As long as pilaf exists, there is so much debate about how to cook the right pilaf.
One of the oldest dishes of mankind has already turned five thousand years old. What meat should be used, what should the cereal portion consist of, what spices should I add to it?
There are still no winners or losers in this dispute.
A resident of Samarkand will say that his pilaf is the most correct.
In Tashkent, they will laugh at the words of a resident of Samarkand, and at the same time they will criticize the Ferghana pilaf.
An Iranian, a descendant of the ancient Persians, will object to him and say that the Uzbek does not understand anything in this matter, and the professional of the Tatar cuisine will say that both are wrong and that only he knows how to cook a delicious pilaf.
The whole world knows how to cook a delicious pilaf, and everyone is right. There is a simple explanation for this statement, which we will now briefly consider.
How to cook the right pilaf - basic technological principles
We will not judge the preparation of the correct technological map of pilaf in absolutely all national cuisines of the world, but we will try to make out the main points in preparing the correct pilaf. For some time, we will forget about the dishes in which pilaf should be prepared - each nation has its own peculiarities associated with geographical affection, culture, traditions. We note only one common characteristic detail of this dish: it must have thick walls, be heat resistant. By the way, pilaf was already able to cook when there were no cauldrons, braziers and other attributes of modern civilization. The old Persian pilaf recipe in the test, or rather, in the flat cake, confirms this (see the recipe below). Pilaf can be prepared in pumpkin or in palm leaves - get rid of stereotypes, and maybe then you can create your own unique way of cooking pilaf.
The name "pilaf" is present in all kitchens, only in different languages it sounds a bit not the same. The word pulāu literally comes from ancient Sanskrit, and means boiled rice. That is, pilaf is a method of heat treatment of rice, but there are more than forty thousand varieties of rice, and the word does not indicate which kind of rice should be present in pilaf. So now the connoisseurs of the Uzbek and Iranian, as well as the Tatar, Balkan, Turkish and Egyptian pilaf should already shake hands, as a sign of reconciliation and friendship. In addition, it is not said anywhere that beans or other cereals that are available cannot be added to the pilaf.
We draw the first conclusion on how to cook the correct pilaf: pilaf is based on rice and, perhaps, some other cereals, instead of it, or together with rice. After all, pilaf is not only food for the rich, who can afford to choose the most expensive and rarest rice varieties; pilaf, like boiled rice, even without meat, was and remains the food of monks, ascetics, vegetarians and the poor.
Now we will analyze the methods of heat treatment of the cereal portion of pilaf, before moving on to the tastiest and most diverse component of the dish. According to ancient Sanskrit, rice for pilaf must be cooked, but in fact, many recipes of modern Asian pilaf are prepared by stewing. So, for example, the same Ferghana, Tajik, and Tashkent pilaf is cooked by pre-frying or stewing meat and vegetables, and only after they are processed, rice is added, water, a strictly measured amount is added, and further cooking occurs precisely in the mode of slow stewing, when part of the water it is absorbed into the grain, and the other part is evaporated. Cooking involves immersing rice in a much larger amount of water and boiling actively, rather than simmering the product.
It turns out that those who cook rice are right, separately and also separately prepare all the other components of pilaf? But what about the pilaf, which is cooked in the stewing mode in the same cauldron, when all the products are laid in turn? Or is it not pilaf, but a completely different dish? If we conclude this now, then a flurry of indignation and criticism cannot be avoided, because pilaf, which came to us from Asian cuisine, as a legacy from the Soviet period of our history, is a dish that many have liked. From this it follows that the cereal portion of pilaf must be cooked or stewed, depending on the characteristics of one or another national cuisine.
The cereal in the pilaf must have a friable texture. This is the main rule for cooking pilaf in any Asian or Middle Eastern cuisine. The required friability of rice, it turns out, is achieved in different ways, and do not be surprised if the Turkish pilaf recipe suggests first to soak the rice for half an hour in hot and salted water. In this technique there is reasonable logic and common sense, the main thing then, in the cooking process, do not forget that you need to add 1.5 times more water during cooking.
We pass to the most difficult component of pilaf. In Asian cuisine, the meat portion is called “zirvak”, in Azerbaijani cuisine it is called “garra,” and in Russian cuisine it does not have a short and capacious name, since the dish is borrowed. We will call it “zirvak” because it is a more familiar word. So, zirvak can consist of lamb, veal or beef, poultry, fish. It can also be a completely vegetarian component of the dish, consisting of vegetables, fresh, dried or dried fruits. In Indian cuisine, for example, pilaf can consist only of rice and spicy spices, but it is also called pilaf, and there are many options for such a vegetarian pilaf in every Indian province, although there are also hundreds of biryani recipes with chicken and lamb in India.
