My name is Stalik Khankishiyev. I am the author of cookbooks. In Russia, I'm conducting a television show about the kitchen of the countries of the Great Silk Road.
The most frequent question that I'm asked on the Internet is "how to cook pilaf at home
from rice which can be bought in any supermarket ".
This sort of rice is called Dev-Zira National What kind of word is the mysterious Dev-Zira?
The fact is that rice cultivars in the world are grown countlessly. But one of them grows only in the Ferghana Valley.
Rather, it used to grow! And now it began to grow in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Kuban.
Look - here on each grain there is a specific scar of dark burgundy color.
Rice seed was originally covered with a fairly dense shell of the same color as this hem
When threshing removes the shell of rice and it turns into powder. Hence this characteristic pinkish color of rice.
Firstly, soak rice in a very salty water and the water should have a temperature of about 60 degrees.
Why 60 degrees? Because rice is starch!
With starch in the presence of water, at a temperature of 62-64 degrees Celsius there is a definite reaction.
For this reaction not to occur before time, so that it occurs in the pan, it is necessary to pour 60 degrees with water.
Try pouring rice with cold water, try pouring boiling water and it will get worse!
I conducted real experiments and described the results in the book "Pilaf. culinary research. "
Soak rice should be at least 30 minutes.
Well, it would be good to soak it for an hour and a half or two, so I dipped the rice first thing.
And now you can start cooking pilaf, first you need to heat cast-iron pot with a spherical bottom - Kazan.
Today we do not have Kazan, but an aluminum pot with some kind of coating, but in any case, we need to heat thoroughly
and therefore I immediately pour oil so that the pan does not stand empty.
Many people think that cottonseed oil is the right oil for cooking pilaf.
But this is not so! In fact, it is absolutely correct to cook pilaf on fattened fat.
But today we cook very simple, just about the same as cooking in ordinary Uzbek families.
Well, do you think - in Uzbekistan everyone has Kazan, and under them a huge fire burns?
No, there, too, people live in ordinary apartments, and there they also cook on ordinary plates.
Nevertheless, they are preparing traditional Uzbek food and everyone is doing it!
If there is no cottonseed oil, can I take another vegetable oil.
You must choose the oil, which has as little of its own smell.
Here comes sunflower oil of the first extraction from which it smells like sunflower seeds.
This oil will not work! Also, olive oil is not suitable here.
Very expensive first-pressing oil - pour a salad on it, or simply bread in this butter, soak it, it's healthy food!
To make pilaf, butter is simpler, but only if it had no odor of its own.
Rice oil, corn oil. For example, I really like grape seed oil.
There is one more rule. If the oil is not used by lamb fat, then it must be ignited until the appearance of a blue haze
and after that in oil it is necessary to fry either a small onion,
or a piece of onion.
While the bulb is being fried, let's talk about the proportions of the ingredients. In this pack was 800 grams of rice This is the right amount.
This is just for the family! When we lived in Uzbekistan, we cooked in cauldron about this size and we cooked on a gas stove.
And we always took 5 pial of rice and it was just 800 grams of rice.
This is maximum! A kilogram of rice on a gas stove or on an electric stove is already problematic to cook.
Look at how to choose a cauldron or a pan.
Do not take high, bucket-like pots.
It is better to take a broad one. First, the bottom of the dishes collects more heat and secondly the heat will quickly reach the top.
Meat too much is not necessary.
Many believe that the more meat in pilaf, the topic will be more delicious pilaf.
Listen, if you love meat so much, cook another dish! Plov dish is not about meat!
For pilaf of 800 grams of rice 800 grams of meat is more than enough!
It is necessary to take 120-150 g, this is the maximum, onions
onions cut into half rings, a garlic head, a pair of chili, a spoon of zira.
That's all that is necessary for the preparation of the basic classical Fergana pilaf.
Some fry onions in oil until it is all black.
