Shah Ash - Royal Pilaf! (Khan plov). Photorecipe.
(Azerbaijani cuisine)

It's just insanely delicious pilaf - fragrant and tender,
crumbly rice soaked in oil, soft meat,
and fruits give a kind of sweet and sour accent.

Ingredients:
lamb or beef - 800 gr
rice - 800 gr.
Lavash thin - 3-4 packs of 70 gr.
butter - 600 gr.
onion - 1 pc.
apricot - 200 gr.
raisins - 150 gr.
chestnuts 150 gr. (I don't have chestnuts)
dried cherry plum - 150 gr. (I have no cherry plum)
turmeric, salt, spices for pilaf

Cooking:
First of all, I want to say that everything should be the best.
Ideal: Indonesian Basmati-type rice, apricots and raisins
shade dried and preferably pitted
(I found dried plums for sale, generally lovely!), Cherry plums can be
add, or you can not (cherry plum gives a well-detectable sourness
like babrberry, it's not for everybody. and here, in the Urals,
it is not on sale at all), also for cooking
a thick-walled brazier is required - ideally a round cast-iron cauldron,
but any thick cast aluminum brazier will do.
I have a 6-liter vertical (for city stoves, like a pan)
cast aluminium.

So, first of all, we wash the rice (I washed it for a couple of minutes
on a sieve) and soak in slightly warm salt n water
for at least 30 minutes.

Then drain the water, add a teaspoon of turmeric
and a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Pour fresh cold water, bring to a boil
and boil the rice until half cooked (See on the package
your rice. If it says cook for 20 minutes, then cook for 10 minutes).
Throw the rice in a sieve to drain excess water.

While the rice is cooking, cut the meat into small pieces.
(for example, cubes),

Then melt 50 grams of butter in a frying pan,

Fry the meat until golden brown, add chopped
onion cubes and fry for another 5-7 minutes, salt, pepper, and remove from heat.

Set aside 70 grams (less than half a pack) of oil
to lubricate the cauldron, melt the rest of the butter
(Ideally, we drown in a water bath. I'm lazy, I just melted it on fire).

Pour apricots and raisins with boiling water for 5-10 minutes, depending
from the degree of drying, drain the water.

Now we collect our Shakh-pilaf.
Grease the cauldron generously with oil.

We line the cauldron with strips of pita bread so that at the bottom
they overlapped, and the edges hung down.
Pour the bottom with a few tablespoons of melted butter.

We spread the third part of the rice. pouring oil,
Sprinkle with spices (with spices carefully, a little bit!).

Put the meat on the rice.

For meat again, a third of rice, pour oil,
a bit of spices, and put raisins and apricots on top.

Put the rest of the rice on top, drizzle with oil,
a bunch of spices.

We close the rice with the hanging ends of the strips of pita bread,
drizzle with remaining oil.

We close the cauldron with a lid and put it in the oven,
preheated to 180 degrees, for 1-1.5 hours.
Readiness is determined by a beautiful golden crust.
I didn’t look at the oven for an hour, then I looked -
it seemed that the crust was not ruddy enough -
left it in the oven for another 15 minutes.
When ready, take the cauldron out of the oven,
remove the cover - this is what it looked like for me:

Holding the pilaf with a spatula, drain the cauldron over the edge
oil (it will not be enough, but it will be), then
turn the cauldron onto a dish.
Cut into petals with a sharp knife. Do not wait,
that it will be a casserole, this is a real crumbly pilaf,
He so and is sprinkled on the dish!

Shah pilaf is the pride of the national Azerbaijani cuisine, and it is not just rice and meat, but a real culinary masterpiece that has absorbed all the charm of oriental cuisine. Exquisite and delicious crowned pilaf is treated to the most honored and dear guests - it is wrapped in pita bread and served as a huge hearty pie. In combination with spices, such a dish, in a crispy golden crown of lavash - can become a real decoration of the festive table. After all, it looks quite original and unexpected.

