Thursday, April 29, 2010

Kazakh plov

Pronounced pluff, plov is another meal that we eat once or twice a month. It's prepared in bulk with these 'portable' cookers. A wood fire beneath the pot slow cooks rice, beef, veggies, oil, and an assortment of closely-kept-secret spices, according to each families' recipe. This was cooked at our school a few weekends ago.
Wikipedia asserts that is is a staple in at least 52 countries ranging from Tajikistan, below, to Sweden, where it is called pilaff.
In Afghanistan it is called pilau, below. Out of more than 50 languages, it always begins with the p' sound.
In most Western diets, it is simply called rice pilaf, but it's origins are Mesoptamian and Persian (1,000 years ago) thence Central Asian and Turkik.

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