Plov (Pilaf)

A signature Uzbeki rice and meat dish.

By Adeena Sussman for MyJewishLearning

I've been curious about plov (based on the original Persian word pulaw), the signature Uzbeki rice and meat dish, ever since I tasted it a few years back at Ta'am Tov, a kosher Bukharian restaurant in New York's Diamond District. Many countries--Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, India, and Syria, to name a few--have a rice-and-meat dish with a phonetically similar name. Each country's plov is slightly different, with its own array of seasonings and additional ingredients.

On a recent trip to Tel Aviv, I happened upon a delicious plov recipe in an amusing and typically Israeli fashion. I had ducked into a little salon on Sheinkin Street for a pedicure and got to talking to Bella, my aesthetician. It turned out she was an Uzbeki immigrant who had run an Uzbeki restaurant in Tel Aviv. I took out a pen and paper and scribbled furiously as she rattled off ingredients and instructions for this tempting layered dish.

This recipe, although somewhat time-consuming, is fairly straightforward to execute. Onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots and meat are cooked in a deep skillet to which chick peas, rice, and cooking liquid are added. Once the chick peas and rice are cooked, the dish is inverted. The upper layer of rice becomes the bottom layer on a serving platter, which is topped with the fragrant, hearty stew.

Continue reading for recipe.

For other great Jewish cooking ideas, check out Jvillage Network's Jewish Cooking Pinterest page.