Tajikistan / Main
Tajik oshi palav
Pilaf with mutton, yellow carrot and a whole head of garlic, recognised by UNESCO as heritage.
Ingredients
- Mutton, on the bone, in large pieces800 g
- Mutton fat150 g
- Devzira or short-grain rice700 g
- Yellow carrots, in thick batons800 g
- Onions3
- Garlic, whole heads2
- Cumin seed2 tsp
- Barberries2 tbsp
- Chickpeas, soaked overnight100 g
- Saltto taste
Quantities are auto-calculated from the original recipe as a guide. Items without numbers (e.g. “to taste”) are not changed.
Method 7 steps
Rinse the rice through seven changes of water and soak it an hour in warm salted water.
Render the mutton fat in the cauldron and lift out the cracklings.
Brown the meat hard, add the onion and fry it golden.
Add the carrot and cook ten minutes, leaving it undisturbed for the first five so it heats rather than weeps.
Add boiling water two fingers above, along with the chickpeas, cumin, barberries and salt, and simmer the zirvak forty minutes.
Spread the rice in an even layer, press in the garlic heads and add boiling water a centimetre above the rice.
Cook on a high flame until the water has gone, mound the rice, pierce it to the bottom, cover and hold twenty minutes on the lowest heat.