No! Here are some sugar in onions caramelized, the oil will acquire a special taste and I think that this is enough.
90% of onion is water and until the water evaporates, the oil does not heat much above 100 degrees.
Meat must be lowered into butter when the onion and oil have a temperature of about 130 degrees.
In addition to water in onions contains sugar
and just like changing the color of sugar syrup, just like at the same temperatures changes color and onions.
That's when the onion will turn golden, and from the golden color about turning into red,
this will mean that the temperature of oil and onions is already 130 degrees.
Some people express their fears - will not they burn if they first fry onions,
and then we will fry the meat, then will not the bow burn completely?
No, it will not burn! The fact is that the meat of the percentage for 80, at least, consists of water.
Note that the meat lies in one layer, and the oil is so much that it covers pieces of meat
That's enough, no more!
Thanks to this, we now have all the pieces of meat roasted simultaneously.
Normally fried meat in color.
Some people say "I have a stick burning at the last stage, as I do not reduce the heat."
Guys, these meat juices have stuck to the bottom of the cauldron or pots from you from the very beginning and here they burn afterwards!
But with this there is the opportunity to compete, I'll tell you later how.
In the meantime, I have no time - I need to put carrots on! Some say, "We must take only special yellow Uzbek carrots for Uzbek pilaf."
carrots are not necessarily yellow carrots in Uzbekistan at least
No, it is not necessary! Yellow carrots in Uzbekistan, at least earlier, have always been cheaper than red.
Red was better, tastier, people bought yellow carrots, because it was cheaper, and then they got used to the taste of yellow carrot carrots.
To carrots must be added zira.
That's the combination of zira and carrots and creates a special smell of Uzbek plov!
Earlier we sometimes cooked and without zira.
Earlier we sometimes cooked and without zira. Zira has always been quite expensive spices in Uzbekistan. Ziru was collected in the mountains.
It is now brought from Egypt from Egypt, earlier brought from Syria, Morocco is growing a lot of zira, in India ...
But it's a little bit different there than in Uzbekistan, we used to use wild zir.
But a bag of zira then cost a whole ruble, and for a ruble one could buy a kilogram of rice and a loaf of bread.
For a ruble, you could buy a whole bottle of cottonseed oil,
so many cooked and without zira, and pilaf turned out all the same tasty.
it turned out all the same in the bush itself unpleasant for not experienced chefs
The most unpleasant for inexperienced cooks is,
that the silt from the meat juices on the black cauldron is not visible, but if you go through the noise on the bottom, then, please, see this deposit.
Here from this deposit water broth, or as it is called in Central Asia, zirvak, becomes red.
The broth does not turn red because the carrots were added to it!
It's time to reduce heating.
I'm often asked "how many minutes it takes to fry the meat for how many minutes it takes to fry the carrots."
Here for example carrots should become soft. You see how it bends.
Now I have in my hand properly fried carrots and now I need to fill with water
- definitely hot, better with boiling water. If we pour cold water here, the carrots will boil.
If we pour cold water here, the carrots will begin to prepare as if from the very beginning and it will fall apart,
it will turn into a mess.
The fact that pilaf is not obtained crumbly, but becomes porridge very often happens due to improperly prepared carrots.
It is necessary to reduce the heating to a minimum and let the zirvak cook slowly and calmly. And the longer, the better! At least, this is 40 minutes.
It's been 30 minutes and the smell of broth is on the whole house.
And you see what color this dirwak has! In fact it is better you will not think up!
The color is red, the broth itself is transparent, the perfect dirwak!
And now it's time to put the garlic and chili.
In addition, we must not forget to salt. I think that it will take about a tablespoon of salt.
Our rice was soaked for an hour and a half, it increased considerably in volume.
He changed color and he is ready for the starch to disappear from him right now.
To wash it is necessary very carefully, it is desirable under warm water, instead of under cold water. Do not rub the rice in your hands,
It is necessary to drain this muddy water, pour fresh, raise rice several times with your hands very carefully, as with a child.
