Home Preparations for the winter How to cook pilaf so that it is crumbly. How to cook pilaf: cooking recipes step by step. Uzbek pilaf with lamb

Preparations for the winter

How to cook pilaf so that it is crumbly. How to cook pilaf: cooking recipes step by step. Uzbek pilaf with lamb

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

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

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

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

Although an experienced culinary specialist usually does everything by eye, there is an exact recipe for Ferghana pilaf:

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

Important! If you want to cook a real, even let's say, authentic Ferghana pilaf, then look for a yellow carrot, which you combine with an ordinary orange vegetable in a ratio of one to three. She roasts beautifully and looks good in ready dish. If there is no yellow, then take the entire volume of ordinary carrots.

They prepare such pilaf in a cauldron, but on home kitchen you can take a thick-walled cast iron pan. A duck will do too.

Cooking:

In a thick-walled cast-iron pan or cauldron over low heat, melt the lard.
Heat it up well and put a couple of pieces of chopped meat. (It is cut into small pieces for Uzbek pilaf to fit in the mouth for one bite).
After a minute, in hot oil, these pieces will be well fried, giving the fat the aroma of meat. Now they have to be taken out.
Next, put the onion cut into half rings in the fat and fry over high heat to evaporate the water. After that, report the rest of the meat, salt and lay out a part of the carrots cut into cubes - first yellow. Salt it too and sprinkle with zira (zira is an obligatory ingredient in Uzbek pilaf).
As soon as the carrots begin to fry, add the rest of it and mix everything. Let it fry a little. Then lay out the remaining vegetable, spices. In general, everything except rice, including those pieces of meat that were fried very first.
Salt again, put a small pod of hot pepper, and add a teaspoon with the top of barberry, it will give the necessary sourness.
Carefully pour hot boiled water along the edge of the cauldron or duckling, covering the meat and vegetables with it. Then, cover with a lid, leave for 40 minutes on the slowest fire.
While zirvak is being prepared (this is the name of this rice dressing, it is the same for all cuisines where pilaf is cooked), we wash the rice. It is better to do this under running water to wash off the flour. You can't wash it - you won't get it crumbly pilaf.
Put clean rice in zirvak with a slotted spoon, salt at the rate of 1 tbsp. a spoon without a hill of salt per kilogram of rice.
Put the washed whole head of garlic into the rice.
Pour boiling water so that the water covers the rice on your finger.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a minimum, 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 pot or cauldron with a warm towel or blanket and leave to rise for another hour.
Open the lid, put it on an Uzbek flat plate, put a salad of thinly sliced tomatoes with onions next to it and enjoy!

Loose 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 proportion, 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 their heat to the rice layer, bringing it to the condition. The lid of the cauldron is covered with a blanket and therefore in itself is an additional source of heat. In this form, pilaf comes, and it turns out well stewed - just like if you were cooking it in a Russian oven.

in Azerbaijani

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

Here is how plov is cooked in Azerbaijan:

Pick up 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 flour 220 g for a dough for a cake.
Rice is deliberately not indicated in the dosage - it is cooked separately, so you can take it at your discretion. We wash it under running water or change the water several times. Put in salted boiling water and cook until almost done. After that, we recline, wash cold water.
Making a gasmah: add an egg and very cold water to the flour, knead strongly hard dough. We roll it into a thin cake.
We spread the cake along the walls and bottom of the cauldron.
Put half of the rice on the cake.
The second part of the rice is tinted with yellow, mixed 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, put yellow rice on top, cover the cauldron with a lid and steam a little more at a minimum of heat until cooked.
Meanwhile, in a thick-walled saucepan or frying pan, fry the pieces of lamb in oil or your own fat. As it turns red, put finely chopped pumpkin and onion, pour in pomegranate juice, add raisins, mix everything with salt and, pouring half a glass of boiling water, keep for half an hour under a lid over low heat.
When all parts of the pilaf are ready, put rice on a large round dish, meat and vegetables on top of it, decorate everything with pomegranate seeds and immediately put ghazmakh - break the cake with your hands.

If you are afraid of unconventional flavors, you can do without pumpkin.

