Lamb is very spicy meat. Unfortunately, in our country lamb dishes, the recipes of which are very popular in the East, do not enjoy special recognition. Many refer to the rigidity of meat, its “soapy” taste in the cooled form. This is true, but only when the meat is not cooked correctly, or for this they took an old ram.
Young lamb - tender, tasty, fragrant, a real gift for gourmets. To cook mutton dishes, recipes, especially some, must be strictly observed.
For example, not all home cooks get Uzbek pilaf the first time. But with some skill and training, you can cook a real masterpiece. However, this opinion applies to all mutton dishes , the recipes of which the hostess decides to master.
It is best to cook pilaf at the stake, in a thick-walled cauldron. Many city dwellers, especially in the south of the country, replaced traditional shish kebabs with Uzbek pilaf during field trips.
For such a pilaf you need to take:
- 2 kg young lamb, boneless
- 2 kg of rice. It is best to take a long-grain, which does not digest with prolonged languishing
- As many fresh carrots
- 10 large bow heads
- As much garlic
- 4 hot, can already dried, peppers
- Ground zira - to taste, but no less than a couple of large spoons
- Barberry and coriander in equal proportions, slightly smaller than zira
- Salt
- Oil (best of all - cotton)
Cooking pilaf begins with the preparation of the ingredients.
First, rice is washed repeatedly, until the water is completely clear. You need to do this for a long time and carefully, otherwise the taste will become "cloudy".
After that, cut the vegetables. Carrots - not very thin straws, onions - half rings.
The top, coarsest husk is removed from the garlic, but the heads are left intact.
A large cauldron is set on a fire, the oil is highly heated in it. They throw a large, unpeeled onion into it, bring it to complete blackness: this will give the future pilaf a beautiful color, a piquant taste. To prepare mutton dishes, the recipes of which came, for the most part, from the countries of the East, this technique is often used.
When the black onion is removed from the oil, the rest of the onion, cut into half rings, is laid out in its place. It will take about 15 minutes for it to turn dark golden, and lamb cut into large cubes could be added to it. It must be fried until a dense golden crust appears, and then put in a cauldron chopped (also not very finely) carrots. You can mix the contents of the cauldron only after 5 minutes, and then let the meat and vegetables stew for 15 minutes, constantly stirring.
It's time to pour boiling water. It should be cool, cover the contents by about 1 cm. At the same time, well-ground barberry, zira, pepper, coriander are added to the cauldron. Reduce the fire, stew for about an hour. After this time, finally washed rice is spread in an even layer in the boiler, pour it 3 cm with boiling water. As soon as it absorbs water, garlic is pressed into rice, the fire is intensified, it is left without stirring for another hour. You can check the readiness of the dish as follows: tap a slotted spoon on the surface of the rice. If the sound is deaf, in the pilaf you need to make punctures with a skewer, reduce the fire, leave the pilaf for another half hour.
You can cook the same delicious pilaf on a regular stove or in the oven: you just need to take fewer products, and leave the procedure the same.
The most popular first mutton dishes, recipes of which are popular with us (for example, shulum), are also prepared with a lot of spices and herbs. Despite the fact that shulum is an ordinary strong broth, you can add to it the same spices that were used for pilaf.
Lamb main dishes are recommended to be eaten hot: the cooled mutton is oily, viscous, loses half of its taste.