• Capital: Tashkent
• Population: about 33 millions
• Area: 448 978 km²
• Currency: Uzbekistani so’m

For my Uzbek recipe I made Plov. Plov is a staple of central Asian food. It is shared by a lot of countries in this region. It’s a rice dish with carrots and lamb cooked with some delicious spices like cumin and cardamom.

Plov

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds deboned leg of lamb
• 1 onion
• 7 carrots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoon cumin
• 1 pound basmati rice
• 5 cardamom pods
• Canola oil
• Salt

Directions:

First, prepare all the ingredients.Rinse the rice under cold water until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a bowl and cover with water. Let it rest until we need it in the recipe. Cut the meat in 1 inch cubes, dice the onion, cut the whole garlic bulb in half horizontally, peel and cut the carrots in 2 inches matchsticks.

In a large dutch oven, heat some canola oil on high heat until very hot. Brown the lamb in batches and set the browned meat aside while working on each batch. Do not overcrowd your pot to allow the meat to brown nicely. Once all the meat is browned, remove it from the dutch oven and add the onions in the pot. cook the onion until translucent and slightly golden. Make sure to scrape all the brown bits from the lamb that are left in the pot while cooking the onions. Put the meat back in and add the carrots. Reduce heat to medium.

Cook the carrots, meat and onions for about 10 minutes stirring often. Add the cumin and cardamom and stir well to coat everything. Add some water to cover the meat entirely. Bring to a boil and let simmer on low heat, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, most of the water should evaporated and you should be left with some thick juice in the meat. If there is still a lot of water, turn the heat to high and let the water evaporate while stirring constantly.

Once you are at this point, drain the rice and rinse it one more time. Bring some salted water to a boil on the side. Layer the rice on top of meat to make to form one uniform layer. Do not stir. Add the boiling water to the pot until the rice is covered by 1 inch. Add the garlic bulbs cut side down on top of the rice.

Bring to a boil and let simmer until the water level is not touching the rice anymore. To check poke a few holes in the rice all the way to the bottom of the pot. This will also help letting some steam escape. Once the water is not touching the rice anymore, reduce the heat to an absolute minimum, cover and let steam for 20 minute.

To finish, set the garlic bulbs aside, stir the rice and the meat gently together. Serve with 1/2 bulb of garlic on top.

Yoqimli ishtaha!