Shah plov

Ingredients

• Basmati rice600 g
• Lamb — boneless, in cubes700 g
• Thin lavash3
• Onion2
• Chestnuts — peeled200 g
• Dried apricots100 g
• Raisins80 g
• Clarified butter180 g
• Saffron1 pinch
• Turmeric1 tsp
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the rice in salted water for an hour, then boil it seven minutes in plenty of water and drain.

   20 min

2. 2

   Steep the saffron in three spoons of boiling water and leave it; it gives both colour and scent.

   3 min

3. 3

   Brown the lamb, add the onion and cook until soft. Add the chestnuts, apricots, raisins and turmeric and stew for twenty minutes.

   30 min

4. 4

   Butter a deep dish generously and line it with overlapping lavash, letting the edges hang outside.

   8 min

5. 5

   Layer it: rice, filling, rice again. Pour over the saffron infusion and the rest of the butter.

   7 min

6. 6

   Fold the lavash edges over the top, cover with foil and bake at 180 °C for forty minutes, then uncover and give it fifteen more to colour.

   57 min

7. 7

   Rest ten minutes, cover with a platter and invert. Cut it at the table.

   12 min

About the dish

Lavash is laid overlapping so the edges hang over the rim of the dish, then folded back in once it is filled. Baking soaks it in butter and turns it into a crisp shell — the gazmakh.

The rice is parboiled and drained. From there it finishes in the steam inside the lavash and needs no more water: the flavour comes from saffron, butter and meat.

Shah plov comes to the table whole and is cut from the top down. Everyone gets crust, filling and rice in one piece, which is the point of the construction.

Worth knowing

• — Use a straight-sided dish. In a sloped one the crust cracks at the rim when you turn it out.
• — Vacuum-packed chestnuts are fine; peeling fresh ones takes half an hour and the dish does not taste different for it.
• — Underdone rice is a requirement, not a mistake. Rice finished on the hob turns to porridge over an hour in the oven.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

720 kcal

Protein

30 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

75 g

More from Azerbaijan

• Kufta bozbash — A clear broth with one large meatball per portion, a dried plum and apricot hidden inside it.