Tajik pilaf with lamb

The main ingredients in this pilaf are traditional: rice, onions and carrots. But the meat is only lamb. Besides Tajik pilaf cooked from special rice - this red cereal is called devzira, it is the best and highest quality of all the "floating" types. However, quite good Tajik pilaf can also be prepared from ordinary Krasnodar round-grain rice.

The peculiarity of the preparation lies in the fact that first, onion (2 heads), chopped in half rings, is overcooked in vegetable oil, achieving a strong frying, then meat (600 g) is added. It is also fried to a noticeable crust. After that, put the carrots in bars (600 g), overcook again and then pour in half a liter of boiling water. The meat should be half-cooked, after that rice (600g) soaked in salt water is laid and boiled water is poured so that the water covers the surface a little. Spices - zira and garlic. Under the lid, pilaf is cooked for another half hour.

How to cook pilaf - a 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 a delicious pilaf for dinner. Basic Recipe, which 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 waters. And also salt, bay leaf, a few cloves of garlic, a pinch of cumin and a few peas of allspice.

Vegetable oil should be taken so much that it is enough to fry the meat. After frying the pieces quickly, add the onion. Slightly reducing the fire, fry it and add the carrots. After frying a little carrot, pour in a glass of water and simmer for ten minutes under the lid. Put spices, salt. The broth should be a little salty - in the future, the rice will absorb the salt. Next is the washed rice. Pour it through a slotted spoon with water at the rate of 2 cups of rice twice as many cups of water. Bring to a boil, put the garlic cloves, reduce the heat to a minimum and leave to languish under the lid for 40 minutes. After that, turn off the fire and wait the same amount of time until the rice rests.

How to 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 meat and vegetables. It is necessary to fry medium pieces of chicken in oil, salt. Separately, fry the finely chopped onion and a little garlic, add the grated carrots, still stew a little and add to the meat. Pour washed rice, parsley, peppercorns on top, salt well again and pour boiling water over. Cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes until the rice is soft. If necessary, you can add boiling water.

Recipe for multicooker

Pilaf in a slow cooker is the signature dish of many, usually a slow cooker even has a separate program for cooking 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 the onion into a cube;
Pour a couple of tables into an open multicooker. tablespoons of vegetable oil, set the frying program with a time of 25 minutes;
The oil will warm up - put the meat in a piece. You do not need to put everything at once, otherwise it will not fry, but will be extinguished;
After 10 minutes, add carrots and onions;
When the frying is over, add salt, spices for pilaf, a couple of cloves of garlic, put 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);
Put the program "Pilaf";
When the task is completed, open the lid, stick in a couple of fresh garlic cloves, pierce the rice to the bottom with a wooden stick and leave for another twenty minutes to reach the pilaf in the heating program.

With the addition of dried fruits

In a slow cooker, you can perfectly make a 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.

Do you know how to make pilaf crumbly? You get fluffy and fragrant rice and delicious tender meat with vegetables and spices. Then we can say that everything really turns out as it should. Or is it the other way around? The rice is sticky, looks like viscous porridge and the meat is tough. If so, then a few simple tricks, which will be discussed below, can greatly help you.

In my family, my dad always cooked plov. While still in the army, one of his friends, an Uzbek by nationality, taught him how to cook a real Uzbek pilaf. I didn’t succeed in swimming for a very long time. Difficulties were with rice: it turned out just rice porridge, even cry! But through experimentation, looking at several cooking programs, I was finally able to get a good result.

All about how to make pilaf crumbly

Where does swimming begin? Of course with choice of meat. The classic Uzbek pilaf is made from lamb. But let this not be a dogma for us. Everyone's tastes are different, and lamb may simply seem too fatty to some. When choosing meat for pilaf, you just need to pay attention to choose not too hard and “dry” meat. Fat should still be present in it - this will help the meat retain its juice.

Pledge delicious pilaf – right choice of rice. There is only one criterion - quality. If you choose the so-called "cut", crumbly pilaf will definitely not work out of it. The grains of long rice and parboiled rice are guaranteed not to stick together, but their taste and texture are, in my opinion, rough.

I prefer rice camolino or Egyptian. These are the types of rice that are easy to find on the shelves of our stores and buy at an affordable price. Before cooking pilaf, it is important to rinse the rice thoroughly. Water must be drained at least 10 times until it becomes clear. Rice should be allowed to dry. It is also important to observe the proportion - 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water.

