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just some pepper in the salts’ shadow

Considering the awesomeness of yesterday’s trip to Oberon, NSW and the even more awesome nights’ sleep I had – sunday HAD to be the day of food, debauchery and lazing about.

PICTURES AFTER THE CUT

So my challenge was to make Plov. Now, traditionally and I am going to quote crappypedia on this:

One of the earliest literary references to Pilau can be found in the histories of Alexander the Great when describing Bactrian (an Eastern Iranian province probably the birthplace of Alexander’s wife Roxana and geographically in modern Afghanistan) hospitality. “plov” is often considered to be one of the oldest preparations of rice which has Persian or Turkic roots. It was known to have been served to Alexander the Great upon his capture of the Sogdian capital of Marakanda (modern Samarkand). Alexander’s army brought it back to Macedonia and spread it throughout Eastern Europe.

In Tajikistan it is considered that proper preparation of Pilaf first was documented by the scholar of X century Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who in his books on Medical Sciences dedicated the whole section on preparing various meals, including several types of Pilaf, as well as describing advantages and disadvantages of every item used for preparing it. Accordingly, some Tajiks consider Ibn Sina to be the “father” of modern pilaf.

During the years of the Soviet Union, the dish spread throughout the other Soviet republics, becoming a favorite in such diverse places as Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia.

So,  considering my roots, the dish itself is not a “new” dish to me. I have eaten it plenty of times, certainly ate different varieties of it and enjoyed it immensely every time I have.
Here is my setup

Ingredients:

• 1kg of lamb leg  BONELESS (must be as fatty as possible)
• 1kg of white medium rice
• 1kg of white onion sliced thickly in half-circles
• 500g of carrots sliced into rectangular slices 1cmx2cm roughly
• 200-400ml of oil (olive oil will do but never use sunflower oil)
• half a packet of unsalted butter
• 2-3 heaped teaspoons of hot paprika
• 2-3 teaspoons of cumin (ground)
• handful of raisins
• handful of dried apricots (medium pieces or whole)
• handful of cranberries
• 1 bunch green onions (scallions)

Notes: the butter is there to give flavour. Do not fear the butter, this dish is not for the healthy-hearted aussies, OK ? The cranberries must be unsweetened because they are there to give a tinge of a sour taste to offset the apricot. The challots are to be diced finely and sprinkled over the final dish immediately prior to being served.

THIS SERVES AT LEAST 6-8 PEOPLE !!!!

Method of madness:

The rice: to prepare the rice, wash it through thoroughly 5-7 times until there is no milkyness in the water. Soak for 15-20 minutes in cold water prior to insertion.

Take a cast iron dutch oven and put over high heat. Add butter and about half the oil. Let the butter melt and oil heat up quite well. Add the diced meat pieces and fry until a light brown crust is formed.

Add the remainder of the oil, all your onions, carrots and mix well. Let this fry about for 2-5 minutes then add 200-300 ml of water to cover the mixture reduce the heat and let the mixture boil slowly(!) for about 20-30 minutes. During this time make sure that none of the contents stick to the walls of the pot.

Once this time has passed, add your spices and salt. Grind some black peppercorns into the boiling mix as well, the more the better. In essence zirvak(зирвак) is ready.

Now get your rice which should have been soaking for 20 minutes prior to this. Dump it on the meat and spread evenly over the pot. Add enough BOILING water to cover all of the rice evenly by 2cm (no more than this).

On low heat, let the pot boil evenly for further 30 minutes and do not cover it while it does this. During this process, rice absorbs even more moisture and the taste and your dish is complete.

Once ready to serve, put a handful of diced fresh scallion over the dish to add a zesty bite which will remove the impression of “fattyness” from your mouth when eating !

ENJOY !

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