Original link: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/b6b
In all Central Asian countries, pilaf is the most important table staple food, and this dish is also regarded as their “national dish” by the Uzbeks. (Drawing by Lee Seung-woo)
Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in the “Silk Road Cuisine” series. Since the launch of the “World Food” column, the author Mustafa has taken us to eat Silk Road cuisine in Beijing, Xi’an and Yangguan. This time, he took us away from the Central Plains and deep into the Asian continent, and came to Sarmarkand, the ancient trading capital of Uzbekistan, to taste the traditional Central Asian food that can be eaten in the streets.
Previous review:
< The First Stop of Silk Road Cuisine: The Unfamiliar Cuisine You Are Most Familiar With – Shabu-shabu mutton >
“A bowl of mutton in a water basin, a piece of rose mirror cake, and a trip to the Halal Silk Road”
“Come to a Lanzhou Ramen and Hand Caught Lamb, a haven for Muslims and migrant workers”
Text / Mustafa
If Kashgar, a famous city in Central Asia, crosses the Pamirs directly to the west, and then flows down the Zeravshan river, you will arrive at the splendid scenery that is extremely important in world history and famous for its material culture. Capital – Samarkand (Samarqand).
When it comes to rivers in Central Asia, many people have only heard of the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya in high school geography class. Although the Zelavshan River is not as famous as the first two rivers, it flows through the most densely populated city in Central Asia, and its river basin is home to three ancient cities of great significance in the history of the world: Panjkent (Panjkent, five). City), Samarkand and Bukhara (Buxoro).
Whether from the point of view of archaeology, history or material culture, these three cities are like golden mountains, worthy of careful study.
The name of the river is also particularly nice, and it has a beautiful image of golden shimmering waves in the sunset. The name of the “Zerafshan River” comes from Persian, if you translate it freely, it is “the river that spreads gold”, which means that the sand in this river contains golden sand.
In the history of the Persian world, this river is also considered to be the dividing line between the land of Persia and the land of Turan (Turkic). Samarkand is located on the south bank of this river, and was a city-state of the Sogdian, a commercial and trade group in history.
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Golden peaches of Samarkand
When it comes to Samarkand, people think of exotic treasures, brocade clothes and jade food. Readers interested in cultural exchanges and material culture in the Tang Dynasty—especially imported luxury goods—should be familiar with The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. The image of “Golden Peach” represents a romantic exotic commodity.
“The twenty-first year of Zhenguan’s first month… Kang Guo presented a yellow peach, as big as a goose egg, and its color was golden, so it was also called a golden peach…”
The author of this book, Edward Hetzel Schafer, an American sinologist, condensed the records in the history books into this wonderful metaphor.
“The Golden Peach of Samarkand” isn’t just a romantic metaphor either. I came to Samarkand in love with the name of Samarkand, which is rich in yellow peaches and all kinds of delicious melons and fruits; there is also a dessert in this area, where the yellow peaches are roasted in the oven and then drizzled with rose syrup, which is very suitable for ” The Golden Peach of Samarkand” is a romantic image.
In the Chinese historical records of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Samarkand was once called “Kang Country”, and the people from here and their descendants became the Kang surname in the “Nine Surnames of Zhaowu”. After the outbreak of the An-Shi Rebellion, the Sogdians in the Central Plains were integrated into the northern Chinese. If there are people with the surname Kang by your side today, and their ancestral home is in the Shaanxi-Gansu area, then his ancestors are probably related to the Sogdians.
In the middle and late 8th century, Central Asia (the region of the river) where Samarkand is located was gradually Islamized, and the local Sogdians also integrated into the Persians, Tajiks and Central Asian Arabs, and became the ancestors of the modern Central Asian ethnic groups. part.
But no matter whether the Sogdian group continued to prosper or not, the various city-states or dynasties active in Central Asia still played an important role in colluding with the Eurasian commercial network and selling luxury consumer goods. In the 18th and 19th centuries, after the Silk Road trade network gradually fell silent, these historical cities in Central Asia also lost their glory.
In the past, to travel to the ancient city of Samarkand, people’s routes usually started from Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, took the high-speed rail that opened a few years ago, or found a place in Tashkent to accompany the driver to drive there.
