Ten years ago, I told everyone about how delicious pilaf turns out if you cook it not just with quince, but replace carrots with quince in the pilaf. Since then, I haven’t stopped experimenting and now I’m ready to talk about it the way this dish deserves.

Actually, the idea for this dish is not mine. While reading the book of my great countryman Abu Ali ibn Sino (Avicenna), I saw a mention of such pilaf in connection with its medicinal properties.
I prepared the first pilaf with quince using the usual “Uzbek” Uzbek technology at the same time. But having moved to Russia, I discovered that other varieties of quince are more common in the world, the fruits of which do not tolerate roasting and subsequent stewing very well, and even when cut into strips. Cooking in large pieces did not allow the aroma and taste of quince to be fully conveyed to the pilaf. Therefore, I had to look for other ways to prepare this pilaf.

You already know that there are three main ingredients in pilaf - rice, water and oil.
Onions in pilaf are necessary, first of all, to flavor the oil. If you cut it crosswise, it better imparts its taste and aroma into the oil, but subsequently it melts and as a result, a mixture of oil and onion produces a preparation for a thick sauce. In the pilaf I had in mind, this would be superfluous. Therefore, I cut the onion lengthwise - this way it will release less of its juice into the oil, but will acquire the consistency that I need in pilaf.

Fry the onion in half the planned amount of oil over medium heat, stirring more and more often, but carefully with a spatula and reducing the heat.

At the end of preparing the onions, add half a teaspoon of turmeric.

Place the quince in another frying pan with a second portion of oil, sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar and ground cumin and cook for the first time under the lid, stirring rarely and very carefully so as not to break the quince.

When the juice comes out of the quince and the sugar melts, you need to remove the lid and let the moisture evaporate so that the sugar caramelizes on the quince, thus strengthening the cumin on its surface.
By this time, the quince should have decreased in volume, become softer, but under no circumstances should it disintegrate into mush.

Boil the rice, but do not cook it a little - you must take into account that both the quince and the onion still contain a fair amount of moisture, which will be absorbed not only by the walls of the porous pot in which the pilaf will be cooked further, but also by the rice itself.

In principle, at the second stage, pilaf can be cooked in a cauldron, but to prevent the rice from burning, you need a kazmakh, which will divert the taste of the pilaf towards traditional folding pilaf, which is not what you would like.
You can probably cook pilaf in a cast iron or ceramic enamel bowl by placing it in the oven, but then you need to place a cloth napkin under the lid of the dish so that it absorbs excess moisture. In a porous ceramic pot, excess moisture will be absorbed into the pot itself.

Arrange rice, onion and quince in layers.

Pour oil on top from the frying pans in which the onions and quinces were fried and, if desired, saffron infusion.

Place the pot in a moderately heated wood stove (170-180C) or in the oven. We set the oven to drop the temperature within an hour to 120-130C, for the second hour the pot should stand in the oven at a temperature of 120C, and if you need to keep it in the oven longer (which is good for pilaf!), then the temperature should be lowered to 100C, etc., up to 85C, if you cook pilaf for four hours, to get a masterpiece as a result, and not just food.

I deliberately did not talk about the type of rice - you can choose any one suitable for cooking using the folding method (that is, at least not Uzbek varieties of rice and not those for porridges and risotto).
I deliberately didn’t even say a word about the type of oil - you are no longer small children, but masters yourself, able to choose, depending on the circumstances, between duck fat, ghee and olive oil or other vegetable oil - you won’t put any nasty stuff in your mouth, right?

Well, bon appetit!
This pilaf is good to eat in late autumn, in winter, if you suddenly don’t want meat, and even in spring, if it’s still very cold.

In the fall, you can diversify the menu and treat your friends to a truly magical dish: pilaf with quince meat and raisins will decorate the table. And it is prepared quickly and easily, even novice cooks can master the dish.

Pilaf with quince, raisins and chicken

If you want to cook a very light, low-fat pilaf, choose chicken: pilaf with quince, raisins and chicken will not add extra pounds to you.

Ingredients:

• unrefined oil – 50 ml;
• brown onion – 2 pcs.;
• chicken thigh meat – 600 g;
• carrots – 1 pc.;
• ripe aromatic quince – 1 pc.;
• salt and spices - to taste;
• dark seedless raisins – 1 handful;
• white garlic – 1 head;
• oblong yellow rice - 1.5 cups.