The dish got its name - royal pilaf, for the similarity of its shape with the crown of the supreme ruler. The main attribute of shah-pilaf is “gazmah” – an appetizing crispy lavash crust in which pilaf is cooked. For the filling according to the classic recipe, Basmati rice is used with the addition of tender beef meat, dried apricots, Azerbaijani chestnuts and spices.

1. Step-by-step recipe Shah pilaf with lamb and dried fruits

Ingredients:

• Rice - 600 gr.
• Meat (lamb, veal) - 600 gr.
• Onions - 2-3 pcs.
• Butter (melted) - 150 gr.
• White raisins - 100 gr.
• Dried apricots - 100 gr.
• Barberry - 50 gr.
• Dogwood - 100 gr.
• Garlic - 3-4 cloves.
• Lavash thin - 3 pcs.
• Turmeric
• Pepper

Cooking:

Rinse rice, soak for several hours.
Then boil until half cooked, adding turmeric to the water for color.

Soak dried apricots and raisins in boiling water for a few minutes, rinse.

Chop the onion, fry in butter until translucent.

Cut the meat.
Remove the onion from the pan, fry the meat in the remaining oil.

Cut dried apricots into strips, garlic finely.

Return the onion to the meat and add raisins, dried apricots, barberries, dogwood and garlic there.
Salt, pepper, turmeric and any spices - to your liking.
Stir and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Cut out two circles according to the size of the heat-resistant dishes in which the pilaf will be cooked.

Lubricate the sides well with oil, cover the bottom with pita bread.

Lavash cut into long strips, 5-6 cm wide.

Overlap the sides of the dish with strips of pita bread.

And so around the perimeter. Brush with melted butter.

Lay out 1/3 of the rice.

The second layer is half the meat.

Brush the top with oil, close the lid and place in the oven.
At t 200s - 1 hour.

In one hour...

Shah pilaf cover with a flat plate and turn over.

Cut with a sharp knife.

Putting it on a plate is quite difficult, everything crumbles
But so fragrant, tasty and unusual.

2. Shah pilaf with chicken

Ingredients

Salt 1 tsp Spices 3 tsp Garlic 4 cloves Raisins 70 grams Dried apricots 100 grams Butter 70 grams Onion 2 piece(s) Lavash 2 piece(s) Rice 400 grams Chicken 600 grams

Cooking

Put the rice in a saucepan. Sprinkle each centimeter layer of cereal with salt, spices, put small pieces of butter on it. Pour rice with water in proportions of 1:2. Don't stir! Cook until done.
Finely chop the meat, fry until golden brown. Chop the onion, put it to the meat, fry everything together for 7 minutes. Chop the dried apricots, mix with raisins, steam in boiling water.

Put dried fruits to the meat, fry for 2 minutes. Add salt and spices. Chop the garlic, put it in a pan, immediately remove it from the heat. Cut the pita bread into strips 5 cm thick. Lay them in a round shape, brush with melted butter.
Lay the meat and rice on the pita bread in layers. Cover it all with pita bread. Bake for about 40 minutes. Before serving, it is better to put the dish on a board and cut it like a cake.

3. Recipe for Shah pilaf with beef and hunting sausages

Beef-based pilaf is more satisfying and rich, and smoked sausages give the pilaf a breathtaking smoky smell.

Ingredients

• 700 g of beef;
• 0.5 kg of rice;
• 300g hunting sausages
• 4 pita bread;
• 350 g butter;
• 1.5 bulbs;
• 300 ml of broth;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 150 g of raisins and dried apricots;
• 100 g dried cranberries;
• 1 pinch of saffron;
• salt and spices for pilaf to taste.

