What ingredient plays a leading role in pilaf?
If someone thinks that meat, then this is a fallacy.
There are recipes for pilaf (and there are many of them!), Which do not include meat.
In some cuisines of the world there are quite traditional recipes for pilaf with fish, vegetables or fruits.
In addition to spices, there remains one more component for any kind of pilaf - rice.
True, often this type of cereal is found in recipes in combination with other cereals and even with leguminous vegetables, but, nevertheless, it is rice that is considered to be the main ingredient in pilaf in world cooking.
Rice is one of the oldest and main cereal crops on the planet, so it is not surprising that its variety variety has reached its peak, including with the participation of breeders. It follows that growing rice for thousands of years and constantly improving its quality characteristics, mankind has sought to achieve some certain of its properties that will meet the same specific criteria for its culinary processing.
Particular attention is paid to rice cultivation in Asian countries, where this is more consistent with climatic conditions. We will not list the countries that grow them and rice varieties, since the lists will be very long, and it will be difficult to remember all the information immediately. If desired, all the well-known names of rice varieties and their main characteristics can be found on the expanses of the World Wide Web. It is important to understand and remember that pilaf friability, as well as its taste, depends on the variety of rice selected.
How to cook crumbly pilaf - basic technological principles
To consider that a dish with rice and one of the listed ingredients (meat, fish, vegetables, fruits) could be called pilaf would also be a mistake. But it should be borne in mind that the technology of cooking pilaf is not reduced to the only method that is most famous and popular in the CIS countries, which is remembered by many recipes for cooking Uzbek pilaf. By the way, because of its popularity, the Uzbek pilaf also acquired many additional options, both from the point of view of the cooking technology itself and the ingredients included in it. Every culinary cook who at least once tried to reproduce in his kitchen, somewhere in Ukraine, in the Baltic states or in Kamchatka, for lack of the right kind of meat or a set of spices, a variety of rice, and, finally, the “right” cauldron, in which the famous Ferghana pilaf in Uzbekistan, made its amendments to the recipe.
There were recipes for pilaf from pork and Krasnodar rice, from shrimp and basmanti rice, and many other experimental recipes. This is not to say that these recipes were unsuccessful. Subject to certain technological conditions for the preparation of pilaf, they have every right to exist. It should also be noted that the very concept of “Uzbek pilaf” is very vague, because, like any popularly revered dish, it is cooked in each city and village in its own way.
What should be pilaf? This dish has its own history, which lasts on a par with the most ancient civilizations of the planet, so it would be wrong to say that only the residents of Ferghana or Samarkand are right, the peoples of Turkey or India.
Each national cuisine has its own cooking features, but all of them are aimed at achieving the same result, common for all types of pilaf: rice - the main component of the dish should be crumbly. This is the general and characteristic feature that distinguishes pilaf from rice porridge, with meat or with something else.
So to summarize. The first condition for the preparation of friable pilaf is the variety of rice, its properties, or rather, the hardness of the grain and the content of starch in it. The second condition is rice heat treatment technology.
To fulfill the first condition, it is necessary, at a minimum, to know the assortment of rice, its biochemical composition and in which recipe for pilaf this or that kind of grain is used in traditional cuisine. It is extremely difficult to cover this issue in one small article. But, with regard to the fulfillment of the second condition, then some practical techniques for the preparation of friable rice can be mastered in the home kitchen.
Each housewife noticed that if you throw a spoonful of starch into cold water, then the powder breaks down into hard lumps. Exactly starch contained in rice also coagulates. This is why rice is soaked before cooking. Under the stream of water, while washing the rice, the water becomes cloudy. This is starch, and it sticks together rice, turning pilaf into a sticky porridge. After a long stay of grain in water, it becomes solid, and will no longer become viscous during cooking.
On the Internet you can find expert advice that suggests soaking rice at a temperature of 60ºϹ. What can I say? If there is additional time for laboratory experiments to monitor the maintenance of such a temperature, a thermometer, then, in order to gain additional experience, you can try this method, and at the same time imagine an ancient Persian who did not have the Internet or a thermometer, but pilaf recipe from Avicenna, meanwhile, has survived to this day. Of course, how to manage your time is everyone’s personal business, but still it’s much easier to withstand rice in ordinary, cold water for at least two hours and not sit above it with a thermometer, like a sick child.
Stewing rice in fat additionally covers the grains with a membrane that retains moisture inside: they achieve softening and degree of readiness by steaming by soaking in moisture under a greasy film, increasing in size, and this same film prevents rice grains from sticking together.
