Beef pilaf - all the secrets of cooking a Central Asian dish

Kitchen appliances and utensils:cooker, cauldron, bowl, cutting board, knife, spoon, spatula.

Ingredients

Step cooking

1. We take 1 kg of rice and rinse it thoroughly until the water is clean. Then we soak it in cold water and set it aside. There should be little water, only to slightly cover the rice.
   
2. We cut 1.5 kg of meat. You need to clean the film and cut into small pieces. For pilaf, it is better to take not a ham, but more tender meat.
   
3. Pour 250 ml of sunflower oil into a cauldron and set it on fire. The readiness of the oil can be determined by putting a piece of onion there. When the onion is gilded, the oil is ready.
   
4. Now you can put the meat there. We lower the meat in parts so that the oil does not cool, and the meat turns a golden crust. Then all the pieces of meat are fried, and the juice remains inside the pieces. Fry the meat over high heat, stirring occasionally.
   
5. I wash and peel carrots (600 g) and onions (400 g). Cut the carrots into strips. To do this, we first cut it into slices, and then diagonally with straws. You can grate carrots on a grater too, but then when cooking it will turn into gruel (and this is no longer pilaf).
   
6. Chop the onion into quarter rings. During cooking, it will practically dissolve, leaving only taste and aroma.
   
7. When all the meat becomes evenly golden, we throw the onion into the cauldron, mix and continue to fry.
   
8. If the onion is already gilded, has become caramel color, you can add carrots. Mix and continue to fry. Carrots will give pilaf color and, of course, taste. Fry the carrots until they become soft. Do not forget to stir occasionally so that it is evenly fried. Since the fire is strong, it will happen soon. We remind you: we fry everything at maximum heat.
   
9. When the carrots become soft, salt, add spices and mix.
   
10. Insert the whole unpeeled (but washed) garlic and put the whole hot pepper.
    
11. Fill everything with water so that it slightly covers the meat.
    
12. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 1 hour, until the meat is soft.
    
13. While the meat is cooking, the rice will swell and increase in volume.
    
14. After an hour, we put rice on top of the meat, level it, and fill it with water. Pour water 1 finger above the rice. Salt and increase the fire.
    
15. As soon as it begins to boil strongly, reduce the gas, and wait until rice appears on the surface.
    
16. When it begins to boil intensively, we reduce the gas. When the rice has fully appeared on the surface, you can cover it. We remove the fire to the very minimum. Cook the rice for another 15-20 minutes, and you can try.
    
17. After 20 minutes you need to turn off the fire, mix the pilaf and let it brew a little. Let the pilaf stand for another 10 minutes with the lid closed. Now it can be laid out and served. It turns out amazingly fragrant and crumbly.
    

Video recipe

You can watch all the steps for preparing pilaf in a cauldron in this video.

Other recipes for pilaf