the table.
Bon appetit!
Watch the video step-by-step preparation Uzbek pilaf:
Pilaf- a rice dish cooked in a special way. There are a huge variety of ways to prepare pilaf.
There is pilaf with lamb, pilaf with pork, pilaf with beef, chicken pilaf, sea pilaf, pilaf without meat, lean pilaf, vegetarian pilaf, vegetable pilaf, fruit pilaf, red pilaf, etc.
There are Uzbek pilaf, Turkmen pilaf, Armenian pilaf, Azerbaijani pilaf, Samarkand pilaf, Italian pilaf, Fergana pilaf, etc.
1. Meat (lamb, pork, beef, veal)
2. Carrots (preferably yellow, juicy, ripe)
3. Fat or oil
4. Rice (large)
5. Onions
6. Spices and seasonings for pilaf: cilantro grains, cumin, barberry, saffron, basil, raisins, dried fruits.
To prepare a simple pilaf for ten servings (about 8 liters of pilaf) you need:
1. Meat - 1.5 kg
2. Rice - 1.5 kg
3. Onion - 0.5 kg
4. Carrots - 1 kg
5. Vegetable oil - 450 gr. (for 1 kg of rice - 300 grams of butter).
6. Spices - 50 gr.
There is more than one way to prepare pilaf, but in any case you cannot do without a cauldron.
1. Before cooking pilaf, wash the cauldron with hot water.
Then we set it to heat up at maximum heat (it’s worth noting right away that the intensity level of the fire will not change until a certain stage of cooking the pilaf - see below).
2. Heat the pilaf cauldron over the fire for five to seven minutes, then pour all the prepared oil into it.
3. Continue heating the cauldron over the fire until slight smoke (evaporation) appears. This should take an average of eight to ten minutes.
4. Place the peeled and chopped onion into the cauldron. The thickness of the rings should be half a centimeter. At the same time, we immediately begin to intensively stir the onion.
Attention: Never cover the cauldron with a lid. The lid is lowered onto the cauldron only after rice has been placed in it.
5. Within seven to ten minutes, the onion is covered golden crust. The intensity and duration of frying depends on the intensity of the fire and the initial temperature of the oil.
You will get delicious pilaf if you fry the onions well. Fried onions significantly affect the taste of pilaf and its color. We must adhere to the golden mean: the onion should be fried as much as possible (we get a dark color), but the onion should not burn (turn into embers).
6. The meat is cut into small pieces, in the form of cubes. The average size of the pieces should be 4 centimeters.
As soon as the onion is fried, immediately lower the chopped meat into the cauldron. Stirring the resulting mass, fry over high heat until the meat darkens and gets a colored crust.
The process of frying meat should last about 15 minutes. Don't forget to stir the pilaf every minute.
7. Clean and cut the carrots into strips in advance. After frying the meat, put the carrots in the cauldron. We continue to fry the resulting mass, stirring occasionally, for another 10-15 minutes.
8. After that, boiling water is poured into the cauldron. The water level should hide the contents of the cauldron, but not exceed it. As a result, we get the so-called zirvak.
9. Reduce the heat under the cauldron to a minimum, so as to maintain a boil in it. Add salt - 2 tablespoons, and add selected seasonings and spices for pilaf.
Mix the contents and cook for about 15 - 30 minutes. The meat should be ready. It is worth considering that high-quality and fresh meat cooks much faster than old and stale meat.
10. Now you can taste the resulting zirvak. You should get a bitter-salty, even over-salted taste. Do not be alarmed by the large amount of salt - most of the salt will be absorbed by the rice when cooked. If necessary, add a little more salt to get the salty taste of zirvak.
11. It is necessary to boil water to cook rice. Wash the rice thoroughly. Increase the heat under the cauldron to the maximum level. Place an even layer of rice on top of the resulting zirvak, leveling it with a slotted spoon. After which boiling water is poured into the cauldron. The water level should exceed the rice by 1.5 centimeters.
12. Without changing the intensity of the fire under the cauldron, cook until the water evaporates below the level of the rice.