Because rice can break.
A lot of starch will leave the rice cut and the pilaf will turn out sticky.
Warm water gently to wash until the rice will not drain absolutely clear water.
The rice is washed and looks like a pink pearl.
But do not look at them too long. Do not leave rinsed rice dry,
it is necessary as soon as possible to spread it with a jumper neatly, evenly on top of carrots of garlic and pepper,
And then straighten the surface of rice and see if there is enough water to make it.
Now I have enough water, because zirvak completely covers all the rice.
If necessary, we can always add some more water.
And now add heat to the maximum!
Some connoisseurs say that in no case is rice in pilaf impossible.
But look now in our pan, in the middle boils, but on the edges does not boil.
So you need to take a noise, do not listen to experts and mix rice
Only, of course, very carefully trying not to touch a layer of carrots and meat.
Look, I'm collecting rice to the center and setting up such a hill.
And now just squeezing and that rice, which used to be in the middle, now is on the edges.
Rice cooking in pilaf is an equation with two unknowns.
Now there should be two events,
When rice absorbs all moisture and when rice is completely ready.
This is achieved either with the help of experience, or with the help of verified recipes.
I got out a small new book, called "pro-Kazan".
That's how it looks from behind, that's how it looks in front.
Its peculiarity is that it is waterproof.
It can be poured with oil or water, rinsed, wiped and it will be like new.
All sheets are laminated, it is printed in a special way
In this book we have included both new photos,
and new recipes, which simply was not in my previous books
and of course, in addition to the numerous recipes of Uzbek and Azerbaijani cuisine in Kazan,
there is also our traditional pilaf - exactly the one that we are now preparing from the rice of Dev-Zir.
I'm sure that you will like this book very much, it will be very useful,
because you can take it with you to the dacha, you can hang it on a carnation near the cauldron.
And when they came to cook, the cheat sheets are always with them.
Well, besides, this book is a great gift!
And a little more wait until the remnants of water evaporate or absorb into the rice.
In order to speed up the evaporation, you need to take a spoon or some kind of wooden stick and make such holes to the very bottom.
And now I'm picking a pilaf
so that rice does not come in contact with the cold walls of the pan because it is in this place that it will become sticky.
because it is in this place that he will become sticky.
If you cook in a cauldron on a living fire and the kazan is set right,
works correctly, then he has these walls will be exactly the same hot as the bottom,
but now, this pot has cold walls, so we pushed the pilaf away from the walls
and we now have to arrange for him some kind of thermos.
Look, I'm taking a plate that's the right size,
I cover this plate with pilaf and here,
I put paper napkins. Clean paper napkins,
absorbing moisture and moisture will not drip down, as in a closed Kazan.
At the lowest heat it should stand for at least 40 minutes.
Some say "25-30 minutes is enough".
Believe me - 40 minutes or even longer!
If you can endure longer, it's better to wait a little longer - it will not become bad.
Tastier only, more friable and more flavorful will our plov!
Salad special for pilova is also ready!
Salad is called someone like, in Tajik it is called "tomato bo pies" - a tomato with onions
And in Uzbek, he has two names: in the Fergana Valley he is called "shakarob",
that in translation means sweet water, and in Tashkent and other areas called acych Chuchuk.
Here without him pilaf is not served!
However, let's see what kind of pilaf we have today!
The napkin I was talking about had to be changed several times,
but it again got wet - so much more excess moisture came from rice.
Well, let's see how the rice turned out!
It is necessary to congratulate Russian rice growers - those who grow rice with such success! A real Uzbek rice!
This pilaf is enough for five pretty hungry men
And if you cook something else - I do not know, well, shashlik,
I do not know, or cook a shurp, then this plov is enough for ten.
Well, much more! It is better, if you are bored, prepare a fresh pilaf,
especially since now it is completely accessible! Bon Appetit!