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Author Topic: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!  (Read 14281 times)

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Offline Donhollio

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Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« on: April 24, 2011, 10:27:02 PM »
 I'd offer up a couple of Uzbek dishes but the tittle of this is only RU & UA, not UZ.  :( Of course I could screw with the subject line.  :evilgrin0002:

Ingredients
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4 cups long grain rice, use Basmati
4 large carrots
4 large onions
2 lbs lamb meat - preferably leg or shoulder with some fat on it
1/4 cup melted lamb fat or vegetable oil
8 cups boiling water
3 heaping tbsp coarse salt
2 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp ground coriander 
3 tbsp ground cumin 
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric or a pinch of saffron for color 
1/2 tbsp tarragon
1/4 cup dried barberries (optional)
1 large head of garlic, un-peeled
How to make it
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Rinse rice in cold water at least 7 times, pouring out all the water completely after each rinse; set aside
Boil water in a saucepan and add 2 tbsp salt to it; set aside
Cut up the lamb into 1 to 1-1/2 inch cubes.
Half and slice the onions 1/4 inch slices
Half lengthwise and slice or julienne the carrots
If you have fatty lamb pieces use those for melting out the fat, if not, use vegetable oil instead.
In a heavy bottom large pot or dutch oven heat the oil, or brown the fatty lamb pieces to get the fat out over high heat, until fat is smoky (but not burning)
Toss in all of the lamb and continue browning on all sides until pleasantly brown and stops sticking to the bottom.
You can either remove the meat now, or continue with the meat on the bottom.
Reduce heat to medium
Toss in onions and cook in fat until translucent, about 5-7 minutes, frequently stirring them
Toss in carrots, continue stirring
Add some of the remaining salt and half of the black pepper and paprika at this point
If you removed the meat earlier, now add it back and sprinkle some of the coriander and cumin over.
Stir for another 2-3 minutes
Fold out all the rice over the meat, onions and carrots, spread it evenly, don't stir
Make a hole in the rice with a handle of a wooden spoon, and pour the water through that hole slowly, taking care not to disturb the bottom ingredients.
Water should cover the rice by not more than 1/2 inch. Better under-water it than over-water.
Reserve the remaining water, if you have any.
Leave the heat at medium
Cover the pot tightly and let rice steam through for about 15 minutes without opening the pot
After 15 minutes toss in the remaining spices and salt. Cover again and keep steaming
Cut the top off the garlic head, slightly exposing the garlic cloves. You'll need to use some effort to do it.
Stick the garlic head (exposed side down) into the middle of the steaming plov, about 3/4 way and cover again.
Steam for another 10 minutes or so.
Check plov once in a while for doneness - the top grains should be slightly firm, and the bottom ones - well done, but not mushy.
All water should evaporate, but not burn.
If you feel your plov is not done yet, but water is gone, make holes in the plov with the handle of the wooden spoon - all the way through to the bottom, and pour remaining salty water into those holes. Don't abuse this technique, because it's very easy to overcook the plov this way. Use very little water at a time.
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Remove from heat and stir with wooden spoon, bringing the bottom ingredients up to the surface.
Rice should be slightly sticky, but all grains should easily separate and not be easily mashed with a spoon. Meat should be tender and juicy, and vegetables should be all very tender.
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 My MIL and Alina tell me one should not drink cold fliuds with Plov as the oils will clog up your inners. :-\   My eyes did lots of rolling on that trip last summer.  :chuckle:  40c outside , your eating hot plov,and the proper drink is hot tea. I got lucky, I had a bottle of water with ice forming in it, the server didn't want me to have it thinking no one would drink cold cold water.

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Offline mendeleyev

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Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2011, 12:36:19 AM »
Hi Don, yes love the topic!

I've seen this dish made in giant pans over open fires in open markets and it is wonderful!