Garlic in Uzbek pilaf is a must. It does not need to be completely cleaned: just remove the husk, leaving the teeth in a dense peel. Spare no carrots- it gives pilaf a pleasant sweetness and a beautiful color. You don't need to mix it up. Carrots are laid out on the meat in an even layer. Water must be poured into the pilaf not cold but very hot. Its quantity is determined by the amount of rice.

A simple pork pilaf recipe

We cut the meat into large cubes (with a side of 2 to 3 cm) and fry over high heat in a deep and wide frying pan. You can’t let the meat release juice - it must remain inside each piece.
We cut the carrots into thin strips, finely chop the onion, divide the garlic into cloves. We spread onion, garlic on the meat, add spices, salt and carrots and cook zirvak (this is the name of meat with vegetables and spices for pilaf) over low heat for about 15 minutes.
Advice: there is one trick about salt - you need to salt the zirvak a little so that the rice then absorbs the salt, and the dish turns out to be evenly salted.
Boil water in a separate saucepan.
We fall asleep rice in a pan (or a cauldron in which meat is cooked). We distribute it evenly over the entire surface and fill it with hot water. You can not mix pilaf! The pilaf should have three layers: meat, vegetables and rice.
We cook pilaf under a closed lid over medium heat. When the water level is below the surface of the rice, take a wooden stick and poke holes all over the surface of the pilaf to allow the water to boil away, leaving the rice crumbly.

The secret of crumbly pilaf: summing up

Choose the right kind of rice.
Rinse well (water should be clear).
Pour the required amount of hot water.
Make holes to let the water boil.

Other recipes with meat:

Pilaf is one of the most common dishes not only in the Middle East, but also in the Slavic countries. This is explained by high taste, and ease of preparation. Pilaf can be eaten the next day in a warmed form - it perfectly preserves the original taste.

Each housewife has her own recipe for the dish. One of the most popular is crumbly pilaf. Initially, it was customary to cook the dish in a cauldron, now modern technologies allow you to simplify cooking and cook crumbly pilaf in ordinary dishes and even in a slow cooker.

Friable pilaf: recipe with photo

This recipe is designed for cooking friable pilaf in a cauldron. And it will be cooked on pork ribs.

We will need:

600 g of rice;
5-6 chopped pork ribs;
3 medium sized carrots;
3 medium onions;
50-70 g of vegetable oil;
spices: paprika, zira (cumin), barberry;
salt pepper.

Preparation of zirvak (gravy):

Heat up the cauldron, pour vegetable oil.
In hot oil (after the appearance of smoke), put one onion and fry until golden brown (to remove bitterness from the oil and give it a peculiar flavor).
After that, get the onion and dispose of it.
Do not reduce the fire, cooking continues on high heat.
Put the ribs in the cauldron and fry until golden brown.
Add the remaining onion cut into half rings and fry until golden brown.
Cut the carrots into cubes, add to the cauldron. Fry with ribs and onions for about 5 minutes.
Fill the boiler with hot (even boiling water) water until the contents in the cauldron are completely covered.
Put spices, salt, pepper to taste, cover, bring to a boil over medium heat.
When boiling, reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for about an hour.

Cooking rice:

Sort the rice, rinse and soak in cold water for a quarter of an hour.
Drain the water and cover the zirvak with an even layer of rice.
Without damaging the rice layer, pour hot water in a thin stream into the cauldron until it reaches a level of 2-3 cm above the rice.
Add salt to taste, cover and wait for boiling.
Reduce the heat and leave for 20 minutes to sweat.
After adding rice to the cauldron, the contents do not need to be mixed until the end of cooking - then the dish will not turn out crumbly.
Remove the pot from the heat and, without removing the lid, set aside for another 15 minutes.
Loose pilaf is served as follows: turn the cauldron onto a dish so that the rice is on the plate, and the zirvak is on top. If desired, you can add greens and serve with lightly salted tomatoes.

How to cook crumbly pilaf in a slow cooker

This recipe for crumbly pilaf in a slow cooker is designed for 6 servings. The total cooking time for this dish is about an hour.