Cooking

Boil rice with saffron and spices until half cooked, rinse.
Fry the chopped onion with 100 g of oil. Take it out and fry the meat in the same oil.
Return the onion to the skillet. Put there steamed and chopped dried fruits. Add garlic, spices, salt, broth, 50 g of oil. Extinguishes 10 min. under the lid. Cut pita bread into strips 5 cm thick. Lay them in a form, brush with melted butter. Spread layers of rice, chopped sausages and meat on pita bread. Drizzle rice with oil. Close it all with pita bread.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour. It is best to serve this dish with a salad of fresh vegetables and herbs.

All pilaf fans should definitely try this variation. It is especially good to serve such a dish on the festive table, because it looks really interesting.

4. Shah-pilaf in the test

Ingredients

• lamb or beef, or pork - 600-700 gr,
• rice - basmati - 1 glass,
• butter - 100g, Onion - 1 pc.,
• carrot-1pc,
• 1/2 bell pepper,
• apricots, raisins, cherry plums (barberry), chestnuts I replaced with Brazil nuts -6 pieces,
• turmeric, salt, spices for pilaf

dough- 50/50, on sour cream and kefir 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup kefir, added salt, flour 2 cups and drank.

Cooking:

Apricots and raisins, preferably pitted, cherry plum or barberry add a well-defined sourness.

Rinse the rice, and put it on the boil until half-ready, before finishing, add a little turmeric to the rice, you don’t need much to your liking, otherwise the rice will be bitter and the color will be ultra yellow, bright. Throw on a sieve and let the water drain. Transfer to a separate bowl and add 50g butter.

We cut the meat into ordinary medium-sized pieces as you cut into pilaf. We cook meat as for ordinary pilaf. In a heated frying pan or cauldron, melt fat tail fat, or heat butter.

In heated oil or fat, put the meat, fry until golden brown, salt, pepper, remove from heat. Add spices.

In a separate pan, fry onions, carrots, bell peppers. Fry and remove from heat.

Pour apricots and raisins with boiling water for 5-10 minutes, depending on the degree of drying, drain the water.
We collect our Shakh-pilaf.

Grease the cauldron generously with oil. We line the cauldron with rolled out dough. Pour the bottom with a few tablespoons of melted butter.

Lay out some of the rice. Raisin dried apricots, cherry plum. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with spices (neatly with spices, a little bit!).
We spread the meat on the rice. Again, a third of the rice on the meat, pour oil, a little spice, and put raisins and apricots on top.

Spread the remaining rice on top, pour over with oil, add a little spice.
We close the dough, pour over with oil. Knead the dough like dumplings,
We close the cauldron with a lid and put in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees, for 1-1.5 hours.
Holding the pilaf with a spatula, drain the oil over the edge of the cauldron (it will not be enough, but it will be), then turn the cauldron onto a dish.

Cut into petals with a sharp knife. Do not think that this will not be a casserole, this is a real crumbly pilaf, it just wakes up on a dish!

I like to cook pilaf, so I add these recipes to my piggy bank with pleasure. If you like it, cook it with pleasure.

INGREDIENTS

Medium-grain rice "Italika" ("Mistral") - 300 gr.

Lavash Armenian - 2 pcs. (I have "Wheat roll for making rolls" 1.5 sheets)

Meat (chicken, lamb) - 500 gr.

Onion - 2 pcs. (medium size)

Butter - 70 gr.

Dried apricots - 100 gr.

Raisins - 50 gr.

Garlic - 3-4 cloves

pinch of saffron

A pinch of turmeric

Spices for pilaf or a mixture of spices: salt, pepper, cumin, barberry, paprika

Vegetable oil for frying meat

_______ _________ _________

HOW TO COOK

Rinse rice. Put in a saucepan in layers (1 cm thick), shifting with thin slices of butter. Add salt (to taste), a pinch of saffron and turmeric. Pour rice with water in a ratio of 1: 2 and cook until tender.

Meanwhile, cut the meat into small pieces and fry until golden brown in vegetable oil.

Cut the onion into small cubes and add to the meat. Fry 5-7 minutes.

