Lamb is a fairly rare type of meat among Europeans. Most of them know: from lamb you can cook kebab and pilaf. Well, if many picnic lovers can cope with lamb shish kebab, then the hostess will not refuse a step-by-step recipe for pilaf, with all the nuances of its preparation.
Immediately put the emphasis: reasoning on the right or wrong pilaf recipe is untenable. The cooking options for one of the most famous dishes on the planet are thousands or even tens of thousands. The principle of preparation itself is important, and each housewife can think of the details on her own, according to her taste.
A step-by-step recipe for cooking mutton pilaf - basic technological principles
Pilaf is a popular dish in Asian and Mediterranean countries, in the Middle East. This is a stew of various types of meat and fish, with rice, beans and vegetables.
The basic principles for the preparation of mutton pilaf correspond to the national peculiarities of Asian and Arabic cuisine. The dish is characterized by two main components - cereal and meat, which is called zirvak. The composition may vary, but the cooking technology developed over thousands of years in the homeland of pilaf distinguishes it from porridge with sauce and meat.
Rule one: rice in pilaf should always be friable. For this, various culinary techniques are used:
• For pilaf, special varieties of hard rice are selected, washed thoroughly or soaked.
• To prevent rice from becoming viscous, the ratio of water to oil (fat tail fat) is strictly observed. For 1 kg of rice, 200 g of fat and 1.5 liters of water are required.
• The technological and temperature conditions of cooking are observed. Pilaf is cooked in a cauldron or in cast-iron cookware, in a quenching mode, rice is put into a semi-finished zirvak. It must not be allowed to boil.
Rule two: to prepare zirvak, the meat is carefully selected, minced and first fried, and then vegetables, spices and water are added. Salt is added to the almost ready zirvak, then rice. Zirvak should be slightly salted, taking into account the addition of rice, which will increase the total mass of the dish.
Lamb is the most common type of meat in the East, and Europeans do not always know how to choose the right part. The meat of the old carcass is stiff and greasy, has a specific smell. Therefore, it is preferable for stewing and frying to use the meat of animals of two or three years of age. The best meat for lamb pilaf is a shoulder blade, neck, and brisket. When boning lamb carcasses, it is necessary to carefully cut the tendons, to clean the flesh from fat and film.
Lamb stewed or boiled for 1.5-2 hours. To prepare zirvak, the meat is first fried in boiling oil, but it must not be overcooked.
A traditional set of spices for pilaf made from lamb - zira, marjoram, thyme, saffron, barberry, coriander, paprika, chili, turmeric. Very sophisticated and original versions of pilaf are obtained by adding apricot (dried apricots), dates and other fresh and dried fruits.
Step-by-step recipe for Uzbek pilaf from mutton
Ingredients:
Round rice 350 g
Lamb shoulder 1 kg
3 medium-sized carrots
Onions, medium 3 pcs.
Garlic 1 head
Vegetable oil 80 g
Water
Barberry 2 tsp
Zira 2 tsp
Salt
Ground pepper
Cooking:
1. Rinse the lamb under running water and remove the film and excess fat from it, then cut into medium-sized cubes.
2. Pour oil into a cauldron and warm it well over a fire. Put the pieces of meat in it one by one and fry for 15-20 minutes over medium heat. To make the meat cook evenly, do not forget to stir occasionally.
3. Peel and cut the onions in half rings and mix it with lamb. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Take the peeled carrots, cut into oblong cubes and also add to the cauldron.
5. Salt and pour a little less than half a teaspoon of red pepper. Stew meat with vegetables for another 25 minutes.
6. Add the zira and barberry, and place the peeled and washed garlic in the center.
7. Rinse the rice and spread evenly over the cauldron. It is advisable that the rice has previously stood in the water for some time. Add boiling water. The water level in the cauldron should be about a finger above the entire dish. Leave the pilaf stewed for about 15-20 over low heat.
8. Make sure that rice does not boil. Pilaf will be ready when water completely evaporates from it. Turn off the heat and let the dish stand for a while - this way it absorbs the aroma and becomes very juicy.
Ferghana-style mutton pilaf recipe
Ferghana pilaf is a variety of an ancient dish. Its feature is the use of pink Devzira rice and aromatic spices.