The word "pilaf" goes back to Sanskrit and its literal meaning is boiled rice. But, in modern terms, the technology for preparing pilaf is rather stewing, since cooking is considered to be a heat treatment at the boiling point of water, and all known pilaf recipes indicate a slow heat treatment of rice, below 100ºϹ. By the way, at the boiling point of water, starch will begin to separate from the rice grains, which will surely turn pilaf into ordinary porridge.
Nevertheless, there are technologies for the preparation of pilaf in which rice is previously boiled until half-cooked and such methods cannot be rejected, since they appeared thousands of years ago, long before the recognition of culinary art as a science, and they are much older than Uzbek cuisine. Such methods of cooking pilaf are still used, for example, by modern Indian women who carefully preserve the traditions of one of the oldest Asian cultures. Separate cooking of meat and cereal pilaf is also characteristic of Azerbaijani, Turkish, Iranian and Arabic cuisine. It seems that pilaf is, nevertheless, boiled rice, as it was originally called.
In order not to waste time and combine studying the theory with a more interesting practical part, we will consider different techniques for preparing crumbly pilaf using examples of traditional recipes of some national cuisines.
1. How to cook crumbly pilaf: "biryani" with chicken or pilaf in Indian
A mixture of spices for pilaf can be purchased in specialized stores, as well as ghee. For Indian pilaf, whole chicken meat is used, but in some provinces of India only chicken breast is eaten. The quantity and ratio of ingredients needed is indicated according to the original recipe, but given the special Indian passion for spices, make the correction as you wish.
Ingredients:
Chicken 0.5 kg
Basmanti - 500 g
Ghee (melted butter) 400 g
Onion, chopped 450 g
Tomatoes 0.4 kg
Ginger Root 50 g
Natural yogurt (sugar free) 150 ml
Garlic 40 g
Celery leaves chopped 70 g
Turmeric 2-3 g
Mint leaves, chopped 50 g
Salt
"Biryani Masala" (a mixture of spices for pilaf) 45 g
Cooking method:
Heat the oil in a cast-iron, deep frying pan or in a saucepan, and fry in it a very finely chopped onion until golden, adding a little salt. Gather the fried onions with a slotted spoon and put them in a separate bowl for a while. Put prepared chicken meat in a stewpan. Fry one side over high heat, and then turn over, reducing the heat, simmer the meat over low heat until it begins to separate from the bone. Cover the stewpan with a lid. If necessary, add some water to extinguish, but at the end of the extinction, the liquid should not remain in the saucepan.
Remove the bones from the chicken, put the pulp in a saucepan, add chopped tomatoes (without skin), chopped ginger and garlic, spices
Pour at least 3 liters of water into the pan, salt it and cook the washed rice, lowering it directly into cold water, until half-ready and pouring the water, spread it on a wide dish so that it cools down.
In a clean pan, put the prepared onions, rice and stewed chicken meat in layers: half the chicken pulp; half rice; half fried onion; chopped celery; peppermint. Now repeat layering, starting with the rest of the meat. Season each layer laid out with spices.
Put the pot on low heat and warm the biryani for 10-15 minutes.
2. How to cook loose pilaf: Ferghana or Uzbek pilaf
Many dishes of Uzbek cuisine are a shock for modern nutrition. In particular, pilaf is prepared using a large amount of animal fat, which helps to produce more crumbly rice, but negatively affects digestion. The only way out of this contradiction is a fruit dessert. Moreover, in dessert, it is necessary to include fruits or berries with a high content of vitamin C, which contributes to the breakdown of fats: pomegranate, barberry, pineapple, cranberry. A good addition to fat pilaf is a salad with lots of parsley. Which vegetable oil to use? Cotton oil is used in the homeland of Ferghana pilaf, but even there it is considered far from perfect, so replace it with a more neutral taste or choose a nutty flavor that goes very well with rice.
Ingredients:
Onion 170 g
Rice "Devzira", unpeeled (red) 300 g
Yellow carrot 350 g
Caraway seeds (grains)
Barberry
Dill (seeds)
Coriander (grains)
Ground sesame
Rayhon (Basil)
Garlic 2 whole heads
Fatty lamb 0.5 kg
Vegetable oil 100 ml
Cilantro grains
Saffron
Cooking:
Rinse the rice thoroughly using cold running water, and fill it with cold water for at least two hours. Cut the onions into large rings, juicy and ripe carrots - with chopped cubes. Cut mutton with layers of fat into medium-sized cubes. Prepare the garlic in advance by cleaning the heads of the upper scales, cutting the roots so that white slices of cloves are visible from below.
If you don’t like the presence of whole grains of spices in the dish, chop them in advance. Barberry is best added fresh, but due to the difficulty of acquiring, use dried berries.
