The secret of making real pilaf includes five components. For a successful pilaf, it is important: good meat, regular (crumbly) rice, a sufficient amount of carrots and onions, spices and dishes in which the pilaf is cooked.
Perfect cauldron
In an ordinary saucepan or frying pan, real pilaf will never work for two reasons. First, the dishes should be such that the pilaf does not burn. Secondly, it must keep warm so that the pilaf "reaches" after cooking. A cauldron is considered an ideal container for cooking pilaf. It is made of cast iron, has a hemispherical shape, tapered towards the bottom with a rounded bottom. The walls of the cauldron are at least a centimeter thick.
Features of cooking technology
Features of dishes for pilaf are associated with the peculiarities of cooking technology. Pilaf is traditionally cooked over an open fire (that's why the bottom of the cauldron has a rounded shape). First, the meat is washed, dried and cut into rectangular or square pieces of 3-4 centimeters in size. It should be a lamb fillet (in options - beef, pork or chicken) without bones, veins and fat. The meat is placed on the bottom of the cauldron, greased with fat tail (internal) fat and quickly fried over high heat. Then coarsely chopped onions and carrots are added to the meat into strips, cubes or on a coarse grater, and even fat. Everything is fried again until the carrots give color. Spices and salt are added to meat with vegetables. Fragmented rice, washed to clear water, is poured so that the finished rice does not stick together. Water is poured into the cauldron onto the phalanx of the finger covering the rice layer. The cauldron is closed with a lid and cooked over low heat until all the water has boiled away. Then he sets aside for half an hour so that the pilaf "reaches".
How to choose dishes for pilaf
Of course, you won't be able to cook a dish in a regular pan with a thin bottom. One of the main points in preparing pilaf is that the layers should not be mixed. As a result, the meat and vegetables will burn, and the rice will remain soggy, since there is not enough heat inside the pan to warm it up properly.
When choosing a cauldron for pilaf, you should pay attention to the following indicators. It is desirable that the cauldron is old. Over the years of use, the pores in its walls are clogged with fat, which allows, with a tight lid, to obtain a full sealed effect. The dish should not be boiled or fried, but rather simmer over low heat.
The cauldron should be heavy so that when cooking pilaf on an open fire, placed on a special tripod, it does not overturn. The cauldron's capacity is from 5 to 8 liters. If pilaf is supposed to be cooked not on an open fire, but on the stove, the bottom may be flat. But the condition for the thickness of the bottom and walls of at least a centimeter must be observed.
If there is no cauldron at all and there is nowhere to take it, and you really want to cook pilaf, you can use an old Soviet duck. Or pick up a modern "cauldron" in the store - a heavy non-stick pan with thick walls. She, of course, is inferior to the cauldron. But with a certain skill in it, you can also cook a good pilaf, close to the real one in taste.