Ingredients:
Lamb on the bone 2.2 kg
Rice "Devzira" 1 kg
Carrots, yellow 1 kg
Chili pepper 2 pcs.
Onions 3 pcs.
Salad white onion 1 pc.
Cherry Tomatoes 500 g
Fat tail fat 400 g
Garlic 2 pcs.
Salt 2 tbsp. l
Chili pepper, ground
Cumin 1 tsp.
Barberry 1 tbsp. l
Paprika 1 tsp.
Cooking:
1. Carefully sort through fig. Devzira is a rice variety in which, due to the characteristics of production, small chips and stones are very often found, so you should be extremely careful with it. Pour it into a bowl, add salt and pour 2 liters of cold water there. Rice should soak well. Leave it on for 40 minutes. This variety in water acquires an almost transparent color. When it becomes opaque, it means that it is time to wash it.
2. While the rice is soaked, proceed to the preparation of the remaining ingredients. Rinse the meat and clean off excess fat, film and veins. Remember that lamb must be handled with special care to avoid the appearance of an unpleasant odor in the dish. Separate the flesh from the bones and cut it into cubes of medium size of approximately 3 cm. Chop the bones so that it is convenient to work with them.
3. Peel onions and carrots. Cut the onions into small half rings, and carrots along the entire length of the fruit in large strips.
4. Dice the fat tail fat and put it into a well-heated cauldron. Wait until it stops bubbling and flip. Heat it over low heat - so it will have a transparent color. Remove the remains from the cauldron when all the fat comes out of them.
5. Put the bones in the cauldron, and fry them over high heat until a brownish crust appears. To prevent boiling fat from losing its temperature, first lay the lamb on the walls, and after 5 minutes, when it warms up, mix with the rest of the cauldron. The meat should be grilled, not stewed or cooked. Pour cumin, barberry and paprika into it, mix and fry until golden. When it is ready, put it in a bowl with a slotted spoon - this is necessary so that the mutton is not overcooked, otherwise it will become stiff.
6. Pour the onion into the cauldron and, stirring occasionally, wait until it turns golden, then add the carrots and fry well. After the carrots with onions are ready, return the meat back and fill the entire contents with cold water so that it completely covers it. Bring the zirvak to a boil and reduce the heat.
7. Peel the garlic and add to the cauldron. Cover and simmer for half an hour.
8. Rinse the rice carefully. This variety is very fragile, so do not rub it so that it does not crumble. Place it under running water and let the water drain.
9. Before pouring rice into the cauldron, remove the bones from it, as they will not allow it to boil well. Bring the contents to a boil, evenly distribute the rice and pour everything with boiling water. Water should be an order of magnitude greater - about 1 cm above the level of rice. As the water evaporates, mix the rice from the center to the edge and vice versa, then give it a dome shape and continue to simmer. All this is necessary so that the rice is saturated with zirvak.
10. When there is almost no water in the cauldron, add chili pepper, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Stew the pilaf until the rice is almost ready. At the end of cooking, add fire and let the contents boil, then remove the cauldron.
11. While the pilaf is cooked, proceed to cooking the side dish. Cut the tomatoes into circles and the onion into small half rings. If the onion is large, cut them in half.
12. Salt, pepper and mix thoroughly.
13. Spread pilaf on plates, decorating in a circle with tomato salad, as well as garlic and pepper from a cauldron.
Step-by-step mutton pilaf recipe: useful tips and tricks
To give the dish an even richer flavor, you must adhere to some cooking rules:
• Pay particular attention to meat selection. It is advisable to take the lamb young, as it will be softer and juicier. Carefully remove all veins and film from it and adhere to the technology of cutting meat, making cuts across the fibers.
• Rice for pilaf must choose solid. There are many varieties that can diversify the dish, but the main thing is that during cooking it does not boil. It is better to cook rice not until fully cooked so that it reaches while the pilaf is infused.
• If it is not possible to cook pilaf in a special cauldron in the open air, use a special roasting pan, which has thick walls and tapers to the bottom. This shape of the container will not allow rice to burn, distributing heat around the entire perimeter.
• The use of vegetable fat is acceptable, but it slightly changes the taste of the zirvak, so it is better to take animal fat, for example, fat tail fat.
