Features of pilaf with pumpkin
Pilaf with pumpkin can be cooked with pork, chicken and beef. Well, if you are a supporter of the classics, then lamb will be just right. The peculiarity of this dish is that pumpkin gives the dish a subtle sweet flavor, which enriches the flavor palette of the dish as a whole. Even lean pilaf with pumpkin has an amazing taste, which vegetarians will certainly appreciate. You can also prepare sweet pilaf with pumpkin.
There are creative recipes when pilaf is cooked in the pumpkin itself. If you cook pilaf with pumpkin in Azerbaijani style, you usually add raisins, dried apricots, turmeric and saffron. Much attention is paid to rice. It is best to use devzira rice; you can use long-grain steamed rice. But round rice will be absolutely inappropriate, since it contains a lot of starch, as a result the dish will resemble porridge.
SIBZDORSiberian Health!
My recipe for pilaf with pumpkin is far from classic. But first of all, I want to explain why I cook pilaf with pumpkin .
Firstly, pumpkin is a very healthy product. In the east they say about such products that they are a cure for forty diseases. Pumpkin in one form or another is used as a medicine, ranging from diseases such as the common cold to such serious diseases as tuberculosis, diabetes, and cancer. Everything in a pumpkin is useful: the peel, the pulp, and the seeds. Gennady Petrovich Malakhov talks very well about the benefits of pumpkin.
Secondly, pumpkin grows in my garden, and such a healthy product shouldn’t go to waste.
Having such wealth at hand, for a long time he could not find a worthy use for it. You don’t really eat raw pumpkin, it’s not a melon. Pumpkin porridge and pumpkin soup were not to my taste at all. The delicious tasting samsa and manti with pumpkin came to mind. Only I don’t have a tandoor or a mantysh pan to cook them. But, if pumpkin is delicious in samsa and manti, then why not try making pilaf with pumpkin . I had heard about it before, but never tried it. And so my pumpkin pilaf recipe was born.
To prepare pilaf with pumpkin, I use the same ingredients, excluding garlic, and in the same quantities as for regular pilaf (see “My recipe for making pilaf”). I only use half as much onion and carrots. But there’s a problem with pumpkins - all the pumpkins in my garden, as a rule, weigh a little more than a kilogram. Well, let’s say I cut a kilogram from a pumpkin for pilaf, but what should I do with the rest of it? When I prepared pilaf with pumpkin for the first time, I put the rest of the pumpkin in the refrigerator, successfully forgot about it and, in the end, threw it away. At the same time, my consciousness whispered to me that it was somehow wrong to use only a third or a quarter of such a useful product. Next time I prepared pilaf like this:
As usual, I fry the meat in a cauldron, add chopped carrots, spices, nokhat, and onions. I pour boiling water so that the zirvak can also fit a kilogram of pumpkin. While the zirvak is cooking, I peel and seed the pumpkin and cut it into pieces measuring approximately 5 by 5 centimeters. I rinse the pumpkin pieces with cold water so that the internal pumpkin mucus does not remain on them.
I cook pumpkin in zirvak in one kilogram portions. About five minutes before adding the first portion of pumpkin, add zirvak salt. After laying the pumpkin, I add heat until the zirvak boils, then the pumpkin is simmered over low heat. 15-20 minutes after the zirvak boils, the pumpkin is ready. I carefully remove it from the cauldron, shaking off any snagged pieces of carrots, onions and spices back into the cauldron. I add the next portion of pumpkin. If necessary, add boiling water, not forgetting to add a little salt. The next step is similar to cooking the first portion of pumpkin - I add heat, bring the zirvak to a boil, after 15-20 minutes I remove the finished pumpkin from the cauldron and add the next portion.
Pumpkin cooked in this way is ready to eat and can be eaten with pleasure both hot and cold.
Before adding the last portion of pumpkin, I add raisins to the zirvak. I place washed rice on top of the pumpkin, pour boiling water over the rice, covering the rice by one centimeter. I add heat until the water boils away. I collect the rice in a mound and make holes in the mound for better evaporation of water. I wrap the lid of the cauldron with a towel and close the cauldron. I keep the pilaf on low heat for 20-25 minutes and put out the fire. After 15-20 minutes you can open the lid.
First of all, I fish the pumpkin and meat out of the cauldron. I stir the rest thoroughly and spread as much as needed on the lagan. I top the rice with meat and pumpkin.
As a result, I actually end up with two dishes. Pilaf, with an indescribable aroma and taste of a mixture of meat, spices and pumpkin. And the pumpkin, which has absorbed all the delights of zirvak.
The pilaf turns out so tasty that you want to treat all your friends to it and sing songs about it. This is what my good Tashkent friend, Rashid Akhmedov, does.
ps1. If you know a delicious pumpkin recipe, please share the recipe with me.
ps2. If you liked my pumpkin pilaf recipe, please share it with your friends.
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Required Ingredients
So, let's prepare a set of products for delicious pilaf. We will need 0.5 kg of pork, 250 g of yellow beauty and the same amount of rice. The housewife always has a couple of onions and carrots in her refrigerator. There will be no problems with sunflower oil either, don’t forget garlic and spices (barberry, black peppercorns, chili pepper, salt).