Preparation

1. The first step in preparing pilaf is making zirvak. This is the name of a mixture of onions, carrots and meat. We clean the onions and carrots, chop them into small cubes and begin sautéing in heated oil.
2. When the mixture changes color, add the chicken cut into pieces. Stirring, simmer the zirvak for 10 minutes.
3. While the meat is cooking, rinse the rice, rinse the raisins with boiling water, peel and cut the quince into small cubes. Place everything together with salt and spices in a cauldron.
4. Stir and pour 3 glasses of water.
5. Reduce the heat as much as possible, cover with a lid and stay away from the stove for 20-25 minutes. Under no circumstances should you interfere with pilaf!
6. 5 minutes before readiness, carefully press the peeled garlic cloves into the pilaf.
7. Turn off the heat, cover the cauldron tightly and let the pilaf stand for at least half an hour.

We get delicious, crumbly pilaf with quince, raisins and meat; The recipe can be modified to use melted chicken fat instead of butter.

Classic pilaf

Of course, quince is not cooked with chicken, but with lamb in lamb fat. This is also very tasty, and if you don’t like the specific smell of lamb fat, cook pilaf with lamb and quince in vegetable oil, choosing meat that is practically odorless.

Ingredients:

• lamb (meat from the rear or back) – 1 kg;
• brown onion – 700 g;
• Unrefined, odorless sunflower oil – ½ cup;
• large carrots – 2 pcs.;
• salt, spices - to taste;
• aromatic large quince – 2-3 pcs.;
• yellow long rice – 0.7 kg.

Preparation

For those who have never dealt with lamb, we will tell you how to cook quince pilaf with young lamb meat.

1. We wash the meat, dry it, cut it into small pieces.
2. Place the meat in the heated oil and stir over high heat to achieve uniform lightening. The pieces of meat should be covered with a crust on all sides.
3. After this, add grated carrots and finely chopped onions. Simmer over low heat under the lid for at least half an hour, stirring.
4. We wash the rice and prepare the quince: wash it, cut out the seed pods and cut the fruit into cubes.
5. Add rice and quince, salt, add spices (it is better to buy a ready-made mixture “For pilaf” with cumin, turmeric, barberry).
6. Pour water so that it covers the rice and meat by one and a half to two fingers.
7. Stir the pilaf well once, cover and cook the pilaf over low heat for about a quarter of an hour. After this you can add garlic if you want.
8. Preheat the oven and move the cauldron into it. Leave the pilaf on the lowest heat for another 10-15 minutes. You can preheat the oven, put in the pilaf and turn off the heat. In a quarter of an hour it will just “reach” in the cooling oven.

During the quince ripening season, be sure to prepare pilaf with quince - this dish will captivate you with its taste, complemented by various seasonings and light fruity sourness.

Pilaf can be prepared with the addition of any type of meat: beef, pork, lamb, turkey, rabbit, etc. Remember that all products should not be placed in a cauldron or container with a non-stick bottom at the same time, since the meat must simmer for at least 40 minutes so that it is tender and easily disassembled into fibers. Quince has about the same cooking time, so add both meat and fruit together. Add spices to your taste, but the following are required: salt, ground black pepper, turmeric, ground dried paprika, dried barberry.

So, let's prepare all the necessary ingredients and start cooking! Rinse the pork thoroughly in water. Choose a roll or cutlet part so that the meat has greasy streaks. Cut the washed meat into portions. Peel the carrots, quinces and onions. Cut the quince into large cubes, and the onions and carrots into medium or small ones.

Heat a cauldron or container with a non-stick bottom on the stove and pour in vegetable oil, which can easily be replaced with lard. Add all the cuts and fry for 6-8 minutes on medium heat.

All cuts should be golden brown.

As soon as this happens, pour in hot water, add salt, ground black pepper, bay leaves and other spices, add dried barberry. Cover the container with a lid, turn on medium heat and simmer the meat for 35-40 minutes.

After this, rinse the rice, pour it into the middle of the container, peel the garlic cloves, rinse and place on the rice. Cover the container with a lid, reduce the heat to low and simmer the pilaf for another 15-20 minutes.

Then turn off the heat and let the dish cook for another 5-10 minutes - during this time the rice will completely absorb the liquid.

Place the prepared pilaf with quince meat on plates or bowls, serve, garnished with fresh herbs.

Have a nice day!

