Speaking of the pilaf, one must pay tribute not only to the geography of its distribution, but also to recall the history going back thousands of years.
The etymology of the very name of the dish, consisting of the abbreviations of all the main ingredients, looks like a hint from the ancient healer Avicenna to the descendants of the human race.
Pilaf with chickpeas - the general principles of cooking.
In vain the ancient physician was worried about forgetting pilaf. The recipe for pilaf has reached us in its original form. It has become an integral part of the festive and everyday menu of most of the inhabitants of the planet. Cooking pilaf has as many variations as many housewives cook it.
By the way, according to the Asian tradition, only man should cook pilaf with chickpea for big holidays.
Pilaf, in fact - stewed cereal, combined in one recipe with meat and vegetables, also stewed in a cauldron. And not only with meat, but also with seafood. Or just a vegetarian dish, without meat and fish.
Pilau ingredients are sometimes cooked separately, serving them also separately, on a platter, or on a flatbread.
They say that if pilaf is not cooked in a cauldron, then among the peoples of Asia this is considered to be absolute ignorance and unprofessionalism. Similar you can not eat pilaf with a spoon or fork, in order not to show himself as a person, completely deprived of normal education and knowledge of the rules of etiquette. They only eat pilaf with their hands. In extreme cases, you can use a flat cake rolled up in the form of a cone, and eat it together with pilaf.
Severe Asian customs. But pilaf with chickpeas is no less tasty dish, even if you cook it in a roaster. The main thing is that the dishes in which pilaf is cooked should be thick-walled and, when heated, keep the temperature for a long time.
Rice is traditionally considered the cereal part of pilaf, although the Indians and many Asian peoples, who are also credited with the pilaf authorship, very often use in their dishes a combination of several grains and legumes at the same time. The famous Ferghana and Tashkent pilaf is no exception.
Chickpea, like rice, is one of the most ancient cultures. In the European part of the mainland, this species is not widely spread, but if we take into account its valuable nutritional properties, then buying mutton peas is not a problem.
Pilaf is different from regular cereals friability, despite the quenching of cereals. So you need to pay attention to the preparation of cereal parts.
Chickpeas from the legume family. Rice is a grain crop. The difference in heat treatment is obvious. If you cook pilaf with chickpeas, without rice, then there will be no problems. The combination of rice and chickpeas in one dish requires a certain sequence in technology.
Chickpeas choose light. Before cooking pilaf with chickpeas, it must be soaked in water for at least twelve hours. Take water in the ratio ¼ (1 part peas, 4 parts water). Dishes with soaked chickpeas are best kept in the refrigerator. You can simply change the water often, but then you will not be able to use a very useful infusion for cosmetic purposes. The water in which chickpeas were infused has a strong lifting effect. Peas fall into the cauldron much earlier than rice. Cooking time of chickpea in the pilaf is 60-90 minutes.
Rice for pilaf with chickpeas, you need to choose the one that is larger, hard varieties, with the lowest starch content. It is washed until the water in which the rice is located is completely transparent. Then it needs to be slightly dried. Turbid water indicates starch content to be removed. Cooking rice in pilaf is 30-40 minutes on low heat.
Meat for cooking pilaf, you can choose any, despite the fact that the traditional pilaf cooked with lamb. Depending on the type of meat varies cooking time. Bookmark the products so that the time of their full readiness ultimately coincides.
Fish and seafood are prepared much faster than chickpeas, rice and any other cereals. Therefore, to prepare pilaf with chickpeas in the Mediterranean or Malaysian style, the cereal portion is pre-soaked and boiled. Then the cereals are added to the ready-made fish component.
At least two types of fat are used to make pilaf: vegetable and animal.
Recipe 1. Pilaf with chickpeas without meat
Composition:
• Chickpea (soaked in water) 1 cup
• White cabbage, shredded 300 g
• Mushrooms (any suitable) 1.0 kg
• Onion 0.5 kg
• Figure 0.250 kg
• Carrots 0.5 kg
• Cream (not less than 20%) 300 ml
• Garlic 1 large head
• Ghee 100 g
• Black pepper
• Dill
• celery petioles
• Turmeric
• Lemon 1 pc.
• Vegetable oil 50 ml
• Salt, if necessary.
Cooking:
The chickpeas for this pilau must be cooked until half-cooked so as not to overdo the remaining ingredients. And we start with carrots. It should not be grated, and cut into straw, as long as possible and thinner. In a cauldron to heat the vegetable oil. After the oil is warmed up, set a very slow fire so that the ingredients languish in a cauldron, and not burn. If 50 ml is not enough to stew carrots, add more. Cut the onions in half and also finely chop in half rings. When the oil in the cauldron becomes beautiful and golden, you can throw the bow and simmer it to transparency. At this stage, add the melted butter. It should warm up before plastics cut into the cauldron. They, 3-4 minutes after roasting, pour cream and add spices, salt. Give the cream to boil and immediately pour the chickpeas, and on top of rice. In the middle we place the head of garlic peeled from the upper plates. Fans of pungency can put hot pepper next to garlic, also whole. All ingredients should be coated with a liquid 2 cm above the rice level. Therefore, add water (boiling water), if the cream is not enough. Next, we check the readiness of rice and chickpea, after which we pour the chopped cabbage with green celery and dill. We cover with a lid so that the cabbage is steamed and "tired". If all the liquid has not evaporated during cooking, then rice and chickpeas will absorb it while the pilaf is infused.
Recipe 2. Pilaf with chickpeas "Favorite"
Composition:
• Rice steamed 250 g
• Dried apricots 400 g
• Raisin, dark 400 g
• Prunes without stones 400 g
• Quince 0.5 kg
• Cherry plum 0.2 kg
• Chick-pea cooked to half-cooked - 300 g
• Honey 150 g
• Butter, ghee 100 g
Cooking:
Slices of quince and cherry plum fry in butter, caramelized honey and spread on a plate. In a cauldron - chickpeas, boiled until half ready, and on top - thoroughly washed rice. Fill with water and simmer over low heat. It does not hurt to add a little salt when the peas and grits are almost ready. On top lay the prepared dried fruits and caramelized quince and cherry plum slices. Add water with 2-3 tablespoons of honey dissolved in it. If there is little acid, you can squeeze the juice of half a lemon. Cover and simmer another five minutes.
Recipe 3. Pilaf with chickpea "Summer"
Composition:
• Chickpeas 100 g
• Cherry 300 g
• Melissa, fresh 1 bunch (large)
• Millet 100 g
• Gogoshar pepper 3 pcs.
• Onion 0.5 kg
• Fig 1 glass
• Carrots 0.5 kg
• Celery 2-3 stalks
• Eggplant 2 pcs. (medium)
• Breast, chicken 1.0 kg
• Spices
• Ghee butter
• Olive oil
Cooking:
Prepared chickpeas cook until half ready. In the heated fat lower carrots (straws), then onions (half rings). Next we send pieces of chicken breast. Cherry (slices), pepper (straws) and eggplant (slices) are alternately fried separately in a pan in a small amount of oil. When frying vegetables, lightly sugar them. In the cauldron for half-finished meat we spread the chickpeas, rice, millet, giving each cereal time to boil. Add water to cover the whole mass, and add spices (optional). We check the readiness of cereals and 5 minutes before the end of cooking, lay out the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes in layers. Sprinkle the top with celery and lemon balm. Cover with a lid, remove the fire, and give the prepared dish to brew for about 15 minutes.
Recipe 4. Pilaf with chickpeas, prunes and duck breast
Composition:
• Breast duck 1.0 kg
• duck fat
• Vegetable oil
• Prune 250 g
• Chickpea 1 cup
• Buckwheat
• Onions 500-600 g
• Orange 1.0 kg.
• Honey
Cooking:
Duck choose musky. Remove the skin from the duck breast. Cut the breast into small cubes. Peel and duck fat in a heated cauldron. Melt fat. Skimmer remove the residues. Add some vegetable oil and fry the onion half rings until transparent. Put the duck meat on the onion pillow, pour it with the juice of one orange mixed with honey (2-3 tablespoons). After 15 minutes, spread a layer of prunes cut into strips. Then we lay a layer of chickpeas in a cauldron, pour boiling water to cover the peas by 2-3 cm, add spices. When chickpea is almost ready, lay out the oranges diced, and on them - steamed buckwheat. If necessary, add water and bring the dish to cook over low heat.
Recipe 5. Pilaf with chickpeas and pork, separate
Composition:
• Pork 1 kg
• Rice steamed 250 g
• Onion shallots 1 bunch
• Parsley 1 bunch
• Cilantro 1 bunch
• Onion, red 0.5 kg
• Dry red wine 250 ml
• Carrot 400 g
• Chickpea 2 cups
• Eggs 2 pcs.
• Green peas 1 cup
• Cherry 0.5 kg
• Tomato paste 2- 3 sl. Spoons
• Ground cloves
• Coriander seeds (ground)
• Chile 2 pcs.
• Garlic 1 head
Cooking:
This dish is prepared in stages. The order of each stage can be set arbitrarily, only the meat needs to be cooked before serving. Meat can be poured over the night with wine and spices. Pork chunks, aged in wine for at least 8 hours, lightly squeeze before cooking.
Boil chickpeas to puree. Beat with a blender, add eggs, salt, spices. After whipping, add green peas, chopped cilantro, softened butter (50 g). Mix the mass thoroughly and form balls from it.
Cherry blanch and remove the peel. Boil the sauce from tomato paste and water, adding coriander, cloves and other spices. Remember to sweeten a little. Bring sauce to a boil, strain and boil the cherry in it. In a sauce with cherry add shallots, cut into strips.
Wash rice until clear water and soak in cold water for at least two hours. Boil until half cooked. Drain and rinse.
In a cauldron fry carrots, red onions lightly protomit. Gather vegetables with a slotted spoon and fry pieces of meat in fat until tender. Remove the meat and put in the cauldron rice. Bring it to readiness and transfer to a dish. Top with stewed onions and carrots. Put meat on them. In the fat left in the cauldron with the broth, put out the chickpeas. Put them along the edge of the dish, around the rice. Warm cherry tomatoes in a cauldron again. Put the cherry around the meat, on top, in rice. Heated tomato sauce can be poured over the dish or served separately in a saucepan.
Recipe 6. Pilaf with chickpeas classic, in the Fergana style
Of course, only Ferghana residents can cook a real Ferghana pilaf. But let's take a chance! By the way, only a man should cook this pilaf ... So housewives especially do not risk their reputation.
Composition:
• Mutton (ribs) 1 kg (pure meat)
• Raisin 100 g
• Rice (dev-zira) 1 kg
• Barberry 100 g
• Onion 350g
• Chickpeas 100 g
• Carrots 1 kg
• Zira
• Hot peppers
• Garlic 3 heads
• Oil 250 - 300 g
• tail fat
Cooking:
The weight of chickpea is indicated in dry form. In all Uzbek chickpeas chickens - only an extra touch. It does not particularly affect the taste of the dish. As usual, it is pre-soaked in water. 300 g of vegetable fat is already a lot for a person who is not used to Asian cuisine. And fat tail fat is probably difficult to get. And lamb is far from dietary meat, especially when you consider that for pilaf traditionally they choose not a young lamb, but rather a mature lamb, which has fat on the ribs. In a word, what to add and what to take away is up to the cook. In the end, this recipe does not pretend to originality, and style is an individual matter.
In the process of cooking pilaf, the cauldron is covered with a lid only at the very last moment, when rice comes to readiness and residual liquid is absorbed into it.
We cut carrots very thinly and beautifully into straws. The appearance of the dish is not the last thing. Separate the fat from the mutton ribs, strip the meat from the film, and separate from the bones. Heat the oil. It is better to choose a neutral and refined, so that it does not smoke the kitchen of a city apartment. We throw all the scraps of fat into the oil and fry them until crackers. We take them out of the cauldron with a slotted spoon. Onions can be cut into 4 pieces and throw it into hot fat and let it burn. Do not get carried away: do not burn up the coals, but simply overcook it very much. Fry the ribs by adding zira. Then we remove them. You can throw chickpeas - it will prepare for a long time, so you need to put it in the cauldron as early as possible. Fry the carrots. She must release the juice in fat in order to color the dish in gold. Carrots must be juicy. Before you send meat to the cauldron, you can fry the onion slices in fat, if desired. Meat is cut into pieces of any size and fried. Now fill the meat with water. Use cool boiling water from the kettle. Switch the oven to slow fire. Next we cook in the quenching mode. Water is better to pour after laying rice, if necessary. The final pilaf should not float in gravy, but should not be dry. At this point, you can put the heads of garlic, peeled from the outer layers, a couple of bitter peppers, barberry and raisins. Add zira and salt. At the time of creation zirvaka laid taste palov. When water is absorbed into the rice, it will be difficult to fix the taste. We lay out the washed and soaked in water rice. Zirvak should appear in a cauldron 1 cm above the level of rice. If there is not enough fluid, add more water. If it turns out that the rice is not ready yet, and the liquid from the surface has disappeared, cover the pilaf with a lid. Rice comes under the influence of temperature. The finished pilaf is covered with a dish in which it is necessary to shift it and turn the cauldron so that the lower layer of pilaf is on top.
Recipe 7. Pilaf with chickpeas, quinoa, pomegranate and spices
Composition:
• Cumin (seeds)
• Coriander (seeds)
• Olive oil 50 ml
• Onion 1 pc.
