At least 1 pound of carrots. The
more carrots you use, the sweeter and richer the
plov will be.
1 head of garlic
4 to 5 medium yellow or white
onions
One to one-and-a half pounds of
beef (get a cut with fat marbled through it--it's
much more tender when fried than the
"lean" varieties).
Rice (not Minute rice--too dry)
Salt
Vegetable oil (preferably Canola
oil. I don't recommend olive oil--it
just doesn't give it that traditional Turkmen
taste. Turkmen plov uses cottonseed oil, which
isn't available in American stores.)
Directions
Chop the onions, fairly small (but not minced).
Cut the carrots into slivers. This can be time-consuming,
because the
slivers should be about 3 inches long and only 1/8 of an
inch wide. If you have some type of slicer, go for it!
The important thing is that there
are no big chunks of carrot--just thin slices.
Cut the meat into 1 to 2-inch cubes.
Now for the fun part. Put on an old shirt or an apron,
because soon the oil will
be a-sizzlin'.
Find a big, heavy pan/pot (I use an 8-quart cast iron
dutch oven). Turkmen use a heavy pot called a cazan.
Now, you must heat the oil in the pot. The amount of oil
you use will depend upon the size of the pan you use. But
I recommend that the oil be about 1 centimeter (almost
1/2
inch) deep. It will seem excessive, but go ahead and pour
it in! Drop one little piece of your chopped onion in the
oil, and turn on the burner to medium. When the onion
turns BLACK, remove it with a fork. Now, your oil is hot
enough to cook with.
Add the meat and the whole garlic cloves. Turkmen people
often throw in the whole garlic head, skins and all. You
can do that, or peel the cloves. (If you don't cook much
with garlic, don't worry about it being too spicy--garlic
sweetens as you cook it.) Cook the meat & garlic
until the meat starts to turn a nice
"roasted"-looking brown, stirring occasionally
(this should take about 7-8
minutes, maybe more).
Add the onions to the meat and oil. Cook 5-6 minutes,
stirring occasionally. Add the carrots to the mixture and
cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add a
couple teaspoons of salt (or you can add the salt later,
to taste).
Now here's where I deviate from the traditional method.
(My apologies to purists). At this point, Turkmen would
add rice and water into the pot with the meat. This
method requires a lot of guesswork, and I still can't
seem to get it right. So, I recommend the following
alternative.
Cook as much rice as you think will fit in the rest of
your pot, according
to the directions on the bag of rice. For an 8-quart pot,
I make about 7 cups
of rice (7 cooked cups--that's about 3 1/2 dry
cups). Just use your best
judgement as to the amount.
When the rice has finished cooking, add it to the
meat/onions/carrots
mixture in the big pot. Mix it well, and serve it
hot. It can be reheated,
it needed.
Don't be surprised if when you're finished eating,
there's oil left on your
plate. If you've got that, your Turkmen cooking adventure
has been
successful!
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