According to experts, there is no one, the only correct way to cook pilaf. There are hundreds of recipes for this world-famous dish. One only needs to add some new ingredient to pilaf, immediately another variety of treats is obtained. In some countries, they prefer a sweetish dish, in others - spicy, in the third, rice and meat are cooked separately.
From traditionally oriental dishes, pilaf has long been turned into our, domestic, beloved by many. But alas! Unfortunately, not everyone understands how to cook it the right way - that is, so that in the end it turns out really pilaf, and not just rice porridge with meat. In particular, young housewives often find it difficult to choose the right time and method of laying various ingredients in a dish. When to put garlic in pilaf? This question can often be found on the forums. Let's talk about this in our article.
How to put garlic in pilaf?
Answering this question, experienced chefs say that preparing this treat, garlic should be buried in the very center of the hill of rice, which is covered in a cauldron. The head of garlic is used whole, not peeled.
When to put a head of garlic in pilaf?
Experts believe that this should be done after rice is poured into the cauldron. During the cooking process, the rich aroma of garlic will be transferred to the whole dish. Before serving, remove the garlic.
Some experienced housewives, when asked about when to put garlic in pilaf in a cauldron, argue that this ingredient should be added at the very end of the process, after the rice is already in a state of semi-preparedness. Those who do not like the taste of boiled garlic, and want to get its aroma exclusively, should not clean the slices. Take one beautiful and large head of unpeeled garlic and spread it on rice, sprinkle lightly with a small amount of cereal on top. When the dish is ready, just pull out this head and discard. In the course of cooking, garlic will give all its juice to pilaf, only the husk will remain. Pilaf in this case turns out to be unusually aromatic.
There can be many options for answering the question of when to put garlic in pilaf, as well as statements about how to bookmark it. It depends on the personal preferences of the author of the dish.
Sometimes housewives first lightly fry the meat, and then add garlic (finely chopped) to it. This should be done at the very end of the roasting, so that the fat is saturated with the aroma of garlic. Then garlic is also added at the end of cooking, but already whole, unmilled. The head of garlic is peeled, parsed into teeth, slightly flattened with a knife and spread at the edges and in the center of the dish.
How to cook Uzbek pilaf?
It should be noted that garlic is not used in all recipes. Domestic gourmets mainly under pilaf mean exactly the Uzbek version of the dish, prepared from rice, onions, carrots and meat (in the original - lamb, but often replaced with pork, beef or chicken), pepper, garlic and spices. The classic recipe for Uzbek pilaf involves the use of carrots, rice and meat in equal proportions. To prepare eight servings of a dish, for example, you will need 1 kg of these ingredients. Add onions a little less - about 200 g. Also needed are garlic, salt and spices (see further in the recipe).
Cooking step by step
Prepare the dish like this:
- At first, the cauldron is well heated, after which refined vegetable oil (one glass) is poured into it. In accordance with the classic recipe, at least two glasses of oil should be added to a cauldron of five liters and you can still add fat tail fat. After the oil has heated up (it starts to click), they put 200 grams of peeled and chopped onion in it.
- To a browned onion add one kilogram of meat, diced, and one kilogram of carrot, which is not recommended to be grated. It is better to cut it in the form of large straws (size 4 x 0.5 cm). Uzbeks in their homeland for cooking pilaf use a yellow variety of carrots containing less water. But in our conditions, orange root crops can also be used.
- A little water and two tablespoons of salt are added to the fried meat with onions and carrots. When to put garlic in pilaf? At this stage, four heads of garlic (whole, previously peeled) and Uzbek spices are added to the dish: barberry (two teaspoons), zira (one teaspoon), turmeric (one coffee spoon) and saffron (pinch). If these spices are not available, you can cook not Uzbek pilaf, but Kazakh. Kazakhs believe that the taste of meat and rice is interrupted by spices.