Soak raisins and dried apricots in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then cut the dried apricots into small pieces. Add raisins, dried apricots and spices to the meat, mix. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Mince garlic and add to mixture removed from heat. Mix.

Cut pita bread into strips, about 5 cm wide.

Melt butter. Lubricate them with a cauldron (baking dish). Lay the strips of pita bread in the form of a fan (overlapping), while lubricating them with melted butter. It is necessary to leave the hanging parts of the pita bread.

Put a layer of rice on the bottom. Then lay out a layer of meat. Alternating, lay out all the rice and meat.

Cover rice with hanging parts of pita bread, brush with oil. Cover the top of the pot with foil.

Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes at 160 degrees. Remove the foil 15-20 minutes before the end.

Put the pilaf from the cauldron on a dish. Cut the resulting "cake-pilaf" into portions with a sharp knife!

Vegetarian Azerbaijani shah-pilaf with dried fruits in lavash №1

The highlight of pilaf is that it is cooked with dried fruits, including raisins, but it is salty itself - and of course there is absolutely no meat in it! Plus, it is served very festively - baked in lavash sheets like a cake - it is not for nothing that this is a traditional wedding dish in his homeland. And here's how to cook it - a step-by-step recipe with a photo.

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 0.5 kg

Raisins - 150 gr

Dried apricots - 150 gr

Cherry plum / dogwood (or other dried fruit with a sour taste) - 150g

Walnut - 250 gr.

Carrots - 3 medium pieces

Butter - 1 pack 200 gr

Lavash thin - 1-2 pack

Cooking instructions

The secret of the correct Azerbaijani pilaf is in properly cooked rice. Basmati is used for pilaf (the longer the grain, the better). Rice must be soaked for half an hour in a large amount of cold water and then rinsed well under running cold water until the water becomes clear. After the rice is washed, it must be poured 3 times as much boiling water, salt and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Rice should be cooked until al dente - so that the inside of the rice is uniform in color, but still tastes raw. Rice with all excess liquid should be thrown into a sieve / fine colander and pour boiling water over it and leave to drain in a sieve. It is ready for further preparation of pilaf.

Wash dried fruits, dry and cut into small pieces (raisins, of course, do not need to be cut). Melt a third of a pack of butter in a frying pan and begin to brown the chopped dried fruits, after a few minutes add 2 tablespoons of sugar and a little salt to them so that they caramelize a little (this will happen literally a few minutes after adding sugar). Turn off the pan.

Cut the carrots into small cubes and sauté in vegetable oil until almost cooked. Salt.

Break the walnut into pieces and fry a little in a dry frying pan.

Cut pita bread into long strips about 5-6 cm wide. Melt the remaining butter. Now you can begin to form the pilaf itself.

In a deep form with a wide diameter (better - a thick-bottomed cauldron or pan), lay out the strips of pita bread overlapping, lubricating with oil. Let the rest of the length of the pita bread hang down on the sides - we will close the top of the pilaf with them. When the entire surface of the bottom and sides is covered with 2 layers of pita bread, it's time to stop and start putting the ingredients inside.

The first layer is rice (no more than 1 cm thick), evenly distribute dried fruits on it. Drizzle a little with melted butter. Rice again, evenly distribute carrots and walnuts on it. Drizzle a little oil. And so on until you run out of ingredients or the height of the pan - finish with rice.

Cover the rice with strips of pita bread on top, tucking them, as it were, on the other side. Lubricate the top of the pita bread with the rest of the oil.

Put the pan to bake in a preheated oven to 200 degrees - for 20-30 minutes - until the pita bread is golden brown.

After our vegetarian pilaf is “baked”, it must be turned over from the pan to a festive dish and served. You can cut it already in front of guests - it turns out very effectively!

Vegetarian Azerbaijani plov with dried fruits in lavash №2

Cooking time: 1 hour 10 min.

Preparation time: 1 hour 20 min.

Number of servings: 10 pcs.