You will need the following ingredients:

1 cup rice (160 ml);
200 ml of water;
0.5 kg of meat (chicken, beef, lamb or pork);
50 ml of vegetable oil;
1 bulb of onion;
1 carrot;
1 tsp salt;
1 tsp favorite seasoning.

Step by step cooking instructions:

Rinse and dry rice.
Cut the meat into pieces measuring 1.5 × 1.5 cm.
Cut the onion, carrots can be grated.
Pour the oil into the multicooker bowl and turn on the "Baking" (or "Frying") mode.
Put meat cubes on hot oil, fry for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Add carrots and onions, wait another 10 minutes until the carrots soften and the onions become translucent.
Add rice to the bowl and stir-fry for about 15 minutes.
Turn on the "Extinguishing" (or "Pilaf") mode, add water, salt, seasonings and cook for half an hour.

Here is a crumbly pilaf and ready. It can be served with vegetable salads, sauces, but it can also be served as a full-fledged independent dish.

Loose pilaf in a slow cooker: cooking secrets

Sticky rice is a real problem in the kitchen of many housewives. Often cooked pilaf resembles sticky rice porridge. As a rule, these are the mistakes of young, inexperienced hostesses. Some consider the task of preparing crumbly pilaf to be impossible. This is a big misconception.

To get pilaf grain to grain, you just need to know some of the nuances:

The cereal must be washed well. The gluten contained in rice makes the dish stick together and to get rid of rice gluten, it is necessary to wash the cereal at least 10 times.
After washing, the rice must be dried. For example, put on a towel.
To ensure maximum friability to the dish, rice must be fried before cooking.

If you follow all of the above instructions, your pilaf cooked in a slow cooker or in a cauldron will have a rich rich taste, a beautiful aesthetic appearance and will undoubtedly turn out crumbly.

Perhaps professional chefs will make a few remarks, but this version of pilaf is also very tasty, and besides, it is cooked at home.

Ingredients

pork or lamb - 500 g;
onions - 2 heads;
carrots - 1 large;
garlic - 1 head;
vegetable oil - 100 ml;
salt pepper;
seasoning.

Cooking:

In order to cook friable pilaf at home, we wash the rice with special care in running water, as stated in the recipe. Fill with boiling water and close the lid.

We wash the meat and cut it into small pieces, put it in a frying pan with non-stick coating. Fry the meat without oil until golden brown.

Add the onion, cut into half rings, salt and pepper to the meat, mix everything and continue frying.

Spread on a frying pan and garlic, cut into plates. A few cloves of garlic can be left to add to the pilaf at the end of cooking.

Pour the contents of the pan with boiling water so that the water covers the meat, simmer until tender.

Then, add rice, vegetable oil and carrots, grated on a coarse grater.

We add a little more and add seasoning with turmeric in the composition to give the crumbly pilaf a yellowish color.

Add the bay leaf, the remaining garlic and simmer the homemade pilaf until cooked under the lid for 10-15 minutes, as follows from the step-by-step recipe with the photo.

Uzbek pilaf

A special kind of pilaf, the pride of Uzbek cuisine, is as tasty as it is not quite healthy for frequent use.

Ingredients:

beef ( the best way: dorsal part, neck or fillet from the shoulder blade) - 500 g;
rice special for pilaf - 2 tbsp.;
onions - 2 heads;
carrots - 3 pcs.;
vegetable oil - 150 ml;
garlic - 1 head;
seasoning for pilaf;
salt pepper.

Cooking:

Starting the preparation of crumbly pilaf at home, we wash the meat and cut it into medium pieces with sides of about 3 cm, as in the recipe with the photo.

We prepare vegetables, cut the onion into half rings, carrots - large straws.

We wash the rice thoroughly, if you do not have steamed rice, then ordinary rice should be washed in several changes of water.

To prepare a delicious real pilaf, it matters what it is cooked in, Uzbek pilaf can only be cooked. Pour oil into it and heat it up as much as possible. We spread the prepared onion in the hot oil, fry for a couple of minutes and add the pieces of meat.

Fry the meat for about 20 minutes, reducing the heat slightly. Then, add carrots, salt, pepper and spices to the meat and onions, continue frying for another 10 minutes.

During this time, we prepare a sufficient amount of boiling water, fill it with meat and vegetables. The water should completely cover them.

We close the cauldron with a lid and simmer all 30 minutes, with a slight boil.

