Real pilaf should be with lamb. Also required is the presence of rice, carrots and onions in this dish. The rest are variations on this subject. Sometimes, by the way, extremely successful variations. Try pilaf with vegetables and prunes - it is very tasty!
Real pilaf
First of all, you need to stock up on products. You will need a kilogram of lamb, which you need to cut into fairly large pieces. It is advisable to add several ribs to it to give color to the rice, which needs at least two glasses. Since we cook pilaf with vegetables and prunes, 5-6 medium-sized carrots and 3-4 large onions should be peeled. Cut the carrots into large strips, onions into half-rings from the tail to the spine. Prune, about a glass or more, as you like, pour boiling water and rinse after five minutes, remove the seeds. You can add dried apricots and not too sweet large raisins, preparing it in the same way, but this is optional. A few heads of garlic, without sorting into slices, free from the upper husk until smooth, cut the root. At the same time leave it in the skin, do not clean it before the body!
Oil transfer and tinting
Sunflower oil - you need a lot of it, at least a glass - to refill to a white haze in a cauldron. Put ribs stripped of meat and fry until the bones become bright color. Oil, too, during this time should change color and fill with aroma. This is one of the most important stages if you want to cook pilaf with vegetables and prunes correctly.
Zirvak
Having removed the fried bones from the oil, immediately put the meat in the cauldron. Salt, sprinkle with pepper, zira and those spices that are preferred in pilaf. Fire does not diminish! Quickly fry the lamb from all sides, add onions to it, and when it becomes completely transparent, pour out the carrots. Mix. Now the fire can be reduced almost to a minimum so that the meat juice does not evaporate. Those 10-15 minutes that need carrots can be used in order to prepare the second most important component, without which pilaf with vegetables and prunes would not work.
Rice
Rice needs to be washed. Wash so thoroughly that we write about it in a separate section. Pour rice with water a little warmer than room temperature, try as much as possible (and for a long time!) To rub it between the palms. Then drain the water. Pour another. And repeat this process as many times as necessary in order for the water to become transparent. It depends on the quality of the rice - sometimes it takes eight or even ten times to change the water.
Now pilaf
Feel free to pour rice on a zirvak, level with a spatula. Burry prunes, raisins and heads of garlic in rice. Salt, pepper. Gently pour water (along the knife or along the edge of the cauldron, so as not to wash everything that is buried there from the rice). Water should be two or even three fingers above the rice, looking at the dishes. With a stick or knife, pierce pilaf in several places to the very bottom, so that the liquid penetrates there freely. Strengthen the fire to medium. Cover tightly and do not open for about an hour. Then wait until rice is ready, trying it from time to time. In no case, after adding rice, do not stir pilaf! The whole pilaf is beautiful. But garlic is especially unusual in it. It has already broken up into slices, and the contents of each literally slip out onto the tongue, without the taste of garlic even reminding. This is something divine!
And now the variations
The first step is a vegetarian pilaf with vegetables and prunes. Meat-eaters consider this dish a side dish. In fact, this is quite satisfying and very tasty pilaf. Rinse thoroughly two glasses of rice, peel and chop two large carrots, steam and rinse the seedless prunes (20), prepare your favorite seasonings (turmeric, paprika, caraway seeds, a mixture of peppers, etc.) to make pilaf with vegetables and prune was fragrant, with half a glass of good vegetable oil, salt to taste. Heat oil in a cauldron with spices almost to a haze - several minutes on a good fire. Then fry the carrots in this oil, constantly turning it over. Reduce heat, pour rice with prunes, add water - about four glasses. Cover tightly and cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes until rice is fully cooked. To make a delicious pilaf, not porridge, do not mix it! It’s necessary to open it less often! Do not even touch the lid for another 10-15 minutes after removing from the fire so that the pilaf with vegetables and prunes is crumbly. If you follow these rules, you get the picture to the picture.
Pilaf with prunes and chicken
One medium-sized chicken will need one and a half glasses of rice, two or three onions, three or four carrots, a head of garlic, ten pieces of pitted prunes, and salt, herbs and spices - pepper, paprika, zira, turmeric, parsley, cilantro, dill and etc. - to taste and desire. Vegetable oil should be refined, approximately half a cup. Rinse and grate rice in several waters, add lightly salted water and leave for an hour to swell. Then drain the water. Peel the garlic. Soak prunes in hot water for five minutes, then rinse. Wash and chop greens. Peel and chop the onions and carrots, respectively. Chicken cut in portions. Transfer vegetable oil in a cauldron, fry onions, then carrots with dry spices. Add pieces of chicken and fry them until a crust appears, then reduce the heat. Pour greens in a layer, lay on it as evenly as possible rice. Do not mix already! Dig in prunes and garlic in rice. Gently pour boiling water over the cauldron wall - about three glasses. Pierce the rice with a knife in several places to the bottom so that the liquid penetrates and circulates. Cook over low heat without covering until water disappears from the rice surface. Then close the lid tightly, reduce the heat to a minimum. In twenty minutes, pilaf with prunes and chicken meat will be ready.