The king of Uzbek cuisine is, of course, pilaf! Even if an Uzbek man appears in the kitchen only as a guest, then he is simply obliged to cook pilaf. There are many places in Uzbekistan where you can come with your own products and cook pilaf yourself, renting one of the many cauldrons that stand there in rows. As a rule, such places are set up next to a pond, so that after preparing the pilaf, you can eat it in a good setting and in a cool, picturesque place.
The pilaf, the preparation of which I will talk about, I prepared and filmed back in the fall, so I prepared it with quince - this is a traditional autumn version of pilaf. To prepare ordinary pilaf (if you want to cook it, following my advice), you only need to omit the part that touches the quince, and you will get “ordinary Fergana pilaf”))).
Here's the result:

Ingredients: Lamb meat, tail fat (optional), onions, carrots, garlic, rice, spices.
The usual “classic” proportions: 1:1:1:1 - a kilogram of meat, per kilogram of onions, a kilogram of carrots and a kilogram of rice. I prefer more meat and onions)))).
I buy meat and lamb fat from Vladimir Kholodov at the Danilovsky market, Devzra rice and yellow carrots - there from Muhammad aka or his son Bafo (see post about).
Yellow carrots grow well in our latitudes, even living in the Urals, we grew them without problems.
Here is a photo of me next to my stationary cauldron at home in the Moscow region with a bunch of fresh yellow carrots:

But the pilaf that I will describe was prepared at home in a small cauldron, because it was autumn, too cold to cook outside. Moreover, the majority have just ordinary home stoves, and a cauldron can be bought at any market - where representatives of the sunny republics sell spices, dried fruits and dishes.
So, let's begin:
For the pilaf, I use the meat from the leg of lamb with a layer of good fat, so when I cut it, I make sure that there is fat on every piece:

Cut the onion into half rings:

Cut yellow carrots into strips:

In no case and under any circumstances do not use a grater to cut carrots, otherwise you will end up with rice porridge and not crumbly pilaf.

If you don't have yellow carrots, use regular ones.
As a rule, I do not use vegetable oil, but if there is no lamb fat, then it is better to use refined corn oil - it is most suitable due to its temperature regime and the absence of a pronounced odor (unlike sunflower or soybean oil). In the markets you can find cottonseed oil brought from Uzbekistan, but for beginners I would not recommend using it, since it must first be calcined, etc.
Heat the cauldron over good heat and maintain a high temperature while frying meat and vegetables.
Lamb fat is cut into small pieces and rendered in a heated cauldron:

When it is fried, you need to take it out - a wonderful snack combined with bread, onions and salt. With this appetizer, the cook drinks a glass of vodka to ensure the pilaf is a success:

If you have a lamb bone left after trimming the meat, you can fry it and remove it before cooking, and therefore return it to the broth.
Place the onion in the heated fat (or oil):

When it turns golden:

put the meat:

Stir vigorously with a slotted spoon to ensure uniform frying of the meat:

After our meat is covered with a golden brown crust, add carrots:

and continue to actively mix.

Time for spices, the main one of which is cumin - it will give its bright aroma to meat and vegetables. I also add saffron (although in fact it is not saffron at all, but in Uzbekistan everyone calls it that - they found an excellent replacement for expensive and rare Indian saffron))))) to give color to the broth:

I also add jambul, but this is my personal quirk - I love it in all Uzbek dishes))).

Rub the cumin between your palms and add to the meat and vegetables, mix:

Add saffron:

and jambul:

Now add hot, just boiled water. Add water through a slotted spoon so that the stream of water does not hit the bottom of the cauldron:

The water should completely cover the meat and vegetables, and a couple of centimeters above.
Now is the time to reduce the heat and achieve a slow and even simmer.

