Plov

When one thinks of the Central Asian delicacies, the image of grills, kebabs, and rice with various meats usually come to mind. As it turns out, there are some central Asian dishes that can be veganized: famous Uzbek rice dish plov, originally cooked with lamb, totally rocks with white mushrooms. In fact my non-vegetarian friends wipe it off the table before anything else.


Plov is almost a religious dish in Uzbekistan. Some say there are over 100 various recipes for it. It is a must-have for any festive occasions be it wedding, birthday, new year celebration or just a get together. With little or no concern for cholesterol locals can serve it even for breakfast in all its nutritious glory. But, isn’t it delicious!

For a small but hungry group of 6 people you will need:

1 lb white button mushrooms
1 lb oblong or basmati rice
1 lb ripe but not very juicy carrots
3 medium size onions
1 1/2 heads of garlic
couple of red chili peppers (optional)
2-3 teaspoon cumin (whole works better than ground)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
pinch of saffron (optional, to boost up the color)
Oil
Boiling hot water
Salt

Traditionally plov is cooked in a kazan, a round shaped thick-walled cast iron cooking pot. This is not the easiest thing to find outside Central Asia so feel free to use a Dutch oven or some sort of particularly thick-walled wok with non-stick coating.


Preparation

  • Rice must be washed (Uzbeks are superstitious to wash it thrice) and soaked in slightly warm water. Make sure that water completely covers the rice. If the rice dries out it will crack and the final dish will have a porridge-like consistency.
  • Carrots need to be julienned into long straws (5-10mm). Do not make them too thin, 3 mm is just perfect. And do not look for shortcuts with a grater; you want the carrot slices to stay in one piece when the dish is cooked.
  • Onions are cut into half rings about 5 mm thick. White mushrooms should be cleaned and cut into halves. If they are small keep them in one piece.


Zirvak – the base for your plov

  • Pour about 1/2 inch of olive oil into the pot and heat it up well. To remove all smells from the oil fry small whole onion in it till it’s dark brown. Throw the onion away (this step is optional, since cooking oils sold today are refined and free of impurities or smells).
  • Put a handful of onion into the very hot oil. Keeping the heat high, fry onions until light golden.

  • Add mushrooms and fry for 3-4 minutes. Stir the mix occasionally and keep the heat at maximum.
  • Now is the turn for the carrots and the rest of the onions; put the mix on top and do not stir at first, to allow carrots absorb the aroma. In a minute or so stir everything carefully so that the carrot slices do not get damaged. Add cumin, coriander, and saffron (if using), reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.

  • Keep boiling water ready. In 10 minutes pour water so that it slightly covers the contents. Add salt so that the vegetables taste a bit too salty; since the rice itself will not be salted; the taste will get diluted later on. Put the unpeeled head of garlic and a pod or two of red hot chili. Do not cut your chili unless you want your plov to taste really spicy.
  • It is time for a break now. Reduce heat to minimum and let the mix simmer without covering for about 40 minutes. By the end of this time, the water will be partially evaporated and zirvak (the base for plov) is ready.


Rice finale

  • It is now time to get rice into action. Pour off the water from it and spread the rice evenly on top of zirvak. Carefully over the knife edge pour hot water on top so that the rice is slightly covered with it. Make sure not to stir anything from this point on.

  • Increase the heat to maximum so that the water starts boiling as soon as possible. As water slowly evaporates it goes down the top layer of rice embracing each rice grain with flavor from zirvak. As the water level goes down gradually reduce the heat to medium-small.
  • In about 5 minutes rice will get steamed on top and increase in volume. Using the spoon handle make a few holes in rice right through to the bottom of the pot and insert garlic cloves inside.
  • Cover the pot as airtight as possible (you might even want to wrap the pot cover with a cloth), reduce the heat to minimum and simmer for about 25 minutes.

Once the plov is ready, turn off the heat and let it “ripen” for a couple of minutes. Then mix gently and it is ready to be served.

Traditionally the dish is served on the big flat plate (lyagan) with a fresh salad made with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.  The best drink for such nutritious dish would be hot green tee.


Dasha lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaisia.  She writes a wonderfuly illustrated blog about this exotic country (unfortunately only in Russian, but take a look at the pictures).  Her articles have been previously published in Doctor Travel and Cosmopolitain.

Recipe: Dasha Kirienko
Photography: Eric Gloutnay
Dasha Kirienko