Start preparing the dishes. Put a thick-walled, preferably cast-iron stewpan on a medium heat and heat it before pouring in the oil that needs to be heated so that it starts to smoke slightly. Throw the onion in such oil and do not stop stirring until the onion turns brown and immediately send the prepared meat to boiling fat, which must be half cooked, add carrot sticks, salt and cooked spices to it, switch the fire so that the pilaf is further in state of languor. Try zirvak - it should be salted and islandy in taste, taking into account the further addition of rice and water.
Pour the prepared rice and top it with 3-4 cm boiling water. In the center of the saucepan, make a recess in the rice so that the steam exits through this hole. You cannot mix more pilaf. If before that everything was done correctly, then it will not burn. Put the garlic on top of the rice, distributing the heads evenly over the surface, sprinkle the pilaf with barberry and stew. Cover the saucepan and turn off the oven when the water has not yet completely evaporated. In this state, pilaf must be kept for at least thirty minutes. When serving, pilaf is not stirred, but turned over, after removing the heads of garlic, and then shifting them to the center of the dish.
3. How to cook crumbly pilaf: arab pilaf with vegetables
Each dish has its own name, depending on the constituent ingredients and the method of preparation: “couscous”, “matluba” and this list of transliterated words can be continued by the number of Arab countries and the variety of ingredients. Arabic pilaf differs from Indian in smaller assortment and quantity of spices used.
Arab pilaf is the general name for the assortment of rice dishes, traditional for Arab countries, where there is also, as in Asian cuisine, pilaf made from lamb, beef, poultry and fish. Rice in combination with other types of cereals, nuts, dried fruits, vegetables can make up the cereal portion of the Arab pilaf. The technology for preparing pilaf consists in the separate preparation of rice, which is boiled or fried, and the meat part of the dish, which is also fried, boiled or stewed with vegetables, then combining with rice and other types of cereals when serving the dish.
Ingredients:
Chicken 2.2 kg
Onion 500 g
Black pepper 10 g
Carrot 400 g
Refined oil (for frying chicken)
Tomatoes 300 g
Saffron
Tomato sauce (spicy) 50 g
Rice 600 g
Green peas (or corn) 350 g
Ghee 180 g
Caraway
Cinnamon
Dried coriander
Garlic 30-40 g
Cooking:
Wash the grated and gutted carcass and put in a pan, cook, pour cold water. Remove the rising foam until the broth is transparent, then add a small onion, roots, bay leaf. When the chicken is ready, separate the meat from the bone and chop the pulp.
Wet the rice (it is better to do it at night) Or use steamed rice, soaking it 2 hours before cooking. Wash and cook in salted water. Discard through a colander or sieve, rinse with cold water. Heat the oil in a saucepan, pour saffron boiled in a small amount of boiling water into it and put rice. Warm the rice in oil, mixing well so that the rice stains to a uniform color.
Heat the vegetable oil, put chopped garlic, ground caraway seeds and coriander, a stick of cinnamon, pepper in a pan. Fry pieces of chicken until golden brown and temporarily shift to a dish. In the process of frying, before the end, add butter, for taste.
Passer finely chopped onions and carrots in melted butter (50-60 g), also adding salt and spices, slices of tomatoes, previously blanched and peeled, spicy tomato sauce. Put in the cooked vegetables the fried chicken meat and stew, giving only boil the sauce, and remove from the stove.
Put the melted butter (70-80 g) again in a clean dish and heat it. Boil fresh green peas in a marinade, adding salt, sugar and lemon juice, and frozen peas - fry in oil immediately (without defrosting), until moisture is removed. If you want to add corn, then you can use canned, or slices of fresh, sweet corn, milk ripeness.
Combine the cooked parts of pilaf, laying them on the dish in layers.Rice - bottom, top - peas and corn, meat can be served separately or put on top of a dish.
4. How to cook crumbly pilaf: "balykly yanakhly-ash" - Turkmen fish pilaf
In Turkmenistan, pilaf is also prepared on weekdays and on holidays. Holiday pilaf - from camel, lamb, beef and pheasants or ordinary chicken - on weekdays. The difference between meat pilaf is a minimum of spices. Actually, in addition to salt, other flavors are rarely used. In the Caspian regions, pilaf with fish is often cooked. This is a very unusual and tasty combination. Of course, you need to choose the right fish: it should be oily, from the "noble", at least - zander, catfish, but better - sturgeon species.
Ingredients:
Pike perch fillet 1 kg
Sesame oil 250 g
Rice (steamed) 0.5 kg
Sour cream 300 g
Onion 400 g
Carrot 350 g
Pomegranate juice 300 ml
Black pepper (ground and peas)
Fennel seeds
Bay leaf
Saffron
50 g root and parsley
Salt
Dill leaves
Cooking:
Cut the prepared fish fillet into large pieces and dip in boiling water, add a small portion of onion, bay leaf, chopped parsley root and boil until half cooked. We take out the fish and transfer it to the stewpan, filter the broth. Season the fish with spices, part of saffron, salt, pour sour cream and stew until cooked.