Ingredients for the Shah Plov recipe:

Dry barberry 20 g Water 640 ml

Zira (Cumin) dry 1 tsp Light raisins 20 g

Dark raisins 50 g Dry coriander 1 tsp.

Dried apricots 100 g Chicken drumstick 350 g

Turmeric 1 tsp Lavash thin 1 pc.

Onion 2 pcs. Refined olive oil 2 tbsp. l.

Butter 70 gGhee butter 40 g

Carrot 1 pc. Basmati rice 250 g

Salt 1 tsp. Dried dates 100 pcs.

Garlic 3 cloves

Cooking shah-pilaf in lavash in Azerbaijani style

Lavash is a very popular ingredient for making snacks, salads, and pastries. Today, lavash serves as a cauldron in which pilaf is cooked. Pilaf retains juiciness, does not burn, acquires a crisp thanks to pita bread. Lavash, like a huge kazmakh around the whole pilaf. I am pleased to announce that the recipe for this plov in lavash was invented by the Azerbaijani chef Shah-Huseyn Kerimov.

Of course, I want to dwell on the variety of rice. Basmati rice should be of dense grain (for the first time I took small and thin rice - it boiled). A very diverse set of dried fruits adorns the taste and appearance of pilaf. Chicken meat should be taken from the thigh, because. breast meat does not give juiciness. Lavash used thin. The result is a crispy top layer, like baked phyllo dough. Learn how to make filo dough recipe.

How to cook a dish step by step with a photo at home

1. To cook pilaf, you need to take Armenian lavash, rice, chicken meat, carrots, onions, garlic, raisins, dried apricots, dates, raisins, barberries, cumin, turmeric, salt, coriander, water.

2. Rinse rice in seven waters, add water and set aside.

3. Rinse raisins, dried apricots, dates under running water. Dried apricots and dates (I had pitted) cut into strips.

4. Pour prepared dried fruits with hot water. Set aside.

5. Peel the onion. Cut into cubes. Saute over medium heat in olive oil 1 tbsp. until transparent, stirring.

6. Peel and wash carrots. Cut into thin sticks. Add to onion. Continue frying over medium heat.

7. Pour 1 tbsp melted butter into the multicooker bowl (I have a Panasonic multicooker). Add prepared rice.

8. Pour rice with cold water. Salt. Put the bowl in the multicooker. Close the lid. Turn on the cooking mode "Buckwheat". The time is set automatically. Wait for a sound signal. During cooking, the water will evaporate.

9. Rice is ready. Pour, diluted in 2 tbsp. boiling water, turmeric. Add 1 tbsp. melted butter. Put on the heating mode for 10 minutes.

10. Wash the meat. Dry with a napkin. Fry for 1 tbsp. olive oil over high heat.

11. Add spices and barberries to the fried onions and carrots. Mix. Keep on fire for 1 minute.

12. Add vegetables with spices to the fried meat. Keep on fire for another 2-3 minutes, stirring. Remove from fire. And then add prepared dried fruits. Chop the garlic. Add to main course. Mix. Set aside.

13. Carefully (so as not to break the grains) put the finished rice to the meat with vegetables, spices and dried fruits.

14. The filling is ready.

15. Lavash cut into strips, 5 cm wide, and the length should be such that the strip can cover the form in height.

16. Lubricate each of the strips with soft butter on one side.

17. Lubricate the walls and bottom of the mold with butter. Lay out successively strips of pita bread with butter against the wall of the mold.

18. Put the filling in the form.

19. Close the filling tightly with strips. Put some pieces of butter on top. Put in a hot oven. Bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour 10 minutes at 180ºC golden brown.

20. Cool the finished pilaf for a short time in the form and immediately take it out onto a dish so that the crust remains crispy.

Vegetarian Azerbaijani shah pilaf with dried fruits in lavash

Shah Ash - Royal Pilaf! (Khan plov). Photorecipe.
(Azerbaijani cuisine)

It's just insanely delicious pilaf - fragrant and tender,
crumbly rice soaked in oil, soft meat,
and fruits give a kind of sweet and sour accent.