Offline msmoby

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2011, 01:30:39 AM »
Hi Don

Plov is one of my favs, too ..  these culinary delights are one of the benefits of the former FSU policies of moving folks around the republics
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Offline Fo

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2011, 06:19:02 AM »
Cheers Donno tiphat. There are variations of it all over the place. I'll try making this one sometime. Never heard of barberries mind.
How's it going? She's got you cooking anyway which can't be bad :smokin:
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Offline Donhollio

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2011, 04:11:44 PM »
 They have these pans as Mendy mentioned that are about one metre in diameter. From there they toss and shovel the mixture around and soon enough its ready to eat.
 Yes Moby the forced relocation was wonderful, I gave much thought to this as I flew an extra 4.5 hours to Uzbekistan to get my little Slavik hottie.
 FO, I've never cooked the stuff, though when I asked Alina about having her make this once in Canada she replied that men can make it better... :duh: Something tells me it'll be KD nights forever.  :chuckle:

 I'll try to get some other Uzbek food out here, in the meantime for those new members, please feel free to click on the link below, and read about my travels to Uzbekistan and other FSU countries.

Offline mendeleyev

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2011, 05:41:23 PM »
Quote
From there they toss and shovel the mixture around and soon enough its ready to eat.



Don is right, in the large outdoor markets literally a shovel is used in the process.


Offline Manny

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2011, 05:49:22 PM »
Never heard of barberries mind.

Me neither. My wife uses raisins (or they might be sultanas) in hers.

A couple of years ago at the dacha, FIL had some dudes from Turkmenistan doing some groundwork there. These guys lived on site for a week or so and I chatted with them via my wife. They were making plov in a big pot outdoors and insisted I try some. I did, and it was yummy. My wife extracted the recipe from them; those guys used raisins (or sultanas).

She is still perfecting our version of plov. It gets better every time. I keep suggesting she add stuff to it so it might not be plov any more........
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Offline Boris

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2011, 05:57:04 PM »
Tanya makes Plov all the time (she uses chicken breast)!!! It's my second favorite, after pelmini..

Offline msmoby

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2011, 03:35:09 AM »

 Yes Moby the forced relocation was wonderful, I gave much thought to this as I flew an extra 4.5 hours to Uzbekistan to get my little Slavik hottie.
 

sorry, Don.. I should have put 'benefits' in inverted commas - but when I noticed, it was too late to edit :(
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Offline Larry

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Recipe for Uzbek plov, with lots of photos
« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2012, 09:35:00 AM »
At the link below you will find a recipe for Uzbek plov.  I'm passing it along because it has photos of every step in the process.  This might be helpful for people who have not previously cooked this dish.
 
The only things that confuse me are 1) the recipe calls for three glasses of rice; I have no idea what amount that is, 2) the recipe says to soak the rice before cooking it but doesn't tell you how long to soak it, and 3) the recipe calls for a spice called jeera, which I've never heard of and likely cannot find here.  I wonder whether any other spices can be substituted for jeera.

Unlike Don and Boris, I do not have a FSUW at present, and have no plans to visit Uzbekistan.  So it looks like the only way I'm going to be able to taste plov is to cook it myself.

http://englishrussia.com/2012/05/28/aromas-of-uzbek-pilau/#more-101314

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Offline Zachris

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2012, 09:53:18 AM »
I have learned that plov is highly variable, differing for chef to chef and from place to place. What that basically means is as long as you get the basic idea, whatever you come up with can be called plov (no guarantee that it be good, but it can still probably be called plov).

For example, the plov I had in a Samarkand restaurant did not contain the large cloves of garlic (neither does my lady make it this way). My lady also includes chickpeas, which are not mentioned in this recipe. In Uzbekistan I find that there is a preference for white carrots. The type of meat is variable. Mutton is traditional, but beef, goat, pig, horse, whatever is available is frequently used. Also, my lady cooked the meat in big chunks, and then sometime later removed the meat and cut it into small bits and then added it back to the mix. I don't know why. But, seeing as she lives there and it is her national dish I assumed she knows what she is doing.

I suspect that the "glasses" of rice refers to cups. But really, the amount of rice depends upon how many you hope to serve. Adding rice is a cheap way to expand the size of the dish without adding too much extra cost. The soaking is just a way to prepare the rice without needing heat. Think of it like soaking beans. The longer the better, but if no heat is added it requires at least an 8 hour overnight soak.
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Offline Larry

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2012, 10:10:48 AM »
Quote
the plov I had in a Samarkand restaurant did not contain the large cloves of garlic

When I saw the recipe called for three heads of garlic, I was greatly surprised.  What, are vampires rampant in Uzbekistan? Then I saw they were left whole instead of being diced up into the dish.  The flavor of garlic is much more intense if it is diced and put into a dish.

