Did Cyrus II the Great know that the Persian Kingdom would disappear, and the pilaf prepared by his warriors in the campaigns would become the property of mankind?
But it is possible that this dish first appeared at the court of Chinese emperors.
Let archaeologists or historians understand the origin of sweet pilaf - let's try to understand the diversity of its recipes and the art of “cooking”.
Sweet pilaf - the basic technological principles
From a set of dried fruits, nuts, honey and rice, of course, pilaf can be obtained, provided that the chef knows the only main secret of any pilaf is crumbly rice.
Choose the “right” rice variety. The less starch in it - the better. That muddy water that flows when the grain is washed is a starch solution. Starch - these are carbohydrates, which nutritionists together call the main threat to harmony. By the way, Indian housewives recommend washing rice with purified water. If they have special Ayurvedic knowledge, they are simply reinsured - it is not known. But it seems that the share of common sense is present in this: water containing bleach or impurities of heavy metal, having absorbed into the rice grains, will not add health. Let's listen to the wise Indian women.
What else? In those countries where the appearance of plov is first noticed, there is a rule of compatibility of taste, and the chef who knows how to achieve the same consistency of all the ingredients of a dish, as well as the equal presence of basic tastes: sweet, bitter, salty and sour, is considered a true master.
The last secret: do not think that sweet pilaf can not be spicy. This is a fallacy that the ancient Persian cookbooks disprove.
Turning to the kitchen with the following recipes, you can see this for yourself.
Recipe 1. Armenian cuisine about sweet swim: “Hapama” or “Ararat”
Festive meal - delicious and healthy pilaf, simply - “vitamin kick”. Somewhat reminiscent of millet porridge with milk in Russian cuisine. Not a single Armenian wedding can do without this sweet pilaf in a pumpkin, symbolizing the wish of a “sweet” life for newlyweds. Without a pumpkin, this dish is served to any holiday table. The number of ingredients depends on the size of the pumpkin. Big family - a big pumpkin. Here it is important to bear in mind that in the process of boiling and quenching, the croup increases in volume by 2.5-3 times; dried fruits - 1.5-2.5 times. You can cook without pumpkin, in pots in the oven - in this case improvise with the amount of ingredients to your liking.
Ingredients:
An Apple
Butter
Carrot
Raisins
Dried apricots
Pumpkin
Pic
Prunes
Cinnamon
Cooking:
Choosing a pumpkin, wash it, from the side of the tail, cut off the improvised lid at the natural pot, from the most environmentally friendly and edible material. You can even cut the figure knife, at the same time to practice in the art of carving. Spoon remove the seeds and part of the pulp. Wash and dry the seeds: pumpkin seeds are always useful, and the flesh will be “involved” in the preparation of sweet pilaf. Grease the pumpkin inside with oil. A creamy taste is the best option if you don’t remember about calories for a while.
Wash dried fruits and steam with boiling water so that you can immediately see how much they will increase in size and determine how much you need to add to the pilaf.
Rice, pre-seasoned in cold water, cook until half cooked, salt water. After cooking, wash it with cold water, you can from the tap, throwing it through a sieve or a colander.
Apples free from the core and cut into cubes with skin: a rare case when you can save a huge amount of vitamins contained in apple skins, without losing the softness of the texture.
In one bowl collect all the prepared ingredients, add cinnamon. Sweeten or acidify if you want. Stir and stuff the pumpkin, but not tight and not to the brim. Wrap the fruit in foil and bake at 200C. Time also depends on the size of the pumpkin.
Recipe 2. Indian traditions in sweet pilaf: “Mita Pilaw” - risotto with sweet saffron
This is a traditional recipe for North India. At home, pilau is a good judge of rice and sweets, famous throughout the world. Do not be surprised at the presence of mustard in the composition of the ingredients: besides the savory taste of the sweet dish, mustard is antiseptic, which for Indian cuisine, which developed in a humid and hot climate, is a harsh vital necessity that allows such sharp additives to combat harmful organisms that reproduce quickly in favorable for them conditions. In general, it is not customary in India to store the remaining dinner or breakfast in the fridge - this is thrown out for food safety reasons. But for this pilaf, an exception was made, taking into account the method of preparation and the tightness of the package: a very remarkable detail - the pilaf is packed in batches, in foil, like candy. That is, at any time, if desired, it can also be heated in portions in the oven - and enjoy your meal! Ingredients:
“Basmanti” 200 g
Sugar 180 g
Pistachios, cashews, almonds (chips) 300 g
Oil (“Ghee”) 150 g
Raisin 250 g
Mustard, dry
Saffron 1 g
Cardamom 2-3 g
Carnation
Cooking:
Indian housewives recommend washing rice with purified water. Wash and throw it in boiling, slightly salted water to boil until half cooked, then add the melted butter and sugar, cloves, saffron and cardamom, half the nuts. Ten minutes later, remove from heat, cool. Grease the prepared sheets of foil with oil, sprinkle with nuts mixed with mustard (use the rest). Cooked rice, pre-washed and steamed raisins, combine in one container, mix and arrange in portions on sheets of foil, roll up with sweets and heat before serving.
