When to put garlic in pilaf: expert advice, recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

According to experts, there is no one, the only correct way to cook pilaf. There are hundreds of recipes for this popular dish all over the world. One has only to add some new ingredient to the pilaf, and immediately another kind of treat is obtained. In some countries, they prefer a sweetish dish, in others - spicy, in others, rice and meat are cooked separately.

From a traditional oriental dish, pilaf has long turned into ours, domestic, beloved by many. But alas! Unfortunately, not everyone understands how to cook it correctly - that is, so that in the end you get really pilaf, and not just rice porridge with meat. In particular, young housewives often find it difficult to choose the right time and method for adding various ingredients to a dish. When to put garlic in pilaf? This question can often be found on the forums. Let's talk about it in our article.

How to put garlic in pilaf?

Answering this question, experienced chefs say that when preparing this treat, garlic should be buried in the very center of a hill of rice poured into a cauldron. The head of garlic is used whole, not peeled.

When to put a head of garlic in pilaf?

Experts believe that this should be done after rice is poured into the cauldron. During cooking, the rich aroma of garlic will be transferred to the entire dish. Remove the garlic before serving.

Some experienced housewives, when asked when to put garlic in pilaf in a cauldron, argue that this ingredient should be added just before the end of the process, after the rice is already half cooked. Those who do not like the taste of boiled garlic, but want to get only its aroma, should not be peeled. They take one beautiful and large head of unpeeled garlic and spread it on rice, lightly sprinkle a little grits on top. When the dish is ready, simply pull out this head and throw it away. During cooking, the garlic will give all its juice to the pilaf, only the husk will remain. At the same time, pilaf turns out to be unusually fragrant.

There can be many answers to the question of when to put garlic in pilaf, as well as statements about the method of laying it. It depends on the personal preferences of the author of the dish.

Sometimes housewives first lightly fry the meat, and then add garlic (finely chopped) to it. This should be done at the very end of roasting so that the aroma of garlicsoaked in fat. Then garlic is also added at the end of cooking, but already whole, not crushed. The head of garlic is peeled, disassembled into teeth, slightly flattened with a knife and spread along the edges and in the center of the dish.

How to cook Uzbek pilaf?

Note that not all recipes use garlic. Domestic gourmets mainly mean by pilaf the Uzbek version of the dish, prepared from rice, onions, carrots and meat (in the original - lamb, but often it is replaced with pork, beef or chicken), pepper, garlic and spices. The classic recipe for Uzbek pilaf involves the use of carrots, rice and meat in equal proportions. To prepare eight servings of a dish, for example, you will need 1 kg of these ingredients. Onions are added a little less - about 200 g. Garlic, s alt and spices are also needed (see later in the recipe).

Cooking step by step

The dish is prepared like this:

1. First, the cauldron is well heated, after which refined vegetable oil is poured into it (one glass). In accordance with the classic recipe, at least two glasses of oil should be added to a five-liter cauldron, and fat tail fat can also be added. After the oil is hot (begins to click), 200 grams of onion, peeled and cut into half rings, are placed in it.
2. One kilogram of diced meat and one kilogram of carrots are added to the browned onion, which is not recommendedgrate. It is better to cut it in the form of large straws (4 x 0.5 cm in size). Uzbeks in their homeland use a yellow variety of carrots, which contain less water, to cook pilaf. But in our conditions, orange root crops can also be used.
3. Add a little water and two tablespoons of s alt to the fried meat with onions and carrots. When to put garlic in pilaf? At this stage, four heads of garlic (whole, previously peeled) and Uzbek spices are added to the dish: barberry (two teaspoons), cumin (one teaspoon), turmeric (one coffee spoon) and saffron (a pinch). If these spices are not available, you can cook not Uzbek pilaf, but Kazakh. The Kazakhs believe that spices interrupt the real taste of meat and rice.
4. When the meat is tender, remove the garlic. After that, one kilogram of rice is laid out in a cauldron in an even layer. It is Uzbek pilaf that is ideal for cooking pilaf. If this variety of rice cannot be obtained, arborio, basmati, Krasnodar or rice used for sushi is perfect. The main thing is that before sending it to the cauldron, rice must be washed several times and soaked in s alt water for at least two hours. The liquid will take away excess starch from the grains, thanks to s alt, the grains will not stick together, so the pilaf will turn out to be quite crumbly, and not reminiscent of rice porridge.
5. Next, the rice in the cauldron is poured with water so that its level covers the surface of the grains by at least two centimeters. The contents of the cauldron must not be disturbed, as well as cover it with a lid. Pilaf should boil over medium heat untiluntil all the water is completely absorbed by the rice.
6. Then the rice is collected in a pile, several punctures are made in it with the help of a ladle handle and garlic heads are laid on top, which have already been used before and have been removed from the dish.
7. Pilaf is tightly closed with a lid and stewed over low heat for at least half an hour. After this time, the dish is mixed, pieces of appetizing fried meat with carrots are taken out from the bottom, the dish is laid out on plates and sprinkled with cilantro.

