Vladimir
Spivakovsky

Pilaf from Spivakovsky. This is my gift.

I do the cooking twice a year: on the 8th of March and in autumn on my wife’s birthday.

An old Uzbek taught me the art of cooking pilaf, when I was digging sand on archaeological excavations in an expedition under the hot desert sun.

So, the guests came and I told them that in pilaf the main thing is zirvak, and they heard nothing of it. They thought that rice is the main thing in pilaf … How naïve they were. Zirvak is the main thing in pilaf!

It’s not pilaf without zirvak, it’s a kind of rice porridge.

Pilaf magic starts with burning the cauldron. When it is heated and ready to explode from the critical temperature, it is possible to pour oil into it, which must also be burned until white smoke drifts from it. As if from the Vatican.

Then we throw a bowl of chopped onions there and fry until its color turns golden. After we add carrot and in 10 minutes we put roasted slices of meat, which should not come in contact with each other.

The most witchcraft begins from this moment, because the nose smarts from the spices: basil, pepper, cloves, barberry, salt, bay leaf. And also there should be two kinds of raisins at once — golden-festive and large black — for taste. And a garlic bulb (for the adsorption of excess oil fat).

And all this layered gurgling looks like infernal heat that will soon turn into a paradise treat.

From the very beginning, when the first tongue of flame from the stove only touches the cauldron, rice must be poured into a large cold pot for washing it from the paste and soaking, so that it slightly bulks and becomes ready to meet the zirvak in the cauldron at the most important moment.

You will not believe, but apart from all this nutritious meeting, water must be prepared …. 1 liter of boiling water should wait for its starry minute, which is about to enter your history of cooking pilaf.

During an hour after you started the fire, you can see the magic of what is going on in the cauldron, opening the cover and driving everyone crazy with these divine smells. This means that the zirvak is close to its apogee.

In 1 hour you drain the water from the rice, and gently, without stirring anything in the cauldron (no stirring!, otherwise the zirvak will cuss you), put the rice over the gurgling mass in the pot with gentle movements of the hands.

Once you have put the rice, level it, and also carefully, so as not to disrupt the integrity of the future dish, pour the boiling water so that the water rises above the rice by about 2 fingers. With the flame below the average level and the closed cover, you steam the contents for 40 minutes.

From time to time stir the rice skillfully (only rice!, without touching the zirvak.).

It took only 100 minutes from the moment when you touched the cauldron and proceeded to the ritual, and the pilaf is almost ready. Almost — because only now you get the right to mix all the layers –zirvak with rice.

You stir it, cover with the cover and put a rug on the top so that the smell does not penetrate from the cauldron into the environment. Otherwise, all your relatives and guests will just go crazy from the smell ahead of time.

Allow them to go crazy when they sit at the festive table, and they will not be eager to taste salads and snacks there, they will chant only one word:

Pilaf! Pilaf! Pilaf!
And you go around the table, everyone sniffs, hands out plates, worrying that there will not be enough for them. But you generously put pilaf to everyone`s plate and quietly sit on the edge.

What was different this time?

This time there was olive oil not sunflower oil. Onions somehow did not water my eyes when chopping, I do not know where they grow this kind now. The carrot was called “Vovka-Morkovka” (“Vovka the Carrot”), which amazed me greatly. For exotic taste I added some ginger and musk. The rice was half wild. The meat was Argentinian, because my festive dance over the pilaf looked like Argentinian tango.
Even squirrels from the forest, which I usually feed with walnuts, came to taste my pilaf. It`s already the third helping for them this time.
Eat, my dear creatures, there is enough for all.