Azerbaijan / Main
Shah plov
Pilaf baked in a crown of lavash. The crust holds its shape and is cut in wedges like a pie.
Ingredients
- Basmati rice600 g
- Lamb, boneless, in cubes700 g
- Thin lavash3
- Onion2
- Chestnuts, peeled200 g
- Dried apricots100 g
- Raisins80 g
- Clarified butter180 g
- Saffron1 pinch
- Turmeric1 tsp
- Salt and pepperto 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
Soak the rice in salted water for an hour, then boil it seven minutes in plenty of water and drain.
Steep the saffron in three spoons of boiling water and leave it; it gives both colour and scent.
Brown the lamb, add the onion and cook until soft. Add the chestnuts, apricots, raisins and turmeric and stew for twenty minutes.
Butter a deep dish generously and line it with overlapping lavash, letting the edges hang outside.
Layer it: rice, filling, rice again. Pour over the saffron infusion and the rest of the butter.
Fold the lavash edges over the top, cover with foil and bake at 180 °C for forty minutes, then uncover and give it fifteen more to colour.
Rest ten minutes, cover with a platter and invert. Cut it at the table.