How to cook pilaf with garlic in a slow cooker?

In a slow cooker, this dish is cooked in the same way as in a cauldron. The "Pilaf" mode in the device provides only additional frying of the ingredients. However, there are a few basic rules that must be followed.

About the rules for cooking pilaf in a slow cooker

You need to remember and observe the following:

• Rice used for pilaf should not be brittle. Uzbeks and Turkmens do not recommend cooking pilaf from long-grain varieties, advising to be content with the usual round Krasnodar.
• Special mention should be made of cutting vegetables for pilaf. Onions are cut in any way, and carrots must be chopped strictly into strips or sticks, and preferably not across, but along. In no case should you grate carrots, because when cooked, it will turn sour and turn pilaf into ordinary porridge with meat.
• Spices for pilaf take any, but some of them must be present in the dish. Experts refer to them zira(preferably black), barberry (dried), saffron or turmeric, a mixture of peppers (black, white, pink, green, allspice), garlic (in a slow cooker, just like in a cauldron, it is used unpeeled, whole head or divided into teeth).
• In addition, paprika (ground), tomatoes (dried or dried), hot peppers (a whole pod, always without damage, otherwise the dish will turn out, as they say, fire-breathing!), coriander (ground seeds), nutmeg (ground). Greens are served separately.

How to cook zirvak? About bookmarking methods

Zirvak is boiled in boiling oil. Each of the chefs uses his own way of laying, but one thing remains the same: all products are added to the bowl only after the oil boils and brightens. That is, before putting the onion into the bowl, you must wait until the oil boils. After that, spread the onion and stew it until the oil becomes transparent.

Then spread the carrots, stew again until boiling and the oil is transparent. After that, spread the meat. This should be done very carefully, lowering the pieces of the product into the bowl along the wall to prevent a sharp decrease in the temperature of the boiling oil. The meat can be considered ready if it has acquired a grayish color, and the oil has become transparent and light.

About reverse bookmark order

You can put food in the slow cooker and in the reverse order: first the oil boils and brightens, then the meat is put into it, the oil is allowed to boil and clarified, after which the onions and carrots are laid out. The main thing is not to put all the products in the bowl at the same time - this is not pilaf, but rice porridge.

After cooking meat and vegetables, spices fall asleep. Spread the rice over the meat in an even layer. In no case should cereals be mixed with zirvak. Rice is carefully poured with boiling water, making sure that it flows into the dish along a wooden spatula and does not mix the ingredients.

When to put garlic in pilaf in a slow cooker? Garlic and pepper (capsicum) should first be warmed up so that they can fully reveal their taste and aroma. After all the above manipulations have been done, a whole head of garlic is stuck into the center of the bowl with rice and other products, which is pre-peeled from the upper scales and heated. Fans of spicy dishes can also stick a pod of pepper (warmed up) into the rice hill. Now you can close the multicooker lid and press the cherished “Pilaf” button.