Uzbek cuisine
Uzbek cooking rests on lamb, tail fat and cumin, and its centre is plov, which has a different recipe in every province.
Plov in Uzbekistan is not one dish but dozens: Fergana, Samarkand, Bukhara, wedding plov. They differ in the order things go in, the variety of rice, even whether the layers are mixed at all.
Lamb tail fat is not a substitute for oil but an ingredient with a flavour of its own. The crackling rendered from it is served separately, sprinkled with salt.
2 dishes
- Uzbek plov
Rice steamed over a zirvak of lamb, carrot and onion. It is never stirred once it goes in.
130 min · Medium · Main course
- Samsa
Flaky triangles of chopped lamb and onion, baked to a crisp shell.
125 min · Takes practice · Snack