The resulting broth with vegetables is called zirvak, which is what we will call it in the future.
Now add a couple of whole heads of garlic to the zirvak, having first peeled off the top husk:

Several hot peppers:

Check the integrity of the peppers, otherwise the broth will be spicy to the point of impossibility of consumption, and a whole, undamaged pepper will not affect the spiciness of the zirvak in any way - spicy lovers will then add it to their plate themselves.
In the meantime, we’ll add a spoonful of salt to the zirvak:

Add quince to zirvak:

after cutting into four parts, removing the core and washing:

Now our zirvak looks like this:

In this state, it should simmer slowly for about 40 minutes so that the zirvak acquires all the flavors of meat, vegetables, quince and spices, and at this time we will deal with rice.
Rice of the "Devzra" variety has a brownish color from the pollen remaining after peeling - it will be washed off when washed. Before washing, be sure to sort the rice to remove small pebbles, unhusked grains of rice, specks, etc. Usually women do this while the man works his magic over the zirvak. The sorted rice is poured with warm water and soaked for 30 minutes (while your zirvak arrives). Now you have time to prepare a salad of onions and tomatoes, relax before the most important part of the process of preparing pilaf, and re-read this post again)))). If you don’t have “Devzra” rice, then you can use other varieties: “Langa”, “Pobeda” - it’s better to consult the Uzbeks at the market. From store-bought ones, in the absence of market ones, I used steamed rice "Golden" (in my opinion, "Mistral"). Under no circumstances use basmati, wild and other varieties of exotic rice, otherwise you will get pilaf with an exotic taste)))). Once I used some kind of rice, it tasted like barley: look - rice, eat - barley)))).
Well-washed rice is rice that no longer turns the water brown, beige or pink. Uzbeks say that you need to wash rice at least 7 times - this is true for “devzra” rice.
Washed Devzra rice looks like this:

If your rice is white and without burgundy stripes, then the market sold you regular brick-dyed rice)))).
Before adding rice, remove garlic, pepper, quince and large pieces of meat with bones (if any) from the zirvak, otherwise they will interfere with the uniform cooking of the rice.

And add salt again and check for salt. Zirvak should be salty, even slightly bitter, because the rice will take some of the salt onto itself.
Use a slotted spoon to evenly distribute the rice in the cauldron:

DO NOT INTERFERE, DO NOT COMPACT.
This is what the rice inside the zirvak looks like:

Now we level it by pouring hot, just boiled water, breaking the stream with a slotted spoon:

The water should cover the rice by a couple of centimeters:

When boiling, water forms “volcanoes”; if there are few of them, and they are in the center, you need to help them form closer to the edges too:

To distribute the boiling evenly, I use a Chinese chopstick, making holes in the rice bed, which prevents the water from boiling away, otherwise the rice at the bottom will be overcooked and will remain damp on the surface.

When cooking pilaf over a fire, such problems usually do not occur, but if you cook on a stove, then the main source of heat is at the very bottom, and the walls of the cauldron do not warm up enough to ensure uniform boiling of the water and, accordingly, cooking of the rice.
The water has boiled away, even if something is boiling - it’s oil, to be sure, make a hole with a stick and make sure that it’s oil - it’s clear and not cloudy like broth.

Now it’s time to add the grated cumin again - this is to flavor the rice - and return our ingredients back to the dish, placing them on the surface of the rice:

Now, carefully use a slotted spoon to collect the rice from the edges of the cauldron and make a mound:

Cover with a suitable dish:

Why is this being done? The rice has already absorbed water, but it is not ready yet, so we need to arrange a “bath” for it, in which the rice will reach readiness under the influence of high temperature, without being overcooked due to excess moisture.
Close the lid and leave for 10-15 minutes.
I sometimes wrap the lid with a towel so that excess moisture from the steam does not condense and return back to the pilaf.

The pilaf is already ready, but I let it sit for another ten minutes so that the oil “calms down”, and at this time I give command to the family about readiness No. 1 - this means everything is ready for the table, wine and vodka are poured, a large dish (it is called “lyagan” or "tovak") I am ready to receive pilaf.
We remove the cover and see what we got:

Now we carefully carry out the “excavation” and place the garlic, pepper, and quince on a separate plate:

Only now can the pilaf be mixed so that the rice and meat are evenly distributed among themselves:

Place the pilaf on a tovak or large plate and garnish with garlic, quince and pepper:

Our dish is ready.
If you practice more often, you will find your rice, your meat, invent your own tricks and wisdom that will allow you to surprise your friends and family.

In the East quince pilaf- an autumn dish. That pleasant time when the sultry heat is over, the air is filled with the smell of ripe melons, there is an openwork shadow from the vineyards in the courtyards, and heavy buds of tea roses bend over the paths...
Quince, with its subtle tart aroma, adds pilaf an even more oriental flavor, the meat acquires new shades of taste. Exists, pilaf recipe, where carrots are completely replaced with quince. I will definitely somehow I'll cook such pilaf.