That is, the composition of zirvak can include completely different groups of products that are prepared by stewing along with rice and other components. They can also be fried and served in the same dish with the cereal portion of pilaf. Accordingly, the methods of preparation, mechanical and heat treatment of components can be different, depending on the group of products - meat, fish, fruits or vegetables. In Arab and Asian cuisine, combinations of products unusual for pilaf are often found that are not familiar to the European taste, but from this they are no less interesting in their contrast.
The following conclusion follows: there is no point in arguing how to cook the correct pilaf: this is equivalent to the fact that two housewives start a debate about how to cook soup or borsch. Therefore, you just need to take and cook, taking into account the national characteristics of this or that pilaf, with the spices inherent in each kitchen - to maintain the style and observe the general culinary principles.
You can, without ever repeating the recipe for pilaf, cook it for a year, three times a day, and at the same time there will be no boring monotony on the table, but there is absolutely no way to write all these recipes in one article - they are not even combined in the classifier for cooking pilaf. But some of them, the most interesting, you can try to cook right now.
Recipe 1. How to cook a delicious pilaf, Persian
Ingredients:
Rice "Baldo" 0.5 kg
Chicken (broiler) 1.5 kg
Ghee 100 g
Tomatoes 250 g
Green peas, boiled 300 g
Parsley, fresh 100 g
Pepper (sweet) 200 g
Walnut Oil 50 ml
Pine nuts 100 g
Eggs, chicken 6 pcs.
Salt
Water
Black pepper
Cooking:
Prepare the carcass of the bird and boil it in plenty of water, without adding salt and spices. Separate the flesh from the bones, and temporarily set the meat aside. Strain the broth.
Cooking the "Baldo" rice. This variety is round, short-grain, quickly boiled, suitable for the preparation of many dishes. Wash and dry the groats thoroughly. Heat a deep frying pan, preferably cast iron. Pour the nut and melted butter into it. When the oil is warm, put the rice and fry it, add pine nuts, salt, ground black pepper. Pour the strained, hot broth into the pan to cover 1 cm rice. Put chicken slices on top and simmer over low heat. Close the lid. When the water is absorbed, sprinkle the pilaf on top with chopped parsley. Again, cover the pilaf with a lid, turn off the stove, and on top, on the lid, put a towel for ten minutes.
Fry 3 eggs in a separate frying pan, after whipping them and adding a little water and salt. It is necessary that the obtained omelet completely covers the cooked pilaf from above, so select the diameter of the dishes in advance. Fry the other half of the eggs in a larger pan. Transfer the omelet into a prepared baking dish: its edges should lie on the side of the form. Transfer the pilaf into a form lined with omelette, without mixing rice with meat. Top with a second round of omelet. Place the form for 10 minutes in a hot oven (180 ° C) to get a brown crust on an omelet. Lubricate the surface with melted butter.
Blanch tomatoes and peppers, peel, then cut into slices. Put pilaf on the dish, and around it - tomatoes, peppers and boiled green peas. To cut the "pie" from the omelet and pilaf into portions you need on the dining table, serving it hot.
Recipe 2. How to cook the correct pilaf "Ali - Pasha", in Turkish
Would need:
Rice 300 g
Veal, chopped 600 g
Chicken Fat 150-200 g
Onions 300 g
Ground pepper (black and red)
Coriander
Turmeric
Thyme
Parsley, marjoram 150 g
Salt
Sugar
Garlic 20 g
Butter (vegetable and melted butter)
Flour 70 g
Skinless tomatoes (or sweet and sour sauce) 250 g
Water
Cooking:
Dissolve a tablespoon of salt in 1.5 liters of hot water and put the washed rice for half an hour. Then rinse it with cold water and dry it.
In a deep round frying pan, heat the oil and put the dried rice in it. Fry for 7-10 minutes and add ground spices: turmeric, black and red pepper, salt and add sugar for piquancy. Stir and fill with water. Then the rice is cooked, as described in the previous recipe, and then it is turned on a round dish and sprinkled with chopped mint, marjoram (you can use dried grass), fresh parsley - an indispensable component of Turkish cuisine. The rice should be served hot, so calculate the time correctly, or keep it in a preheated oven until serving.
The dishes in which the rice is cooked should have a rounded bottom so that the rice on the dish looks like the base of a turban.
Add the finely chopped onion (1/2 part), melted chicken fat, garlic, spices, salt, coriander, thyme and flour to the minced meat. Stir the mass and roll the balls, weighing 40-50 g. Fry the meatballs over high heat, transfer the slotted spoon to a dish. In the same bowl, adding some more olive oil. Pour the sauce. If you use tomatoes, then blanch them first, chop in mashed potatoes and season with spices. Put the fried meatballs in the tomato sauce and simmer for 15 minutes with the lid closed.
Pour the cooked sauce onto rice, put the meatballs and garnish with greens.