Wash the rice and pour boiling water for half an hour. Pour sesame oil into a cast-iron bowl and heat it. Throw chopped onions, fry, add carrots, chopped in large strips. When the carrots become soft, pour the fish broth into the dishes, let it boil and drop the rice filtered and washed in cold water, simmer until tender, seasoning with salt, saffron, a second part of spices and spicy herbs.
Put the rice in a deep dish, pour over pomegranate juice and serve the fish in sour cream to it.
5. How to cook crumbly pilaf: Greek pilaf
The ancient shores of Hellas gave the world many wonderful discoveries, but Greece was never the homeland of pilaf. But the ancient Greeks are famous shipbuilders and travelers. Historians and archaeologists still find traces of the most ancient mariners on the planet in the most seemingly unexpected places, given the modern technical capabilities.
Rice in Greece is also not a traditional agricultural crop, but Greece knows how to surprise, and Greek pilaf in this sense is no exception. Actually, the technology of cooking rice in Greek cuisine does not differ from its preparation in Arab countries. The only noticeable difference is traditional Greek herbs. In Greek cuisine, they are well acquainted with the varietal variety of rice, but preference is given to the only variety in the world that grows only at the foot of the Himalayas.
Ingredients:
Basmanti 400 g
Carrot 120 g
Dates 70 g
Leek 100 g
Thyme 30 g
Oregano 10 g
Chicken drumstick 900 g
Olive oil 100 ml
Saffron 1 g
Lemons 200 g
Sour cream (or cream) 180 ml
Cooking:
Wash the meat, dry it with a napkin and rub it with salt and pepper. Fry the legs in hot oil until crisp. Separate passer onion, sliced in half rings, and coarsely grated carrots. Add the chopped dates, fried drumsticks to the vegetables and pour the broth together. Season the stew with spices, saffron, boiled in boiling water, salt, pour in lemon juice and fresh zest of two lemons. Put rice in water in a saucepan. If necessary, add hot broth so that the rice is completely covered with it, cover the pan with a lid and simmer until the moisture evaporates and the rice becomes soft. Pour in the cream, chop with chopped herbs, wrap the pan tightly with a thick towel and let it stand for a while.
6. How to cook crumbly pilaf: Azerbaijani pilaf - "sebzi govurma" with chestnuts
Ingredients:
Basmanti rice (or long-grain, steamed) 500 g
Veal 300 g
Turmeric 10 g
Lemon juice 25-30 ml
Dried cherry plum (or prunes)
Chestnuts
Onions 200 g
Dried apricots 80-100 g
Melted butter
Raisins 50 g
Saffron
Lavash (ready)
Cooking:
This type of pilaf is cooked in parts, and after that everything is collected in a common dish.
Heat the melted butter and fry the onion sliced in thin rings in it, adding turmeric.
Cut the veal into small pieces and boil it in salted water. For flavor, add a small, whole onion. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and transfer to a stewpan with onions washed with cherry plum (or prunes) and peeled chestnuts. Pour all over the broth and simmer until the chestnuts are soft, covering with a lid. Then remove the lid and let half the water evaporate. Set the govurma aside.
Rinse the rice. Pour cold water into the pan so that it covers the rice, add salt and lemon juice. After an hour, drain the water and boil the beans in a large amount of boiling water until soft. Remove the water again. In 50 ml of boiling water, put saffron, brew it and pour rice in the infusion, mixing thoroughly.
Spread the pita bread with butter and lay on the bottom of the ceramic pan. Put rice on top, cover the pan with a lid and bake for 1.5 hours at 150ºϹ.
Wash the dried fruits and steam them in a pan, adding a little water, add 10-15 g of oil to shine the fruit when the water evaporates. Remove from the pan.
Gather the cooked pilaf ingredients: put rice on a large dish, around it - fruits and chestnuts, pieces of fried pita bread. Separately place the dish with beef.
Pilaf is good because vegetarians can eat it, without adding stew to their plate.
How to cook crumbly pilaf - useful tips and tricks
If there wasn’t the right kind of rice available to cook pilaf - do not be discouraged and do not rush to go shopping. Any sort of steamed rice is suitable for this, and it can be steamed very simply: wash the rice and soak it in cold water. You can do this the night before and leave the rice in water in the refrigerator for the night. In the morning, drain unabsorbed water and heat a dry cast-iron pan. Put rice in it and just dry it, constantly and gently mixing with a wooden spatula.