Add washed rice, spread it evenly in a cauldron without stirring. The liquid should rise above the rice by 2 cm.

When all the liquid is absorbed into the rice, we put a thoroughly washed head of garlic in the center of the cauldron with the prepared pilaf.

Close the lid and bring the crumbly pilaf to readiness for another 30 minutes. After the pilaf cooked at home is ready, we serve it to the table.

Pilaf in Tajik

Cooking pilaf in each national cuisine has its own characteristics, which affects taste qualities. Many spices are not put in Tajik pilaf, only zira and ground black pepper or peas. In addition, when preparing pilaf according to the Tajik version, all the main ingredients are taken in equal amounts.

Ingredients:

lamb - 500 g;
rice - 500 g;
carrots - 500 g;
onions - 2 heads;
salt pepper;
zira - a pinch;
vegetable oil - 3 - 4 tbsp. l or to taste;
garlic - 2 heads.

Cooking:

If we use not special rice for cooking friable pilaf at home, then we thoroughly wash it and fill it with water completely. Before adding rice to meat and vegetables, wash it a couple more times.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and add the chopped onion.
As soon as the onion takes on a golden hue, spread the meat, do not reduce the fire and do not stir until the meat is fried from below.

Then mix everything, add the carrots, cut into large strips, salt and pepper.
Fry everything with carrots for another 7-10 minutes, put a washed whole head of garlic in the middle of the contents of the pan.

Pour boiling water over everything so that it covers the meat and vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until meat is tender.

Then, remove the garlic, spread the rice evenly, close the lid, simmer for 15 minutes. We insert the next washed head of garlic into the crumbly pilaf, sprinkle everything with cumin.

We continue to stew pilaf, which we cook at home under the lid for about 15 minutes, as stated in the step-by-step recipe with a photo.

We let the cooked dish brew in a covered form and serve it to the table.

Pilaf Samarkand

Also, crumbly pilaf can be prepared according to the recipe of Samarkand cuisine, as a kind of common Uzbek one.

Ingredients:

lamb on the bone - 1 kg;
rice - 4 tbsp.;
fat tail fat - 100 g;
onion - 800 g;
carrots - 800 g;
garlic - 2 heads;
vegetable oil - 150 g;
salt.

Spices:

zira;
barberry;
ground black pepper;
Bay leaf.

Cooking:

We start cooking friable pilaf at home by washing and soaking the rice, as we have already described in step by step recipes with photo.
Finely chop the fat tail fat and put it in a cauldron, heat until greaves form. While the fat is melting, prepare the meat, wash and cut off the excess pulp, cut it into pieces.

Remove the cracklings from the cauldron, pour vegetable oil. Put the prepared meat into the oil, heated to blue smoke, fry until brown crusts form on all sides.

We cut the onion into large half rings, spread it to the meat, fry everything together until the onion is transparent.

Pour two cups of boiling water, salt, pepper, close the lid and cook "zirvak", covering it with a lid and reducing the heat.

The water should have completely evaporated by the time the meat is ready.
Add carrots, cut into large strips, increase the fire to the maximum.

We lightly fry everything, add zira and barberry, insert two heads of prepared and washed whole garlic.

Pour boiled water again so that it covers all the products. Stew the carrots for 15 minutes, spread the rice on top of the carrot layer.

Pour boiling water again, which covers the rice by 1.5-2 cm.

We add fire and again evaporate the water, after which we collect the rice in a slide to the center, make several holes to the bottom with a wooden stick.

Pilaf with chicken

A selection of pilaf recipes would not be complete without this popularly beloved version of cooking pilaf with chicken.

Ingredients:

chicken - 1/2 pc.;
rice - 3 tbsp.;
carrots - 3 pcs.;
onions - 2 heads;
garlic - 2 heads;
vegetable oil for frying;
seasoning for pilaf with chicken;
salt, ground black pepper.

Cooking:

Wash and soak the rice. We cut half the carcass into small pieces, you can, if desired, free the meat from the bones.

In a cauldron or deep frying pan, heat the vegetable oil with garlic, after which we remove the garlic. Put the prepared chicken pieces into the hot fragrant oil, fry until golden brown.