Products

1. 900 grams of rice, durum varieties. Be sure to be round grain, not steamed.

2. 1 kg. meat on the bones. Get it from the butcher at the market.

3. 100 gr. lamb fat cut from anywhere.

4. 1 kg. juicy carrots

5. 4 medium onions.

6. 2 heads of garlic.

7. 150-200 gr. vegetable (refined) oil.

8. Necessarily! You will need 1.5 tsp. “cumin” (cumin), without it it’s not pilaf.

9. Quince 1-2 pcs.

Since I have an electric stove, pilaf I will cook in 5 l. flat-bottomed pot. It’s good if you have a gas stove, and it’s very cool if you have a classic cauldron, however, steel utensils with a thick bottom, as well as a Chinese “Wok”, are also suitable.

We immediately make the entire preparation for pilaf. There will be no time to clean and cut while cooking.

1. cut, separating each rib with meat and removing the films. It is imperative to remove all films from beef.

2. Cut the lard into cubes.

3. Onion in half rings, or diced too.

4. Carrots in strips.

5. Remove the top skin from the garlic and cut off the rhizome.

The entire preparation can be placed on one dish, or placed in different cups, the main thing is that everything is at hand.

We heat the dishes very much, pour in the oil and also heat it to such an extent that a circle of onion thrown into it sizzles - it foams and instantly turns brown. Now, let's throw it away. When it turns brown, put it on a plate, it can be used as a snack. Place the seeds into the hot oil and stir vigorously.

Color pilaf It really depends on how dark the seeds have become.

Now throw in half of the prepared onion. It can be roasted until it is darker rather than golden. As soon as the onion is browned, add the meat pulp and mix.

We will not fry the pulp until golden brown, just enough for it to change color.

After that, throw in the remaining onion and fry it until golden brown.

Add carrots and stir. Important! The carrots need to be cut with a knife, no graters; you don’t need to improve the process, otherwise the pilaf will be spoiled.

The carrots need to be fried until they become flexible. Stir frequently. When the carrots are well limp. It’s time to pour water into the cauldron to prepare “zirvak” - the base pilaf. Pour 1 liter of water! Let's clean it up quince from the core, divide into 4 parts.

Place the garlic and quince in zirvak, now you already know what it is.

After boiling, cover with a lid and keep the heat low. Cook at low simmer for 1 hour.

After an hour, test the meat to see if it’s done, add the garlic and quince from the cauldron. Now add salt and spices. Zirvak should be a little salty, just a little bit for the rice.

Pour the rice onto the table and go through it from beginning to end - remove all excess, and then wash it in several waters. To do this, it is better to place the rice in a round-bottomed cup, even a plastic one. Wash the rice by squeezing it with your hands and passing it through your fingers. We drain the water over the edge, fill it again, wash it again, drain it, and so on until after washing the water remains clear. At least 6 times. Finally drain the water.

Now turn up the heat to maximum and spread it evenly over the entire surface. Level the rice with a slotted spoon.

Now, if there is not enough water, and it should be one cm above the rice, you can add it, there will be no other case. You should add water not directly to the rice, but to the slotted spoon.

Now is the most crucial moment. The fire must be strong. The water is simultaneously evaporated and absorbed by the rice. Rice and zirvak should never be mixed. Oh, you need to carefully use a slotted spoon to stroke the rice in a circle. We start stroking from the edges.

The rice begins to intensively absorb liquid, gradually swelling. We move it from the edges to the middle and monitor the color of the liquid between the rice and the walls of the cauldron. There is no need to “dig” deep. If water gets under the zirvak, pilaf will burn. We move and smooth the rice until the liquid is cloudy, and our process will end when it becomes transparent, this means that the water has evaporated, been absorbed by the rice and only fat remains.

Once the rice has absorbed all the water, make a hole in the center and place it in it. quince and garlic. We collect the rice in a heap, without mixing it with zirvak.

And now the important moment! As soon as the rice absorbs the water, the heat should be reduced to a minimum. In the case of gas, this is not difficult. On the electric stove I set it to one.

Now pour the cumin, crushed on the palm of your hand, evenly onto the rice mound.

Close the cauldron tightly with a lid and pilaf will cook on low heat for 30-35 minutes. After this time, turn off the heat and stir the finished pilaf. Place on a large platter, place the meat on top of the pilaf, quince and garlic.

Our pilaf with quince ready! Enjoy its taste.