Silk Road Pilaf

There are tens of pilaf variations within Silk Road geographical areas.

Shown here is the simplest and most basic recipe with minimum ingredients. Flavorful and truly delicious. Original pilaf comes with the lamb. Instead of lamb pieces any other meat including ground beef can be used. With ground beef cooking time is about 35 mins (add rice to the pot after cooking ground beef for 10 minutes).

Note: original pilaf has to have a lot of meat. The recipe below is a lighter version, only 1/2 pound meat. Divided between four people, this amount of meat is only for taste, not for adding calories.

Silk Road Pilaf

Prep time:  5 minsCook time:  55 minsTotal time:  1 hour

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

3 Tbps cooking oil

1 large onion, cut

½ pound meat (lamb, beef or chicken) cut into stew size pieces

2 medium carrots

1 tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp caraway seeds (optional)

salt/pepper to taste

2 and a half cups of rice (basmati preferred)

4 cups of boiled hot water

3 cloves garlic

Instructions

Rinse rice under warm water in a deep bowl until water is clear

Pour in cold water to cover rice completely and set aside

In a thick bottomed heavy pot heat the oil

Saute onions until golden

Add carrots and continue frying for 1 minute

Add meat and stir until it browns a bit

Add turmeric, paprika, pepper, caraway seeds (optional)

Pour in hot water 1 inch above the contents

Salt to your taste

Simmer over low to medium heat covered, for 30 min

Drain rice and add to the pot

Do NOT stir, rice should be covering all contents below

Add water to the pot until it is ½″ (half an inch) or 2.5 cm above the top of the rice

Sprinkle a small pinch of salt on top of water which covers rice

Cover the pot with its lid and simmer pilaf for another 20 min

Stir pilaf well, mixing up meet, carrots and rice

Add minced garlic to pilaf and cook for 5 more min in a covered pot

Images of Silk Road pilaf cooking process: