Azerbaijani pilaf with pumpkin from Stalik Khankishiev

Category: Meat dishes

Kitchen: azerbaijani

Azerbaijani pilaf with pumpkin from Stalik Khankishiev

Ingredients
rice	1 kg
pumpkin (peeled)	250-300 g
potatoes (peeled)	500-800 g
ghee	200-300 g
kaurma	500 g
tomato	300 g
Sweet pepper	200 g
fresh greens	100 g
salt	taste
spices for mulled wine	taste
sugar	1 tsp
saffron	pinch

Cooking method

Soak the rice without rinsing in warm 60 C water for at least 30 minutes. Place in a sieve and then rinse gently. Rice after soaking is very fragile, rinse carefully, avoiding rubbing with your hands.
Add rice to boiling, salted, water. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the required readiness, which is determined as follows: take out one rice and try to crush it with your fingertips, if it breaks easily into two parts, then the rice is ready, it is important that the rice is not overcooked. Take a lot of water for boiling rice, not less than in a ratio of 1: 5, that is, at least 5 parts of water for one part of rice.
Place the finished rice on a sieve and, since it must still be hot enough before further cooking, work at a good pace.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a cauldron, put the whole bottom and a little side walls of the cauldron with potatoes cut into circles. Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil on top of the potatoes and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
Place some of the rice on top of the potatoes.
Cut the pumpkin into cubes, drizzle with a little oil, sprinkle with mulled wine spices (cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, etc.) and add a little granulated sugar. I added the spices separately, since I decided to reduce the dose of cinnamon to a minimum, and not add some to all. Stir. And place in an even layer over the rice.
Next, add the rest of the rice and flatten the layer.
Place the cauldron on the stove, cover with a lid wrapped in a towel to trap condensation drops. Turn on the stove and cook on low heat for about 40 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, you need to cook the meat or fish separately. Put the kaurma in a preheated saucepan, lightly fry, add the onion, continue to fry, stirring so that the onions are mostly fried. Then add the chopped tomatoes, peppers and herbs, season with salt and spices to taste and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes.
By the time the rice is finished cooking, prepare the saffron dressing: rub the saffron threads with a pestle with a little salt or sugar in a mortar, add hot water, stir. Remove the lid from the cauldron, pour the dressing over the rice and add the ghee (I reduced the amount of added oil to my liking). Return the lid to the cauldron and cook for about 10 minutes more.
Serve pilaf on two dishes: on one - rice with pumpkin, on the other - meat with vegetables and herbs.

Note

* The source of the recipe is a video clip from the author:

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... Thanks for the recipe!
There will be time - look, the author talks very interestingly and in detail about the technology of cooking pilaf. Perhaps you will learn something new for yourself.