For those who don't cook much, a garlic clove is one small part of the garlic head or bulb.  There are about a dozen cloves in a head.  It's important to note the difference.  I had a friend who seldom cooked.  She wanted to prepare a dish for her boyfriend.  The recipe called for six cloves of garlic.  She didn't know that a clove was different than a head. She assumed it was the entire head, so she put six heads of garlic into the dish. So instead of there being six cloves in the dish, there were about 70 cloves.  It was reportedly extremely garlicky, but he choked it down and complimented her on it.

Offline missAmeno

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2012, 11:22:47 AM »
... 3) the recipe calls for a spice called jeera, which I've never heard of and likely cannot find here.  I wonder whether any other spices can be substituted for jeera.


Jeera translates in russian into Зира. As per wiki its also called Римский тмин, Кмин и Кмин тминовый, Кумин, Каммун, Зар или Затр. I believe in english its cumin seeds (not ground cumin).


Edit: few things I would like to suggest regarding cooking plov:

As every region of Uzbekistan has it’s own version of plov certain ingredients such as chickpeas, raisins and garlic are optional. If you would like to add chickpeas they should be soaked for about 5 hours or overnight in lukewarm water and rinsed before used. 3 whole heads of garlic could give too strong taste and instead for the 1st time you can try just use one small head and adjust quantity to more/less next time to your own taste.

Quality of rice is very important in this dish and to get more authentic taste choose rice from middle eastern cuisine section (example Indian) in supermarket or speciality store. Salaam (saleem) Basmati or Jasmine Basmati rice would be good for plov.
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Offline Zachris

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #13 on: May 29, 2012, 11:42:50 AM »
Yes on the cumin. At least that is the main fragrance spice in the plov that I have eaten.

Plov always has a strong cumin smell.
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Offline Larry

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2012, 12:06:43 PM »
Thanks tiphat

That I have in my spice rack already.

Offline Disciple

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2012, 12:34:16 PM »
This looks like a great recipe. From looking at these pictures, I can tell that FSU food is amazing.
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Offline Manny

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2012, 02:20:18 PM »
Quality of rice is very important in this dish and to get more authentic taste choose rice from middle eastern cuisine section (example Indian) in supermarket or speciality store. Salaam (saleem) Basmati or Jasmine Basmati rice would be good for plov.

My wife uses Basmati rice in hers, and we (which means me butting in) are experimenting with adding a few Indian spices to beef it up a bit too.

We also use a ton of garlic. I now buy catering size jars of garlic purée for stuff I cook, but she prefers to strip and peel them one by one. I often throw an extra tablespoonful of my purée in when she's not watching.  :-X

A bit of Worcester Sauce seems to work well if using lamb too.
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Offline CzechMate

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Re: Uzbek dishes are fantastic!!
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2012, 10:14:59 PM »
Great quote from EnglishRussia:

"Uzbek cuisine is like mathematics, it is endless for learning and it doesn’t fit into any books."
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Offline Larry

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More Uzbek dishes
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2014, 10:53:25 AM »
So far this thread has covered only plov. I came across an article about 16 Uzbek dishes.  Here are some of them:

Quote
16 Delicious Uzbek Dishes You Need To Try Immediately

Lagman Soup

Something of a Central Asian version of ramen, this is a spicy, meaty broth filled with chunks of lamb, handspun noodles, and vegetables. It also comes in a non-soup version.

Eggplant Salad (Bademjan)

Chuchvara Soup

A soup in which small dumplings are boiled in salt water or bouillon and served with sour milk (“suzma”) and seasoned with pepper, onion, tomato paste, black pepper, and sour cream.

Manty

Steamed dumplings sprinkled with dill and served with sour cream. Meat, spices, or vegetables can make up the stuffing, so you never know what you’re going to get!

Naryn

An oriental merchant favorite, the dish is composed of hand-spun noodles and boiled jerk meat, served with minced onions and black pepper. Traditionally, it is made with horse-meat.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/dianabruk/delicious-uzbek-dishes-you-need-to-try-immediately

I remember seeing photos of a few of these dishes on Bill's TR from Georgia, "Georgia Peaches".

The article has excellent photos of each dish but no recipes.  You can find the recipes at this blog by Malika Sharipova:

http://uzbekcooking.blogspot.com/


 

 

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