Attention: Under no circumstances should you stir the contents of the cauldron.
13. Taste the resulting rice. If the rice is hard and not cooked, you need to add boiling water to the cauldron. You need to pour boiling water very carefully so as not to destroy the resulting structure of the rice.
14. Now comes one of the most responsible and important moments in preparing real pilaf. It is necessary to catch the moment when the water from the surface of the rice has almost evaporated, and the rice itself is in a state of half-cookedness. The rice should be half ready, as it will steam with the cauldron closed for another 15-20 minutes. If the rice is already ready by this time, you run the risk of overcooking the rice and ruining the entire taste of the pilaf.
15. Now reduce the fire under the cauldron to a minimum. We begin to collect the rice using a slotted spoon in a neat mound in the center of the cauldron. Cover the rice with a plate so that it falls into the cauldron. We select the plate in such a way that there is a distance of 1 or 2 centimeters between the plate and the walls of the cauldron. Press the plate down, then close the cauldron tightly with the lid.
16. Simmer the pilaf for 10-15 minutes over low heat.
17. Turn off the fire under the cauldron.
18. Without removing the lid from the cauldron, let the pilaf stand for 10-15 minutes without fire.
Pilaf. Recipe for making classic pilaf.
19. Remove the lid from the cauldron and take out a plate.
20. Gently mix the finished pilaf with a slotted spoon. It is necessary to mix the rice evenly with onions, carrots and meat. If you have complied with all the mentioned conditions for preparing real pilaf, you will end up with a ready-made and fluffy rice. This is properly prepared pilaf. If you are unlucky, the rice will be raw or overcooked.
21. Place the resulting pilaf on the lyagan. Lyagan is a special flat and wide dish.
22. The pilaf is finally ready. Now you can gather family and friends around the table. We wish you bon appetit and delicious pilaf. Prepare pilaf at home.
1. To obtain a pleasant aroma, garlic cloves are usually used. Garlic cloves, well washed and peeled from coarse husks, are not cut, but placed directly whole into the zirvak, before adding rice, after which the rice is added. After cooking the pilaf, the cloves are removed and placed on top of the cooked rice (but this is a matter of taste). For the indicated volume of products used, you can use approximately four medium heads of garlic.
2. To obtain pilaf with a bright red-brown color, while heating the oil, place a small bone in it, fry the bone until black, then discard it. You can also use a joint or rib.
3. For real pilaf, you need to use meat with fat (the presence of layers in the meat). But it is worth considering that in the case of using meat with a large amount of fat, the volume of oil used should be reduced by one third.
4. Pilaf is usually eaten from a common dish (one lyagan), by the whole family or company. They eat with their hands or spoons. After a hearty meal, drink unsweetened green tea.
It’s no secret that in nature, all food from the coals of a barbecue seems tastier: appetizing, smelling of smoke, it instantly “flies away”, causing admiration. The recipe for pilaf in a cauldron, which we will discuss in detail below, will help to please vacationers with something different from the slightly boring fried meat. We are sure that tourists who are hungry in the fresh air will enjoy this treat, especially if the main chef knows the secrets of creating the dish.
Not everyone knows how to cook delicious pilaf in a cauldron correctly, and therefore a common situation is when, having tried a food once, cooks forget about the recipe, which did not please them with the results. But crumbly rice with meat and vegetables can turn out simply amazingly appetizing - provided that you follow the technique of creating the dish.
For everyone who wants to cook real Uzbek food, this recipe is just a godsend! The treat will certainly be a great success and will captivate lovers of country holidays with a mass of bright gastronomic shades. But we didn’t come up with anything innovative - we just give in detail tips for creating a dish that our great-grandfathers knew.
1. Peel the onion and chop it into thick rings. They should not be less than 3-4 mm in thickness, otherwise we risk getting a mountain of coals instead of the delicious pilaf in the cauldron, the recipe for which we have chosen.