Ingredients:
lamb or beef - 800 gr
rice - 800 gr.
Lavash thin - 3-4 packs of 70 gr.
butter - 600 gr.
onion - 1 pc.
apricot - 200 gr.
raisins - 150 gr.
chestnuts 150 gr. (I don't have chestnuts)
dried cherry plum - 150 gr. (I have no cherry plum)
turmeric, salt, spices for pilaf

Cooking:
First of all, I want to say that everything should be the best.
Ideal: Indonesian Basmati-type rice, apricots and raisins
shade dried and preferably pitted
(I found dried plums for sale, generally lovely!), Cherry plums can be
add, or you can not (cherry plum gives a well-detectable sourness
like babrberry, it's not for everybody. and here, in the Urals,
it is not on sale at all), also for cooking
a thick-walled brazier is required - ideally a round cast-iron cauldron,
but any thick cast aluminum brazier will do.
I have a 6-liter vertical (for city stoves, like a pan)
cast aluminium.

So, first of all, we wash the rice (I washed it for a couple of minutes
on a sieve) and soak in slightly warm salt n water
for at least 30 minutes.

Then drain the water, add a teaspoon of turmeric
and a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Pour fresh cold water, bring to a boil
and boil the rice until half cooked (See on the package
your rice. If it says cook for 20 minutes, then cook for 10 minutes).
Throw the rice in a sieve to drain excess water.

While the rice is cooking, cut the meat into small pieces.
(for example, cubes),

Then melt 50 grams of butter in a frying pan,

Fry the meat until golden brown, add chopped
onion cubes and fry for another 5-7 minutes, salt, pepper, and remove from heat.

Set aside 70 grams (less than half a pack) of oil
to lubricate the cauldron, melt the rest of the butter
(Ideally, we drown in a water bath. I'm lazy, I just melted it on fire).

Pour apricots and raisins with boiling water for 5-10 minutes, depending
from the degree of drying, drain the water.

Now we collect our Shakh-pilaf.
Grease the cauldron generously with oil.

We line the cauldron with strips of pita bread so that at the bottom
they overlapped, and the edges hung down.
Pour the bottom with a few tablespoons of melted butter.

We spread the third part of the rice. pouring oil,
Sprinkle with spices (with spices carefully, a little bit!).

Put the meat on the rice.

For meat again, a third of rice, pour oil,
a bit of spices, and put raisins and apricots on top.

Put the rest of the rice on top, drizzle with oil,
a bunch of spices.

We close the rice with the hanging ends of the strips of pita bread,
drizzle with remaining oil.

We close the cauldron with a lid and put it in the oven,
preheated to 180 degrees, for 1-1.5 hours.
Readiness is determined by a beautiful golden crust.
I didn’t look at the oven for an hour, then I looked -
it seemed that the crust was not ruddy enough -
left it in the oven for another 15 minutes.
When ready, take the cauldron out of the oven,
remove the cover - this is what it looked like for me:

Holding the pilaf with a spatula, drain the cauldron over the edge
oil (it will not be enough, but it will be), then
turn the cauldron onto a dish.
Cut into petals with a sharp knife. Do not wait,
that it will be a casserole, this is a real crumbly pilaf,
He so and is sprinkled on the dish!

It just so happens that a lot of new readers come to each of my posts. And, as a rule, these people are new to cooking.
And I know what they will say about this pilaf in advance: "Since there is no meat and carrots here, then this is not pilaf, but porridge!"
I don’t even take offense at them, so what if people still don’t know something interesting that can brighten their lives and diversify the table?

