Recipe
Plov (osh)
Rice, lamb and yellow carrots from one kazan — the national dish, and a matter of regional pride.
- Time
- 2 h 30 min
- Serves
- 6
The story
Plov — osh in Uzbek, which simply means "food" — is the dish every family, wedding and holiday is built around. It is cooked in a kazan, a heavy cast-iron cauldron, and at big gatherings it is men's work: at a wedding the morning plov, nahorgi osh, is served to hundreds of guests before sunrise.
Legend credits it to Alexander's cooks or to Ibn Sina, but what matters more is how seriously it is taken today. Every region argues for its own version, Tashkent has plov centres that cook hundreds of portions from a single kazan, and in 2016 UNESCO added palov culture and tradition to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
How it tastes
Rich and savoury, never greasy when it is done well. Each grain of rice stays separate and glossy, soaked with the juices of the lamb. Yellow carrots add sweetness, cumin a warm earthiness, and the whole heads of garlic steamed on top turn soft and mild.
Ingredients
Serves 6
- 1 kg medium-grain rice (devzira if you can find it)
- 1 kg lamb or beef shoulder, with some bone
- 1 kg carrots — yellow ones if possible — cut into long matchsticks
- 3 onions, sliced into half-rings
- 250 ml cottonseed or sunflower oil
- 2 whole heads of garlic, outer skin removed
- 150 g chickpeas, soaked overnight (optional)
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp dried barberries (optional)
- 1–2 whole dried chillies
- Salt, about 1 tbsp
Method
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then soak it in warm salted water for an hour.
- Heat the oil in a kazan or heavy cast-iron pot until it just starts to smoke. Fry the onions until deep golden.
- Add the meat in large pieces and brown it well on every side over high heat.
- Add the carrots, leave them undisturbed for a few minutes, then fry for about 10 minutes until soft. This base is called zirvak.
- Add the chickpeas, cumin rubbed between your palms, barberries, chillies and salt. Pour in boiling water to cover by 2 cm and simmer for 40 minutes.
- Drain the rice and spread it evenly over the zirvak — do not stir. Add boiling water to cover the rice by 1.5 cm and cook on high heat until the water disappears.
- Press the garlic heads into the rice, gather it into a dome, poke a few holes to the bottom with the handle of a spoon, cover tightly and steam on the lowest heat for 25–30 minutes.
- Lift out the meat and garlic and slice the meat. Mix the rice with the zirvak (or keep the layers, Samarkand-style), heap it on a large platter and lay the meat and garlic on top.