2. Wash the lamb (the fattier the meat, the tastier it will be in the end) and cut into portions. The ideal size is bars with an edge of a couple of centimeters. Chop the carrots into small shavings or cut into cubes or circles.
3. If we forgot about the rice in our haste and getting ready for the picnic, now we wash it, fill it with water and leave it until the need arises to use it in cooking.
4. Rinse the cast iron container with boiling water and place it over the fire (the firewood should be properly ignited by this time). We give it a couple of minutes to warm up and dry and pour the required amount of oil into the cauldron. Before making pilaf in the cauldron further, we wait a little more. The oil should also be heated and bluish steam should begin to rise from it. This stage usually takes five to seven minutes.
5. Carefully place the onion slices into the hot oil (you should be careful here - the mass immediately begins to splatter heavily in all directions) and stir it continuously until it acquires a dark golden color. At the same time, we try not to miss the moment when the onion rings become too “tanned” - otherwise they will already be charred by the middle of the cooking process.
6. Immediately after the onion reaches the desired shade, place the lamb in a container and fry for about fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. As a result, the meat should be decorated with an appetizing light crust.
7. Add chopped carrots to the recipe ingredients and, continuing to work intensively with the spoon, cook the mixture for another ten minutes.
8. Now it’s time for seasonings: put salt in the cauldron (about two tablespoons, anyway, more of it will be absorbed later by the rice), add spices and fill with water above the level of the mass in the pan. In this form, all ingredients should simmer for at least 20-30 minutes, until the lamb and vegetables become soft.
9. We have very little left before the pilaf in the cauldron is completely ready. Spread the rice in an even layer on top of the other ingredients (do not mix!) and pour boiling water over everything so that it covers the entire pot. Cook for another 20-30 minutes. To determine the degree of readiness, we try a spoon - as soon as the grains of rice stop squeaking on the teeth, the product can be stirred. We do this very carefully, using a slotted spoon or a large spoon.
Yes, we had to work a little hard, didn't we? But from the moment we lifted the lid and a delicious aroma wafted around, it became clear that this pilaf in a cauldron, the recipe for which we studied, was worth making!
* Cook's Tips
— Gourmets advise using yellow and red carrots, mixed in equal proportions, to prepare oriental dishes.
— Garlic is an excellent helper for creating an even brighter and more expressive aroma. You can push the peeled slices into small recesses when adding rice.
— In Tashkent, a handful of raisins, ground red pepper and cumin are placed on top of the rice (these striped seeds can be found in spice shops).
— In the same wonderful country, at the stage of frying meat, they advise mixing in a little soaked peas, barberries and cilantro seeds. Those who have had the opportunity to feast on the dish assure that the taste is simply indescribable!
Now you know everything about how to cook pilaf in a cauldron and you can probably do it no worse than famous chefs!
There is a special ritual in the cauldron. It is only at first glance that it seems that there is nothing complicated about frying meat and stewing rice. Real experts know many secrets, without which real Uzbek pilaf cannot be made. If you want to master the intricacies of preparing this popular Central Asian dish, this article is for you.
Cooking in a cauldron
Everyone knows that in the East in all culinary dishes Lamb is traditionally used. Pilaf is no exception. Here is the list of required ingredients:
Cooking technology
How do you start cooking pilaf in a cauldron? Of course, from cutting meat. So, step by step instructions.
1. Cut the lamb into 1.5 cm pieces. Set the bones aside, beat the ribs a little, add salt and set aside to marinate. Lamb for pilaf should be young, with a small amount of fat.
2. Carrots are one of the main components of real pilaf. You need to cut it correctly. Just cut, do not use graters and shredders. Carrots should be chopped by hand into thin strips. For pilaf, choose ripe and not early root vegetables .
3. Sort and rinse the rice thoroughly. The water should become clear and clean. After that, soak it in warm water. Now heat up the cauldron. Set the fire to maximum. Place lard, cut into pieces, into a hot container. Render the fat out of it. Remove the cracklings. Lard can be replaced good oil. It needs to be heated until a faint bluish haze appears.