At this stage, you can salt, pepper and add the onion, cut into half rings.
Mix everything and fry over high heat for three minutes, then add the carrots, cut into large strips and all the spices, mix.

Fry all the products for another 10 minutes and add the washed rice, distributing it evenly over the surface. We insert into the pilaf one or two heads of onions cut from below.

Pour boiling water so that it rises slightly above the rice. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, controlling the amount of water. It should be quickly absorbed into the rice, and the remaining small amount is needed for further cooking.

If rice and meat are already cooked, and the water has not yet evaporated, just add fire. Otherwise, when the meat and rice are not yet ready, and the water has already evaporated, add a very small amount of boiling water.

We give the crumbly pilaf, cooked at home, to brew in a covered form and serve it to the table.

Pilaf in a slow cooker

Crumbly and very tasty pilaf can be cooked and, moreover, with a guaranteed result of obtaining the desired properties of this dish.

Ingredients:

beef - 400 g;
rice - 400 g;
onions - 3 heads;
carrots - 3 pcs.;
seasoning for pilaf or dry spices - to taste;
garlic - 1 pc.;
sunflower oil - 4 tbsp. l;
salt pepper.

Cooking:

We prepare the beef, as usual, wash and cut into small pieces.
Traditionally, we also cut vegetables for pilaf, put all the prepared products into the multicooker bowl.

Add vegetable oil, mix everything and close the lid. Set the "Baking" function for 15 minutes.

Open the lid, add salt, cooked spices and those that you personally like, mix. Insert the garlic cut from the bottom.

We spread the pre-prepared rice, washed and soaked, do not mix.

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Of course, today you will not surprise anyone with such a common dish as pilaf. There are a lot of recipes for cooking pilaf on the Internet, but I found my favorite and most successful recipe for myself only on the tenth attempt. That is why today I am publishing a kind of “cheat sheet” on my blog so as not to lose this recipe and at any time to be able to return to it and again please my loved ones with juicy and crumbly pilaf.

Recipe for juicy and crumbly pilaf

A delicious pilaf has several main components, without which it will not be possible to cook it really tasty. Firstly, it is juicy meat with fat, secondly, it is a large amount of onions and carrots, and thirdly, the preliminary preparation of rice. To make pilaf really juicy, you should use fatty meats such as pork, lamb or juicy chicken parts (not fillet). Carrots and onions should also not be spared, these ingredients set the tone for the whole dish, but the most important thing is to pay enough attention to rice. This white, round-grained friend, as it turned out, absolutely does not like to rush. So, let's start cooking pilaf at home.

Of course, real pilaf is cooked over high heat in a real cast iron cauldron and in the fresh air. But at home, you can also cook incredibly delicious pilaf.

First, we thoroughly rinse the rice in cold water until it becomes almost clear. Then pour cold water for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, drain the cold water and pour the rice for forty minutes, this time with warm water. Such preliminary preparation of rice will allow you to cook friable pilaf.

While our rice is "taking a warm bath", we cut the meat into small pieces. Onions - a quarter rings, and carrots - straws. In a cauldron or in a multicooker bowl, heat the vegetable oil and put our meat on top. Salt immediately and fry until golden brown.

Then we throw carrots into strips to the meat and fry for some time until soft.

Now we throw in a whole onion, cut into quarter rings, and also fry.

Now we pour boiling water over all this beauty and add seasoning for pilaf. Such seasonings are very convenient and are a real find, because using them is much easier than mixing all the spices separately. Seasoning should be thoroughly mixed with meat, carrots and onions. I only added a tablespoon of seasoning. The more spices you use, the richer the color of the pilaf will be in the end. Also, don't forget to salt the mixture.

We simmer the whole thing for fifteen minutes and then spread the rice on top in an even layer, pour boiling water so that the water covers the rice one centimeter higher.

Now, over high heat, bring the pilaf to a boil and wait until the rice absorbs all the water.

As soon as this happens, we reduce the heat to the minimum, make five or six holes in the rice to the very bottom of the cauldron and put a few whole cloves of garlic in there.

If you cook pilaf in a cauldron, then cover it with a waffle towel, and already on top with a lid, and leave to cook on low heat for about fifteen minutes. If you cook pilaf in a multicooker, then close the lid, turn on the multicooker (temperature 60 degrees) and also leave for 15 minutes.