Plov recipe

Rice steamed untouched over a base of hand-cut carrot matchsticks and lamb, then turned out so the layers show.

1 hour and 55 minutesmedium10 ingredients

Ingredients

• 700 g carrot
• 700 g lamb
• 700 g long grain rice
• 150 g lamb tail fat
• 2 onions
• 2 garlic
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1200 ml water

How to make Plov

1. Rinse 700 g of long grain rice until the water runs clear and leave it in warm salted water while you build the base.
2. Cut 700 g of carrots by hand into matchsticks about 5 mm thick. Never grated, never in rounds: the julienne is what makes plov plov, and its weight matches the meat.
3. Render 150 g of diced lamb tail fat in a kazan or heavy pot until the oil just smokes, then lift out the crisp scraps.
4. Fry 2 sliced onions to deep gold, add 700 g of cubed lamb and sear it hard, then add the carrots and let them soften 10 minutes, turning them as little as possible.
5. Pour in 1200 ml of water, add 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and simmer this zirvak uncovered for 30 minutes.
6. Drain the rice and spread it over the zirvak in an even layer. From here on do not stir: the layers stay separate.
7. Pour 1200 ml of boiling water gently over a skimmer so the rice is covered by about 1.5 cm, bury 2 whole heads of garlic in it, and boil hard uncovered until the water drops to the level of the rice.
8. Poke a few holes down to the bottom with a chopstick, mound the rice into a dome, cover tightly and steam on the lowest heat for 25 minutes.
9. Turn the pot out onto a platter so the meat and carrots sit on top of the rice, and put the garlic heads on the mound.

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