• Salt
• Garlic 2 cloves
• Quinoa 400 g (finished cereal)
• Green peas (frozen or canned) 200 g
• Boiled chickpeas 400 g
• Pomegranate, average 1 pc.
• Pepper
For garnish (optional)
• Thick yogurt 1 cup
• 1 small clove of garlic, mashed (optional)
Cooking:
If quinoa is hard to find, you can replace it with bulgur. Quinoa is boiled quickly.
Wet chickpeas, then cook until ready. Heat a large, heavy frying pan and throw coriander and cumin seeds into it. Stir until they start to smell, and give away their characteristic aroma of spices. Cool and then grind.
Heat the pan again by adding half the butter, one grated garlic clove and salt to the grinded spices. Stir with caraway seeds and coriander, olive oil. Put in a pan with prepared quinoa spices, with green peas, chickpeas and 3 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds. Heat on medium heat for several minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put on a dish, and decorate with the remaining pomegranate seeds.
Stir the second clove of garlic with thick yogurt. Season the pilaf with the resulting sauce.
Recipe 8. Pilaf with chickpeas, Indian
Composition:
• Milk 1.2 liters
• Water 2 liters
• Rice (basmanti) 400 g
• Carrot 400 g
• Peanuts, fried 150 g
• Nute, boiled 1,5 - 2 tbsp. (350-400g)
• Ghee butter (butter, ghee) 120 g
• Onion 250 g
• Cardamom 3 boxes
• Ginger root, fresh 50 g (or to taste)
• Garlic 3 slices
• Chile (powder)
• Mint, fresh
• Cinnamon
• Cilantro 7-8 branches
• Cloves 5-6 pcs.
• Sugar 3 tbsp. spoons
• Lime wedges
• Turmeric
• Salt
Cooking:
Prepare the chickpeas in advance, boil. Wash rice thoroughly and soak for half an hour. Mix 1 liter of milk and water with salt, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, boil. Boil rice in water with milk, drain it in a colander. Green cilantro and mint finely chop and mix with boiled rice. Use a blender to make a paste of ginger and garlic. Heat the oil in a frying pan and put ginger-garlic dressing in it, add chili (optional). After 30 seconds, add the finely chopped onion and sauté a minute or two until transparent. Grated on a coarse grater carrots with prepared peanuts also put in a pan and continue to simmer until cooked. When the carrots become soft, add chickpeas, mix and warm the resulting mixture a little more, then remove the pan from the heat. We prepare the baking dish, greasing it with oil and rubbing it with flour or breadcrumbs. In it we spread layers of rice and carrots with chickpeas and peanuts, in turn. From above we fill in with milk in which previously we part sugar and a turmeric. We send the form into the oven for 10-15 minutes. Having removed the form, let the pilaf cool slightly in shape, cover with a dish in which pilaf will be served, and turn the form over. Lay a slice of lime around the pilaf (you can substitute lemon).
Recipe 9. Pilaf with chickpeas, dessert
Composition:
• Boiled chickpeas 0.5 kg
• Raisin (dark) 0,250 kg
• Rice dev-zira, boiled 0.5 kg
• Table grapes (white variety) 250 g
• Barberry, fresh (or cranberries, lingonberries) 200 g
• Dates (pitted) 100 g
• Orange syrup 400 ml
• Mint, fresh
• Cashews 1 cup
• Salt
Cooking:
Barberry can be replaced by any red berry. Berry should be sour, and red color will give the dish brightness and attractiveness.
Boil the boiled chickpeas in orange syrup for about five minutes, stirring constantly, add grape berries and barberry. Allow to cool. Soak the washed raisins. Remove the stones from the dates and cut them in half, large. We combine boiled rice with dates, raisins and crushed nuts. We combine both masses, laying out on top of rice, chickpeas with berries. Sprinkle with chopped mint. You can serve sweet pilaf cold.
Chickpea Pilaf - Tricks and Tips
• If you are going to serve pilaf without cutlery, do not forget to put bowls with water and slices of lemon for your hands.
• Chickpeas can be combined with any vegetables, other legumes, meat, fish. But you must remember that chickpeas contain a lot of starch. And starch is carbohydrates. Try to use more vegetables in dishes with chickpeas.
• If during the process of cooking chickpeas, replace water two to three times, then you can avoid unpleasant sensations in the intestines associated with flatulence.
• Starch comes out of chickpeas during soaking. The water in which the peas were is a great cosmetic. She can wash or make ice cubes. The skin will become more elastic, clear of acne.
Without chickpeas, the taste of any pilaf will not deteriorate. But this culture has been used in human nutrition for more than five thousand years due to its valuable biochemical composition. Add chickpeas to your diet and be healthy!