I just have to tell everything from the beginning every time! For example, to talk about the fact that more than half of the world's pilafs are cooked separately, that is, rice is cooked separately, and everything else is cooked separately. And it all starts every time with the fact that they boil water three to four times more in volume than the volume of rice.
Everything is exactly the same as when boiling pasta: for example, five liters of boiling water and five tablespoons of salt are taken per kilogram of dry rice. Only rice must be soaked before boiling in warm, up to 60C, salty water - did you know about this?
And now, the rice is cooked to the desired degree of readiness. It's very easy because it's very hard to go wrong with this method!

When the rice is ready, the water is poured into a large colander or sieve and all the water is allowed to drain. Next, this rice is transferred to a cauldron and the second stage of pilaf preparation begins - steaming rice. Most often, at this stage, the bottom of the cauldron is laid out with thinly rolled dough. The fact is that when the dough is fried it is very tasty, and when the rice burns, the smell from it spreads throughout the cauldron.

Everyone loves the crust of dough that forms at the bottom of the cauldron. Usually she is not even enough, the children argue because of her! And this love led to the invention of a new pilaf, which is called "Khan-pilaf". Its essence is that rice is, as it were, wrapped in a thin dough and baked in this form.
Usually, the meaning of steaming is that some of the water from the rice evaporates and is absorbed by a napkin under the lid. Here, the dough itself absorbs excess moisture and, in addition, adorns the rice itself with its smell.

So that the dough does not dry out and does not burn, but is deliciously fried, it is smeared with melted butter.

The mold itself is also lubricated with ghee.
You can take any shape, even from thin metal. But in this case, you must very carefully choose the temperature of the oven, where the pilaf is cooked in the second stage. For example, at a temperature of 130C, the dough will definitely not burn, but the pilaf will warm up and the dough will brown only after 4 hours at least.

Another thing is the ceramic form! The properties of ceramics are such that it conducts heat very slowly and, accordingly, transfers it very slowly to products that come into contact with it. The rate at which heat passes through ceramics is as close as possible to the thermal conductivity of the products themselves. That is why food cooked in ceramic dishes is so delicious!

Rice is shaken and placed in a mold. It is necessary that the rice does not lie in a compacted form, but freely - so that the steam can circulate among the rice grains.

If there is saffron, then it would be good to grind it in a mortar with salt or sugar and pour boiling water over it to infuse it.

Saffron infusion should be poured over rice now, and not later, as is done in traditional folding pilafs.

And ghee should be put in rice now, not later. Although later it would be more correct - when the rice dries out, free pores remain in it, into which the oil is absorbed very easily. But I have an idea for this!

Everything, the pilaf is closed, but you can not really care about tightness.

Do you understand, yes, that in fact this form was made for another, for baking bread? I showed how this form works the other day. And here I use it "upside down", but only at the first stage. After about 40 minutes at a temperature of 160C, the bottom of the kazmakh (dough around rice) has already browned. Then I turned this form over, the dough and rice sank to the bottom and in 20 minutes the other part of the dough, already warmed up, browned.

Do you understand what was happening with the oil at that time? At first, the oil melted and sank down, sliding over the rice, which was not yet quite ready for the perception of oil.
And then, when I turned the pilaf over, the oil flowed over the rice again. But this time, the rice was already dry and willingly absorbed the oil.

As a result, all the oil ended up inside the rice. After all, what is pilaf? Pilaf is rice cooked in two or more stages and soaked in oil. If the oil is flavored with other products, then the taste and aroma of these products goes into rice. In this case, the butter has acquired the taste of fried dough, and this taste is pleasant to many representatives of that part of the world where bread is the head of everything.

The result is pilaf, in which there is enough kazmakh for everyone and where rice itself acquires a unique taste and aroma.
Dozens of varieties of seasonings and sauces can be prepared for this pilaf - you want meat, you want chicken, you want dried fruits and nuts. Everything is limited only by your imagination!
And once again for those who have pilaf, this is the only forever frozen dish with a fixed composition of meat, carrots and rice. The world is much bigger, and plov is much more beautiful than you think! Come with me, I'll show you something you didn't know yet!