The guests of the Russian village learned how to fry Turkmen chebureks
August 13, 2017 | 18:11 |1302
At the largest gastronomic festival of the Ivanovo region "Kuhon", uniting the cuisine of all peoples living in the region, the Turkmen diaspora treated the tourists with delicious pilaf, and not only. For guests of a delicious holiday, they also arranged a master class for cooking chebureks. Culinary classes are now very fashionable. And on the open crowded grounds they look even more impressive than indoors. Today, in the village of Rebrovo, hosting a gastronomic festival, most of all the attention of tourists was attracted by master classes, where you can not only treat yourself to a new dish, but also quickly learn how to cook it.Leonid KIYASHKO, journalist. Ivanovo, Russian Federation
Photo by Lyudmila Pavlovskaya
There were a lot of Asian dishes during the "belly festival", which looked very colorful in the Russian village: they were pilaf prepared according to the recipes of national cuisines of different nations, khachapuri, chebureks, lyulya-kebab, manti, dolma and other delicacies.
It should be noted that sometimes in the rural areas of the Ivanovo region, descendants from Central Asia put tamdirs their plots and, where they bake traditional breads.
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Pilaf - King of Central Asian Cuisine
Today, pilaf, pilau or plov is ever-present dish and delicious centerpiece of any table almost everywhere in Central Asia. Thousands of recipes can be found throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus. Surely, there are as many recipes and variations of cooking as there are cooks of this mouth-watering dish.
It’s a delusion to think that pilaf is just rice, onions and carrots with meet. The process is rather a real art than cooking. Chefs, led by intuition and flair, can tell when the dish is ready. In Central Asia no weddings, birthday parties and other celebrations can manage without skilled ashpez, traditionally man-cooker, who can serve hundreds of guests from a single kazan.
Pilaf is eaten from one large dish. It is believed that enjoying pilaf from common plate fosters mutual love and respect.
Here are four recipes of traditional rice dishes from Central Asia, excerpted from the book by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford “Samarkand: Recipes & Stories from Central Asia & the Caucasus”.
Fish and Saffron Pilaf
This kind of pilaf is spread in western regions of Turkmenistan. It is cooked with fish and Sturgeon from the Caspian Sea is the best choice.
275g basmati rice
4 onions (1 halved and 3 thinly sliced)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
1 bay leaf
A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
400g sturgeon, monkfish or halibut fillets
4 tablespoons sesame oil
3 carrots, sliced into matchsticks
A small handful of dill fronds
1 teaspoon dill seeds
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Large pinch of saffron strands, soaked in 3 tablespoons warm water
120g soured cream
juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt
Method
- Put the rice in a large bowl to soak while you poach the fish.
- Bring 1 litre of water to the boil in a large pan and add the halved onion, along with the peppercorns, bay leaf and the stems from the parsley. Season well with salt and lower in the fish fillets. Cook at a very gentle simmer until just opaque through to the middle, up to 10 minutes depending on the thickness. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and set aside. Strain and reserve the broth. You’ll use the pan again later.
- You need a second large cooking pot in which to cook the rice. Heat the sesame oil until almost smoking, then add the onions and the carrots. Stir-fry until the vegetables start to soften. Tip in the drained rice and smooth down with the back of a spoon. Pour over enough of the fish broth to cover the top of the rice by about 1cm and salt generously. Bring to the boil and cook over a high heat until the broth has boiled off. Use the spoon handle to poke a few holes in the rice to help release the steam. Cover with a lid or tight-fitting layer of foil and remove from the heat. Leave to steam for 20 minutes for the rice to cook through.
- Chop the parsley leaves and dill fronds and add to the empty fish pan. Add the dill seeds, black pepper, the saffron and its soaking liquid and season with salt. Stir in the soured cream and set over a low heat to warm through. Carefully add the fish fillets to warm through in the saffron cream before serving.
- Turn the rice onto a large platter and squeeze over the lemon. Spoon the fish and its creamy sauce on top.
- You’ll need a good, heavy-bottomed pan with a close-fitting lid to make plov. In Uzbekistan, a cast-iron kazan is used; a large cast-iron casserole makes the perfect substitute.
- Put the rinsed rice into a large bowl of cold water to soak while you start the recipe. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
- Heat the clarified butter in the pan until hot and foaming. Brown the beef over a medium-high heat, in batches if necessary, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon leaving the butter behind. Lower the heat to medium and add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden. Return the beef to the pan with any collected juices, the bay leaves and a small cupful of water. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down very low, cover the pan and gently simmer for 1 hour until the meat is tender.
- Spread over the carrot matchsticks, but don’t stir as you want to keep the layers separate. Scatter over the spices, and cover and cook for a further 10 minutes.
- Drain the rice and layer it on top of the carrots. Poke the whole garlic cloves into the rice and flatten the top with the back of a spoon. Season very generously with salt and slowly pour over enough boiling water to just cover the top of the rice. Increase the heat and leave the pan uncovered so that the water starts to boil away.
- When the liquid has cooked off, make six holes in the rice using the handle of a wooden spoon to help the steam escape. Cover the pan and cook at a low simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat without removing the lid and leave the dish to steam undisturbed for a further 10 minutes. If the rice isn’t cooked, add a splash more boiling water and cover again.
- Serve the layers in reverse, first spooning the rice onto the platter, then the carrots and finally the tender chunks of meat on the top. Circle the hard-boiled quail’s eggs around the edge. A juicy tomato salad is the perfect accompaniment.
- Parboil the rice for eight minutes. Drain and spread out on a baking sheet to cool. Melt the butter, setting aside a small amount to grease the pan and lavash. To the rest, add saffron and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
- To assemble the plov, use a cast-iron pan of 20cm in diameter. Grease the pan with butter and lay in the lavash, lining the bottom and sides, leaving some to hang over the edge. Fill any gaps with pieces of lavash and brush with butter.
- Spoon a third of the rice into the lined pan and crumble over the chestnuts. Add another third of rice, then a layer of raisins and apricots. Top with the remaining rice. Make holes using the handle of a spoon and pour the saffron butter over it. Cover the rice with a final layer of lavash, then fold to cover the top. Brush with butter and cover the pan with a lid or foil.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Cook, covered, for one hour until golden. Leave to rest for ten minutes, then invert onto a serving dish. Crack a hole in the middle and cut the crust into six. The shards separate, giving the look of the crown.
