Best Russian Ploff Recipes

BEEF PLOV (BEEF RICE PILAF) RECIPE

Steps:

• Trim beef of excess fat and sinews (aka the chewy stuff), pat the meat dry with a paper towel and chop into 1/2" to 3/4" pieces.
• Preheat your dutch oven (or your large soup pot with a heavy bottom), to high heat. Once it's hot, stir in your 1/3 cup canola oil. Once oil is hot, add chopped meat and saute uncovered 7 min over high heat until meat is browned, stirring every minute or so so it doesn't scorch to the bottom of the pan. Note: it's important to preheat the dutch oven first for the meat to sear over very high heat, otherwise it will juice out and become dry.
• Reduce heat to medium and Add chopped onion, stirring often until onion is softened (5 minutes). Stir in sliced carrots, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin, 3-4 bay leaves and continue to cook over medium heat 5 minutes until carrots are softened.
• Add 1 3/4 cups hot water, cover and simmer over medium/low heat 45 min or until meat is tender.
• Meanwhile, rinse rice until water runs clear, then drain and set aside (this gets rid of the starch so you won't end up with a sticky rice).
• Spread rice over the meat and add 4 cups hot water. Sprinkle the rice with 1 1/2 tsp salt (DO NOT STIR), bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and Let cook uncovered until most of the water is absorbed (10 min).
• Cut off the base of your whole garlic head to expose the cloves. Put your head of garlic, cut side down into the center of the rice and sprinkle the top of the rice with 1 tsp ground coriander.
• Poke 7-10 holes through the rice to allow steam to escape to the surface, reduce the heat to low then cover and cook an additional 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through. Remove the garlic head and bay leaves and stir everything gently to combine and you're done.

RUSSIAN PLOFF

Steps:

• steam meat (anykind) until almost done, throw in onions and carrots, steam until tender, pour in rice on the meat and pour water over it so that it covers the rice and meat about 1 to 2 cm.
• bring to boil and turn on low temperature, let cook for about 30 minutes.

PLOFF / PLOV

Steps:

• In a cast iron pot, or dutch oven (any heavy pot that's moderately sized, not large), heat oil and sautee the onion until translucent.
• Add meat with bones, and sear on all sides.
• Add little bit of water, and braise. Don't let it dry out, add more water as you need to continue braising (if you don't have time and prefer stewing, it's OK, but you can't let the meat drown in water and at the same time you can't let it dry out. Be gentle.)
• Add the paprika and garlic. Braise it for total of 45min, or until meat is soft.
• Some cuts will require longer braising times (no shortcuts, meat has to be tender, and a little bit of brown sauce needs to develop).
• Stir and stir, don't let anything stick, just add some more water to make sure you're getting a sauce. Remember, we're working with very little oil here.
• Add the cumin seeds (preferable toasted and crushed).
• Now that the meat is soft, add your parsley, carrots, salt, 1 cup of rice, and 2 cups of water. Mix well, and cover.
• Let cook for about 30-40min on low heat, until all water is absorbed.
• Enjoy!
• Note: True Uzbekistanian ploff also contains dried apricots and dried cherries.