Recipe 3. How to cook a delicious Iranian pilaf, wedding "Seven Oriental Beauties"
Products:
Large chickens - 2 pieces, 2.0-2.2 kg each
Orange zest (fresh) 200 g
Onions, 500 g
Ghee 400 g
Saffron 1 g
Sugar 150 g
Water (boiling water) 250 ml
Zira
Rose water 100 ml
Peelless almonds 150 g
Pistachios 200 g
White raisins, long 150 g
Dried apricots 250 g
Barberry (dried) 100 g
Rice "Basmanti" 1 kg
Milk, whole 1.5 l
Spring water 2 l
Salt
Hibiscus petals (hibiscus) - 10 g
Pomegranate seeds 300 g
Lavash, type Armenian - 3 pcs. (or 900 g unleavened dough)
Cooking:
Prepare chicken carcasses. Backs and necks leave for broths. Wings, shins, hips and breasts will go to pilaf.
Wash the rice and wet it for twelve hours in ice water. Immerse the container in the refrigerator immediately after soaking. This is best done the night before. After draining the water and dry well.
Mash saffron with sugar (50 g) and pour a glass of boiling water.
Cut the zest from oranges. Fruits come in handy for juice or you can just eat them, but they will need about two kilograms. Cut the zest in strips using a peeler, because it will have to be cut into thin strips after soaking in boiling water.
Chop the peeled onions with the same straws as the orange zest - pilaf should be not only tasty, but also beautiful.
Wash and dry all dried fruits. They do not need to be scalded with boiling water, as is usually done. An exception can be made for barberry. Cut dried apricots, like zest, into strips. Choose raisins so that the berries are white and oblong, they should look like fresh grapes when they swell when frying.
Peel the nuts, and cut into long slices.
In a cast-iron pan, heat all the oil. For each ingredient, prepare a separate bowl, or bowl, where you will spread them after frying in oil. Fry in the following sequence:
Pass the onions, reducing the heat to a minimum. Take care not to get burnt.
Add pieces of chicken to the onion. After the appearance of the crust, pour saffron, diluted in boiling water, and pink water.
In a hot oil we throw zira, sugar and a little salt. Any sweet dish without salt will turn out not so tasty - sugar works in contrast. Sugar should melt, but not burn. Maintain a moderate oil temperature and do not go far from the stove at a crucial moment.
Fry the zest and add a few tablespoons of water. Wait for the water to evaporate. The zest should be caramelized. Using a slotted spoon, transfer it to the cooked bowl, trying to drain the oil, back into the pan.
Then fry the almonds until it becomes pinkish, then the pistachios (they will not turn pink, so be careful not to burn them). Then, one by one, fry dried apricots, raisins (to swell!), Barberry (after soaking, dry well).
All the fried ingredients, individually or together, depending on how you make the dish, need to be thrown back through a metal sieve to drain excess oil. Return the oil to a pan or temporarily transfer to a jar.
We mix one part of water with two parts of milk, salt and bring to a boil. The ratio of rice to liquid is ½. We observe this proportion and remember that rice absorbs salt well, but also boils more slowly in salt water. After boiling the rice, the liquid will have to be drained into the sewer, so salt it a little more than the norm so that you do not have to add rice to the dish. Cook until half ready and drain through a colander.
First we divide the whole rice - in half, and then one half - into three parts. In the first part of the three, add 1 g of saffron, diluted in hot milk; the second part is stained with strong hibiscus tea, the third is left white. We will decorate the wedding dish with these small pieces. That half of the rice that was first taken will go to the cauldron, to the meat.
If you choose ready-made pita breads, then grease them on both sides with oil from a can. Lubricate the roasting pan or cauldron, also with oil, with slices of pita bread (lay them lightly overlapping to bake the basket). If you prefer to do everything yourself, then roll 3 circles to line them with a cauldron, but they also need to be thoroughly greased with oil first.
Chicken is laid out on pita bread or dough, then fried onions, white portion of rice (the larger one).Then dried fruit, zest and nuts are laid out - half of each ingredient (we decorate the dish with the second half). They can be layered on rice or put together.
We make the weakest fire, put a cauldron on it and simmer pilaf for about an hour or a little more. Do not forget that rice and chicken are almost ready, they should combine into a single aroma, which will also come from the oil at the bottom. 10 minutes before the end of the cooking process, pour the pilaf on top with the remaining oil in the jar.
Turn the pilaf into a dish. If the dough did not work out, just remove it and serve normal pita bread to the pilaf. If everything worked out, then decorate the pilaf with colorful rice, alternating the sides of the cone or hemisphere, lay out the patterns with pomegranate, caramelized fruits and nuts.