All you have to do is choose the right utensils, and you can start cooking. You should not take an enamel pan - you will ruin both the pilaf and the pan. A cauldron or cast iron frying pan with thick walls is best.
Step-by-step instruction
Let's begin the sacrament of preparation.
Place the cauldron on the fire and pour vegetable oil into it. Throw a pinch of salt into the heated oil; if you hear a slight crackling sound, then it’s time to add the meat. We wash it, dry it and cut it into small pieces before storing it. Fry the meat in oil until golden brown over high heat.
While the meat is browning, you can pay attention to the vegetables. Cut the onion into strips and add to the meat, reducing the heat. Bring it to a golden color. Be careful with the onions, as they will determine the color of the finished dish. Cut the carrots into cubes. In the finished pilaf, this is exactly what it should look like.
Now cover the cauldron with a lid and simmer the zirvak for half an hour. Now it’s the turn of the pumpkin – cut it into pieces slightly smaller than the meat. Place the yellow beauty on top of the carrots. Don't try to mix!
Dried barberries will add a special taste to the pilaf. After rinsing them under the tap, feel free to put them in the cauldron. Now it's time for the seasonings. Salt the pilaf and season with spices.
Rinse the rice and pre-soak it in warm water. Now place the rice on top of the pumpkin and carefully level the surface with a spoon. Pour water on top so that it covers the rice by 1.5 cm.
Turn the heat on high for about ten minutes, then open the lid and stick the head of garlic into the rice. Now you can turn the heat to low, close the cauldron with a lid and simmer the contents for about 45 minutes. After the time has passed, you just need to stir the prepared oriental dish and you can serve it on the table.
How to cook “Pilaf in pumpkin in the oven”
Prepare the indicated products.
Rinse the lamb or other type of meat, remove the veins and films, and chop into cubes. The finer the meat cut, the faster it will cook in the pumpkin. Rinse any type of rice, preferably steamed. Combine meat with rice, seasoning, dried barberry in a bowl or bowl and mix. Add some chopped pumpkin pulp instead of carrots.
Remove seeds from the pumpkin, being careful not to damage or break the bottom, and rinse. Place the prepared filling inside the vegetable. Peel the onions and chop.
Add chopped onion, add an unpeeled clove or two cloves of garlic and pour boiling water over it.
Cover the top with foil and place in a mold, and then in an oven preheated to 220 degrees for 1-1.2 hours.
After the specified time, remove the foil and let the pilaf bake for 5 minutes until golden brown.
Serve pilaf directly in the pumpkin, adding sour cream, mayonnaise or other sauces.
Alternative cooking methods
We offer a recipe for vegetarian pilaf in a slow cooker. For this we need 0.5 kg of pumpkin, one carrot and an onion. You can use vegetable oil or butter - it depends on your taste preferences. Next, prepare a third of a glass of raisins, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and turmeric, a measuring cup of rice will be enough. There is salt and pepper in the house.
We clean the pumpkin, wash it, cut it into cubes. Three carrots on a medium grater, finely chop the onion. Pour oil into the multicooker container and add vegetables. We set the device to the “Baking” mode - 5 minutes is enough for the vegetables to lightly fry. Add raisins, cinnamon, turmeric to the container and leave to cook for just one more minute.
Open the multicooker, add rice pre-soaked in warm water, pepper and salt to taste, pour in 1.5 measuring cups of water. Mix all the contents thoroughly, set the “Pilaf” mode and cook for 40 minutes.
Well, delicious, aromatic vegetarian pilaf with pumpkin is ready. The dish is not only incredibly tasty, but also very healthy.
Sweet pilaf with omelette
For those who believe that pilaf without meat is not food, because it is not filling and nutritious, there is a special recipe - sweet and with omelet. The protein is present, the calorie content is at the proper level, and the taste is excellent!
Cooking time: 1.5 hours
Number of servings: 9
Energy value
- proteins – 7.4 g;
- fats – 38 g;
- carbohydrates – 48.4 g;
- calorie content – 564 kcal.
Ingredients
- rice - 400 g;
- prunes - 150 g;
- raisins - 100 g;
- dried apricots - 150 g;
- dried cranberries - 100 g;
- butter - 450 g;
- eggs - 4 pcs.;
- flour - 50 g;
- turmeric - 10 g;
- salt - to taste.
Step-by-step preparation
- Rinse the rice and boil until half cooked in salted water.
- Beat the eggs well, add flour and whisk again so that there are no lumps. Add a couple of tablespoons of rice to the egg mixture, sprinkle with turmeric and add a little salt.
- Melt 100 g of butter in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Pour the egg mixture into it, cook over very low heat, covered, until a reddish crust begins to appear.
- Place rice on top of the omelette and gently smooth it out with a spatula. Make small holes in several places and place pieces of butter in them. Sprinkle with turmeric and add 100 ml of water. Cook covered over low heat for about 20 minutes.
- Prepare a sweet dressing. To do this, wash the dried fruits, add 100 ml of water, add the remaining butter, sprinkle with turmeric and simmer over low heat under the lid until all the liquid has evaporated and the dried fruits begin to fry.
- Serve the finished dish like this: place a portion of rice with an omelet on a plate, and a sweet “fry” on top. You can add a teaspoon of natural honey.
