One of the most popular dishes is not only daily, but the festive menu - Uzbek pilaf. The ability to cook delicious and beautifully presented it - unquestionable advantage of any owner (cook pilaf be male). This is a traditional Central Asian dish multifaceted as the East itself: there are many recipes pilaf, which vary and ingredients and methods of preparation.

Millennium cauldron

History pilaf, documented in the records, is traced from the X century, but some references are found in the earlier folk tales. For centuries pilaf was very festive dish it was served to the table and for the holidays, and as a memorial meal.

Later, we began to prepare pilaf and on ordinary days, this beautifully restored nutritious meal after a hard day's work. But still afloat treated respectfully. Such an attitude to this dish is due to the special significance of its main component for all Asian cultures.

Rice - a head for all

The origin of rice culture associated with the name of the legendary hero of the Chinese Shen-Nun, the founder and creator of the arable farming implements. But archaeological excavations have led the researchers to conclude that the grass in the Celestial Empire the territory was already cultivated in the Middle Neolithic era (fifth-third millennium BC).

Anyway, the figure came from China to India, Persia and then spread throughout Asia, has become not only a staple, but also a sacred talisman, a symbol of fertility, purity, prosperity and divine blessings. In India, rice sprinkled with the way the newlyweds to their joint path was full of abundance, and the race continued. This ceremony has taken root in many countries. In China, grain, vested property to expel evil spirits, put in your mouth dead.

The skeptical twenty-first century the role of rice not less significant, though more prosaic. According to the world the cultivation of this crop is only slightly inferior to wheat, but in his own part of the world completely replaces the bread. Rice also cook noodles, starch, vinegar, vodka, sake, beer.

The use of this plant is not confined to the cooking area. Rice germ oil is rich in peptides and powder of grains have been successfully applied in cosmetology. Rice straw fibers so strong that they are made of not only paper, but also all kinds of bags, twines and ropes, baskets and hats.

The same pilaf

Chefs in cooking pilaf guided entirely different formulations and technologies, but each of them tends to assign the proud title of his creation "of the Uzbek." However, in Uzbekistan there are more than fifty options cooking pilaf, and which of them is the first, most important and the best, for sure it is impossible to establish.

Another question is how the recipe is the most popular in the country. Here, everything is clear: rice with lamb, cottonseed oil, sheep's tail fat, carrots, onions, garlic, hot pepper, barberry and zira cooked in a cauldron over an open fire. Even scrupulous observance of proportions and sequential administration of the ingredients does not make traditional pilaf, if there is no authentic products such as rice, grown on the picturesque fields of the Fergana Valley.

Uzbek rice varieties:

• Devzira. This grade is used as the main ingredient for pilaf for a thousand years. Its grain dense, large and heavy. Their color - from red to brown - gives the dish a special glamor. Vintage like good wine, aged for several years, so devzira is quite expensive, but the best basis for pilaf simply does not exist;
• Cora Koltakov. From devzira distinguishes this kind of rice is only one feature - the black stripe on the surface of the grain;
• Chungara. White variety devzira more light and sweet;
• Dastar-Saryk. Assembled rice fermented by repeated wetting and drying of water, but a special smell, yellowish color and firm texture it acquires due to smoking;
• Laser. The relatively soft grade, with a high content of starch. Grains of his long, slightly curved, beautiful white. It does not absorb water as well as solid grade, so is crumbly;
• Alang. This rice is very popular in Uzbekistan, but not so much because of its properties, but because of the low price. In spite of the high content of starch, it is suitable for cooking pilaf for everyday diet.

A hundred tunes for one song

Ongoing confusion of culinary cultures and restless imagination of housewives offer many options for cooking pilaf. For his foundation take barley or buckwheat, small pasta, couscous Couscous: original alternative to the usual side dishes   and bulgur (steamed whole or crushed wheat grain). Mutton is replaced by any other meat, offal, sausages, and vegetarian recipes offered as a protein component used mushrooms, nuts, chickpeas, soy, beans and lentils. Interesting recipes with fish and seafood, and the addition of tomatoes or tomato paste, pepper, dried fruit, canned corn and green peas became quite familiar.

Among the spices that enrich the taste and aroma of pilaf, already traditional bay leaf, black pepper, cumin, turmeric, paprika, tarragon, coriander, fennel, parsley and precious saffron.

Useful if pilaf?

Talking about the positive impact of pilaf on the body difficult. High-calorie and high in fat makes it very nutritious, but dangerous for the cardiovascular and digestive systems dish. Hot pepper is able to improve blood circulation, but it irritates the stomach wall. During the preparation of the vitamins Vitamins for everyone Contained in rice, meat and vegetables are almost completely disintegrate and are replaced by carcinogens in grilled bacon, red meat, and possibly talc polished rice.

If there pilaf only occasionally, it will not lead to complete and will not harm health. The undoubted advantage of the classic pilaf, like any other rice dishes Rice dishes , It is the absence of gluten - a substance that is found in many grains, and often cause allergies.

Maria Bykov

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