Recipe 4. How to cook the right pilaf with caraway seeds, vegetarian - Indian cuisine
Composition:
Basmanti Rice - 150 g
Ghee - 50 g
Clove
Caraway
Pepper
Water 300 ml
Cardamom
Salt
Canned beans, natural 300 g
Green and purple basil (leaves)
Cooking:
Wash rice and soak in cold water for at least an hour. Drain, rinse again, and boil it in boiling salted water until half cooked.
In a deep cast-iron skillet, heat ghee, put spices in it, fry until aroma appears and put rice. Fold the beans through a colander and rinse with warm, boiled water. Add it to the pan, mix, cover for five minutes. Put the hot pilaf on a dish, garnish with basil leaves.
Recipe 5. How to cook the correct pilaf - "biryani" with chicken. Indian kitchen
Composition:
Basmanti 500 g
For rice:
Salt, cinnamon, garlic, cardamom, bay leaf, nutmeg (ground)
Chicken drumsticks 12 pcs.
For marinade:
Garlic, chopped 30 g
Ginger, grated root 50 g
Garam Masala (complex seasoning)
Ground spices: chili, zira (cumin), turmeric, cardamom
Green cilantro chopped
Fresh green pepper, hot
Mint leaves
Yogurt 300 ml
Lemon Juice 70 ml
Salt
Milk
Saffron
Cashew nuts
Onion
Melted butter
Pink water
Raisins, light
Cooking:
Given that Indian cuisine is characterized by an abundance of spices, and they are added to the dishes very generously, only their names are listed in the ingredients. Adjust the quantity yourself. At the same time, in order to get the original taste of biryani, it is still better to use the proposed set, not excluding any spices and spices.
Wash the rice and wet it the night before. Rice must be aged in water for at least 8 hours. After boil it until half cooked in 1 liter of salted water with spices and 100 g of ghee. Turn off the heat when the rice grains are raw inside. Cover the pan, do not drain the water, let it soak in rice.
Put prepared chicken pieces in a bowl. Prepare a marinade for her from the listed ingredients, combining them together. Rub the meat well with the marinade. It can, for convenience, be transferred from a bowl to a plastic bag, sealed and put in the refrigerator overnight.
Heat 50-70 g of melted butter in a pan, throw some spices in it and fry finely chopped onions until golden. Collect the fried onions with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel.
Dissolve saffron in a cup of hot boiled milk. Cut 200 g cashews and fry in a pan. Wash and dry the raisins (250 g).
Take a deep pan or pan with thick walls and bottom. Put marinated drumsticks on the bottom and around the dishes. Put half the rice, chopped cilantro, nuts, raisins and mint leaves in the center. Put the second part of the rice, pour over saffron milk and rose water.
Cover the pan with a lid and wrap it tightly with foil so that the steam remains inside. Place the pan in a pan filled with water. Turn on the oven at 170 ° C. Place the pan on the pan in the oven for an hour. After the specified time, turn off the fire, but do not rush to get the pan. Leave it on for another 15-20 minutes.
Cook a large dish. Put on it in a circle (you can put in small bowls) a salad of cucumbers and yogurt dressing, boiled potatoes, baked slices of carrots in sugar with spices. Put rice in the center of the dish, and meat on top. Garnish with mint leaves, nuts, raisins.
Recipe 6. How to cook a delicious pilaf "Sayadiya" - Arabic pilaf, with fish
Product Composition:
Fresh white fish 600 g
A mixture of basmanti and wild rice 200 g
Pine nuts 100 g
Onions, 300 g
Spice:
Turmeric
Chili and black pepper
Flour 70-90 g
Lemon juice 100 ml
Ground cinnamon
Cardamom
Zira
Olive oil 150 ml
Water 400 ml
Salt
Cooking:
It is advisable that the fish is oily. Wash it and cut into fillet pieces. Make a marinade of lemon juice, olive oil and zira. Use ground spices so that their smell is better absorbed. Cover the dishes with the pickled fish for an hour so that it smells good.
After marinating, dry the slices lightly with a napkin, roll in flour and fry in hot oil. Put the fish in a separate bowl, and fry the finely chopped onions in the same oil. If necessary, add oil, after allowing it to warm up.
Boil water in a stewpan, add the remaining spices, boil them for five minutes and throw the prepared rice. Let the rice boil, reduce the heat. From above, pour the oil from the pan in which the fish was fried, and lay the onions. Continue to simmer until half cooked without covering the saucepan. Put the pieces of fish, cover and simmer another fifteen minutes. Having laid the sayad on a dish, sprinkle with fried nuts before serving. Garnish with greens if desired.
How to cook the right pilaf - useful tips and tricks
If someone makes a comment on the technology of cooked pilaf, then do not listen, do not believe that everything turned out badly. Pilaf must be tasty - this is the first and only condition, the most useful advice, if you want. Cook slowly, with love. Cooking does not endure fuss, and pilaf - even more so!