Recipe 3. Ancient Persian sweet pilaf recipes in Iranian cuisine: sweet pilaf with oranges and cherries
If someone knows a lot about plov, then these are the direct heirs of the ancient Persian cuisine - Iranians. They believe that sweet pilaf is not only dessert after dinner, and it can be a full-fledged main course if you cook rice not only with berries or fruits, but also with chicken breast. There is something in it! Please note that this rare combination of ingredients is completely balanced from the point of view of modern ideas about healthy and healthy nutrition: fruits containing ascorbic acid stimulate appetite and at the same time contribute to the digestion of the meat component, and the neutral taste of chicken breast, often used in modern salads, harmoniously fits into the picture “sweet pilaf”.
Ingredients:
Dried cherries, pitted 200 g
Oranges 400 - 500 g
“Basmanti” 0.5 kg
Muscat 10 g
Clove 3 g
Cardamom 5 g
Saffron, dried 2 g
Red onion, 150 g
Carrots 250 g
Pistachios 50g
Almond 100 g
Sugar 0.5 kg
Pepper 10 g
Sesame oil (from available options) 150 ml
Salt
Chicken breast 1.5 kg (or more) Cooking:
We choose oranges of a red grade, the small sizes. The preparation of this pilaf requires a long preliminary preparation. Oranges in pilaf are laid with the peel, and therefore they need to be pre-processed the day before. Wash the fruit, at least one day before the start of cooking pilau. At least three times, fill them with boiling water, then immediately immerse in ice water to remove bitterness. Boil 300 ml of water, add sugar to it, boil the syrup, which you need to pour the oranges and leave them in the syrup for at least 10-12 hours.
Wash chicken breast, dried with a napkin, fry carrots and onions with finely diced. Season with salt, ground spices.
Prepared rice (washed and aged in cold water for 2 hours), transfer to a deep cast-iron dish, preheating the oil in it. After 10 minutes, pour the brewed saffron, put the cherry, chopped nuts. After another ten minutes, put the fried breast pieces, fill them with orange syrup along with rice. If necessary, add hot boiled water and slowly simmer until rice is ready, covered with a lid. Before serving, lay the meat aside to lay it on the dish over the rice. Decorate the pilaf with oranges.
Recipe 4. Sweet pilaf with quails and cherries
It must be admitted that the art of cooking plov in the Ancient Persian Kingdom is so impressive that it is impossible to abandon your own new ideas and representatives of Eastern European cuisine.
Ingredients:
Quail 3 pcs.
Steamed Rice 400g
Cherry, fresh or frozen 200 g
Onions 150g
Sugar 250 g
Water 1.5 l
Salt
Muscat 10 g
Pepper, black 15 g
Red, dry wine 200 ml
Ginger, fresh 30 g
Bay leaf 5 g
Allspice 3-4 g
Clove 2 g
Almond 100 g
Garlic 40g
Kiwi 150 g
Celery and parsley roots - 50 g each
Oil (for frying) 200 ml
Cooking:
Gutted quail carcasses wash and dry with napkins. Cut them lengthwise, in half, put the inner side on the work board and slightly repelled. Rub with a mixture of salt and freshly ground spices. Chop one kiwi fruit, add to it 100 ml of wine, bay leaf, grated roots of ginger, celery and parsley. Put the prepared carcasses in a plastic bag, pour in the prepared mixture and leave for 3-4 hours. Wash rice, until clear water. Boil 1.5 liters of water, add nutmeg, cloves, pepper to it and pour the rice with this hot infusion. When cool, pour the remaining water into a pan with a non-stick coating, add sugar and boil the syrup. If necessary, increase the volume of water to 100 ml.
In a deep cast iron pot, heat the butter, put garlic plates, finely chopped onion, and fry. Put the golden onion on a plate, and in the oil, fry the prepared game meat, halves of carcasses. After temporarily transferring the meat to another dish, pour the rice into the roaster, add hot water to cover it and simmer. Try semi-cooked rice: the grain must remain solid inside. Spread cherries, fried onions, meat, chopped nuts on rice. Mix sugar syrup with wine and pour into pilaf. Cover and turn off the heat. When serving, place the rice on the dish and the top is meat and cherry. Garnish with thin slices of kiwi.