- When the meat is soft, the garlic is taken out. After that, one kilogram of rice is spread in an even layer in a cauldron. Uzbek is ideal for cooking pilaf. If this variety of rice cannot be obtained, arborio, basmati, Krasnodar or rice used for sushi is perfect. The main thing is that before sending it to the cauldron, the rice needs to be washed several times and soaked in salt water for at least two hours. The liquid will take an excess of starch from the grains, thanks to salt, the grains will not stick together, so the pilaf will turn out to be quite friable, rather than resembling rice porridge.
- Next, rice in a cauldron is filled with water so that its level covers the surface of the grains by at least two centimeters. The contents of the cauldron should not be disturbed, nor should they be covered with a lid. Pilaf should boil over medium heat until all the water has been completely absorbed by the rice.
- Then the rice is collected in a slide, a few punctures are made in it with the handle of a cook, and the heads of garlic, which were previously used and were removed from the dish, are laid on top.
- Pilaf is tightly closed with a lid and stewed over low heat for at least half an hour. After this time, the dish is stirred, pieces of delicious fried meat with carrots are taken from the bottom, the dish is laid out on plates and sprinkled with cilantro.
How to cook pilaf with garlic in a slow cooker?
In a slow cooker, this dish is cooked in the same way as in a cauldron. The "Pilaf" mode in the device provides only additional frying of the ingredients. And yet there are a few basic rules that you should definitely adhere to.
About the rules for cooking pilaf in a slow cooker
Remember and observe the following:
- Rice used for pilaf should not be brittle. Uzbeks and Turkmens do not recommend cooking pilaf from long-grain varieties, advising them to be content with the usual round Krasnodar.
- Of particular note is the cutting of vegetables for pilaf. Onions are cut in any way, and carrots must be chopped strictly with straws or sticks, and preferably not across, but along. In no case should you rub the carrots on a grater, since during cooking it will turn sour and turn pilaf into ordinary porridge with meat.
- Spices for pilaf take any, but some of them must be present in the dish necessarily. Specialists include zira (preferably black), barberry (dried), saffron or turmeric, a mixture of peppers (black, white, pink, green, allspice), garlic (in a multicooker it is used unpeeled in the multicooker, whole head or divided into cloves).
- In addition, paprika (ground), tomatoes (dried or dried), hot pepper (whole pod, be sure to be without damage, sometimes added to the pilaf, otherwise the dish will turn out, as they say, fire-breathing!), Coriander (ground seeds), nutmeg (ground). Greens are served separately.
How to cook zirvak? About bookmarking methods
Zirvak is boiled in boiling oil. Each of the cooks uses their own way of bookmarking, but one thing remains the same: all products are added to the bowl only after the oil boils and brightens. That is, before you put the onion in the bowl, you need to wait for the oil to boil. After that, spread the onion and stew it until the oil becomes clear.
Then spread the carrots, stew again until boiling and transparency of the oil. After that, lay the meat. This should be done very carefully, dropping pieces of the product into the bowl on the wall to prevent a sharp decrease in the temperature of boiling oil. Meat can be considered ready if it has turned grayish, and the oil has become transparent and light.
About reverse bookmarking
You can put the products in the multicooker and in the reverse order: first the oil boils and brightens, then the meat is put in it, the oil is boiled and clarified, then the onions and carrots are laid out. The main thing is not to put all the products in the bowl at the same time - this is not pilaf, but rice porridge.
After cooking meat and vegetables, spices are sprinkled. Rice is spread on top of the meat in an even layer. In no case should cereal be mixed with zirvac. Rice is carefully poured with boiling water, trying to ensure that it flows into the dish along the wooden spatula and does not mix the ingredients.
When to put garlic in pilaf in a slow cooker? Garlic and pepper (chilli) should first be warmed up so that they can more fully reveal their taste and aroma. After all the above manipulations have been done, a whole head of garlic is stuck in the center of the bowl with rice and other products, which is preliminarily cleaned from the upper scales and heated. Fans of spicy dishes can stick a pod of pepper (warm) in a rice hill. Now the multiquark lid can be closed and click on the treasured button "Pilaf".