4. Now dip the ribs into the oil. Fry quickly. Turn over several times. As soon as the meat has turned golden brown, remove it from the cauldron. Heat the oil again and drop the onion chopped into half rings into it. Fry it until golden brown. The water contained in the onion will quickly evaporate. After this, lower the meat into the cauldron, periodically stirring it with the onion.
5. Cover the carrots in an even layer. After a couple of minutes, stir everything. Fry for 15 minutes and towards the end of frying, reduce the heat to medium. Add some of the cumin. As soon as the carrots become soft and an appetizing aroma appears, pour in hot water. It should cover all ingredients by 1.5 cm.
6. We continue cooking pilaf in the cauldron. Add garlic, previously peeled. Place the chilli peppers whole, without cuts. Put these two components in anyway, you can throw them away at the end.
7. Place the ribs, fried at the beginning, into the cauldron. Once everything comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low. Leave the cauldron open for 40 minutes. The water will gradually boil away and the broth will become clear. Now increase the heat to maximum, add salt. Taste - the broth should be a little salty.
8. Cooking pilaf in a cauldron comes to the most important moment - adding rice. It must be filtered and poured into the meat. Level it out. Pour 1 liter of boiling water. Fire is maximum. Everything should boil quickly and the oil should float to the top. We do not disturb the rice. Wait for the water to boil by half, then reduce the heat. Hold it a little longer, then set the heat to the minimum level, close the cauldron with a lid and cook the pilaf until done.
9. Turn off the heat, sprinkle the dish with the remaining cumin and let it brew for another 20 minutes. Open the lid, loosen the rice, remove capsicum and garlic. Mix everything. Place the pilaf in a heap on a large round dish, place the garlic on top. Delicious pilaf in a cauldron is ready!
Pilaf in a cauldron - delicious and very hearty dish eastern peoples. Eat various recipes its preparations. Very often the dish is prepared with lamb or pork. But with beef and poultry real pilaf in a cauldron it turns out no worse.
Cooking pilaf is an art. To prevent the dish from turning into porridge with meat, and the rice to come out crumbly, you need to know some rules. Following them, the food will always turn out great. Now you will learn how to properly cook pilaf in a cauldron:
The taste of the finished dish will be determined by the spices used. Pork pilaf in a cauldron turns out very appetizing if you add cumin and barberry during cooking. These components give the dish a special piquancy. And if you want to get a yellowish tint, you can season the dish with turmeric.
Ingredients:
Preparation
The recipe below is not a classic version of this dish. Pork and lamb are used much more often in recipes. But chicken pilaf in a cauldron comes out very tasty and aromatic. And if you use not a leg, but a fillet without skin, you get a dietary and less high-calorie version of the dish.
Ingredients:
Preparation
This recipe is similar to the authentic version of this dish. In the east they cook it in a cauldron. This meat is very flavorful. But you need to take the choice of meat seriously. The dish will turn out appetizing and tasty only when young lamb is used in cooking.
Ingredients:
Preparation
Duck meat is not often used in the preparation of this dish. A this recipe pilaf in a cauldron will tell you how to cook this. The meat is fatty, so it’s worth rendering the fat and then using it to prepare the rest of the ingredients. This will give the dish special taste and aroma.
Ingredients:
Preparation
In a cauldron it also turns out very appetizing. But due to the fact that this meat is not as fatty as lamb and pork, it is better to increase the amount of fat. In this case, this is achieved by adding fat tail fat. As in other recipes, aromatic cumin is present here.
Ingredients:
Preparation
If we are talking about, then it immediately becomes clear that nothing more than lamb is used. This meat is always used in the east for cooking. Now you will learn how to cook pilaf with meat in a cauldron, so that the dish turns out aromatic, it is better to choose young lamb meat.
Ingredients:
Preparation
In nature, you can cook not only kebabs and kulesh. Pilaf in a cauldron over a fire turns out incredibly tasty, soaked in smoke. You can use absolutely any meat - pork, lamb, and beef will do. It is only important to monitor the fire, making the fire more or less, and everything will work out!