Recipe 5. Sweet pilaf with quince, raisins and dried apricots
Ingredients:
Dried apricots 150 g
Raisin 100 g
250 g rice
Quince 400g
Ghee 70-80 g
Cinnamon 3g
Saffron 2 g
Sugar 150 g
Barberry, dried 50 g
Carrots, yellow 200 g
Cream, drinking (10-15%) 400 ml
Salt
Cooking:
Wash rice and soak in clean, cold water for 2 hours. Pour the dried fruits with boiling water, after which the dried apricots (dried apricots) cut into cubes, like washed, peeled carrots. Peel the quince, remove the core, and cut into cubes. Carrot and quince for a few minutes, sprinkle with sugar, so that they let the juice; caramelize them: cover the baking sheet with foil, greased with butter, and, putting the carrot and quince pieces, roast them in the oven. Cook rice in plenty of salted water, drain water, rinse. Heat the oil in a deep sauté pan, transfer the rice into it, season with spices and add dried barberry. Spread caramelized carrots and quince on top of the rice. In cream, dissolve the cinnamon, saffron and ground nutmeg, bring them to a boil, pour into rice and stew pilaf under a closed lid until the moisture evaporates.
Recipe 6. Sweet baskets for sweet pilaf
The original way of serving any sweet pilaf is edible tableware. Especially if this dish is also made of sweet rice, only baked. But if for the preparation of pilaf, each housewife seeks to make the rice crumbly, then for rice baskets you will need rice porridge, a “mash”. Rice is an ideal product for sculpting, containing gluten. In addition, rice "dishes", as well as dishes with rice, can be easily dyed in any colors using the same natural ingredients.
Ingredients:
Figure 1 part
Sugar 1 part
Water 4 pieces
Turmeric
Saffron
Pistachios 1 part
Oil (for lubrication forms)
Almond 1 part
Cooking:
Take one portion of the cooked water, boil it and brew the saffron. From sugar and one part water boil syrup. Wash the rice, put it in cold water (3 parts) and boil the porridge. Add a little salt at the end of the cooking. Combine the cooled syrup and porridge, add ground almonds and pistachios. On a greased, silicone cloth roll out the resulting rice dough circles. Take a silicone rolling pin and do not forget to grease it with oil too. Place metal cupcake baskets upside down on a baking sheet, brushing them on the bottom and sprinkling them with crushed nuts. Place the rolled circles on the forms so that the edges of the dough hang down to the baking sheet. Preheat the oven and set the baking sheet. Bake “dishes” at 180ºC. After the baskets have cooled, grease them from the outside with sugar syrup and sprinkle with nut chips. You can turn the baskets after drying.
Sweet pilaf in these baskets should be dry and crumbly so that they do not soak.
Recipe 7. Unusual sweet pilaf
Ingredients:
Steamed rice 300 g
Vanilla 5g
Candied 200 g
Raspberry 300g
Blackberry 150 g
Syrup, raspberry 100 ml
Tangerines 400 g
Water 150 ml
Milk 0.75 L
Butter
Saffron 2 g
Sugar 550g
Cooking:
Prepared rice (seasoned in cold water), throw in boiling water and cook for 5-7 minutes. Drain, wash rice. Now boil the milk in a high saucepan. Adjust the heat so that the milk languishes but does not run away. Add the rice in milk, sweetening it moderately by adding vanilla and a pinch of salt. When the milk is almost absorbed into the rice, throw 120 g of butter into the pan and mix gently. Take 150 ml of water, boil it, make saffron, then dissolve sugar (200 g) and boil the syrup. In a boiling syrup, place well-peeled tangerine slices, boil for twenty minutes and allow to cool.
From 150 g of raspberry, rubbed through a sieve, take the juice, combine it with sugar and also boil the syrup. In the ready syrup, put fresh raspberries and blackberries, pre-sorting them.
Divide the rice into two parts in one part pour the raspberry syrup, and the other - tangerine, mix.
Take a cylindrical shape without a bottom (you can use tin cans from under canned food), grease them inside with oil and put them on a baking sheet, also oiled. Lay the rice layers in the cylinders: at the bottom - yellow, at the top - red rice. Before serving, warm the cylinders in the oven, turn the cylinder on the plate, carefully remove it. Decorate portions with candied fruit and water with multicolored syrup. To add brightness, put mint leaves or rosemary sprigs on the plates.
Sweet Pilaf - Tips and Tricks
- For pilaf to always turn out crumbly and different in texture from ordinary porridge, choose solid rice varieties with low starch content.
- Rice kernels become longer and harder in cold water: the starch contained in them is rolled up and pressed. After the “ice bath”, transfer the rice to a hot frying pan and dry. Then add oil to the grain is not cracked. Such rice will cook much faster and crumble.