In April 2022, as I write this, on the southern bank of the Zerafshan River, the new airport in Samarkand opens. If you visit the city again in the future, you should really check out this beautiful modern airport: it is designed like an open book, symbolizing the famous astronomer ruler of Samarkand, the Timurid prince Mir Mirza Ulubeg’s “Ulubeg Astronomical Catalog”.
For me, who has a strong interest in the Silk Road, Central Asian peoples and history, Samarkand and Bukhara, the two ancient cities on the banks of the Zerafshan River, are my paradise on earth. No matter what you see or eat, you can get great satisfaction, especially in the context of the eastern side of Central Asia being gradually swallowed beyond recognition, it is even more precious.
Sarmarkand, the ancient capital of Silk Road trade, famous for its material culture. (Drawing by Lee Seung-woo)
Pilaf, the most important table staple in Central Asia
From the perspective of diet, the entire Central Asia region in a broad sense, including Hami and Turpan in the west of Jiayuguan, all the way to Herat in Afghanistan, the most common feature in the diet of this region is the polao (پلو) with similar tastes— ─ hand pilaf.
If you want to thoroughly explain the representative Central Asian dish of pilaf, you can start with its Chinese name. “Pilaf”, as the name suggests, is food eaten with hands. For East Asians who are accustomed to using chopsticks, eating with their hands is a very striking cultural feature.
In the daily practice etiquette of Muslims, it is a sunnah to take food directly with the washed right hand. Therefore, in the entire Muslim world, whether it is West Asia, North Africa, India, or Southeast Asia, rice, bread and naan The food is eaten directly with the right hand.
In Persian, polao is a general term for dishes such as “rice”, which spread throughout Central Asia, West Asia, Africa, and southern Europe during the Abbasids caliphate period from the 8th to the 13th century AD. In addition to the Chinese famous hand pilaf, polao has some slight variants in various languages, but almost all of them are pronounced “pulao”, “polo”, “plov” and the like. Even English has the word “pilaf”.
The paella, which is very famous today, is also a variant of polao, and there is even a version introduced to South America by Spanish colonists. Another well-known variation of polao is biryani (Indian spiced rice) popular in India and Pakistan. In today’s Taiwan, biryani is relatively easy to eat, but it is difficult to eat polao.
(I once wrote another article about Afghan pilaf in “Walk the World”, which detailed my personal connection with pilaf)
In all Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, pilaf is the most important table staple. This dish is also regarded by the Uzbeks as their “national dish”, and many say it has a long history, dating back to the time of Alexander the Great’s Eastern Expeditions.
Today, whether it’s a festival or a ceremonial ceremony, the very center of a banquet table is almost certainly occupied by this dish. The colorful pilaf is served on a large colorful plate (called lagan in both Uzbek and Uyghur), and everyone sits and shares it. Traditionally, food is eaten with the hands. The important table manners are to only eat the part in front of you, and the fingers should be flexible so that the hands cannot be stained with rice grains everywhere.
If I have to find out what is the difference between the pilaf eaten in Uzbekistan and the pilaf made by the Uyghurs, I may only say that the pilaf eaten in Uyghur restaurants in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains is red and yellow. The ratio of colored carrots is similar, and in Uzbek restaurants, yellow carrots seem to be used more, and many restaurants simply use yellow carrots.
Some friends around me don’t eat carrots. I always think it’s because Taiwan’s popular diet pursues “light taste”, but if you put less oil, it will be difficult to make carrots delicious. My mother told me since I was a child that carrots, meat and oil must be eaten together.
Later, I came into contact with some nutritional science, and then I realized that the old man said this is reasonable: the vitamin A in carrots can only be effectively dissolved in fat. I also remember that a Uyghur friend once told me that if you don’t see some oil flowers on the bottom of the plate after eating a plate of pilaf, this pilaf is wrong. In contrast, I think yellow carrots taste better than red ones, unfortunately yellow carrots are not particularly common outside of Central Asia.
Food show on the streets of the ancient city
As mentioned above, pilaf has various variants in various countries and places, but its most basic ingredients are rice, onions, carrots and meat. It’s easy to satiate, and it’s nutritious and healthy.
If you walk in the residential area of Samarkand in the morning, you can always smell the aroma of steamed rice mixed with meat in the air of the streets. In the residential areas of Central Asian cities, the rule of almost all restaurants for hand-made pilaf is to start preparing in the morning, and the team divides the labor. Some people cut radishes, some people chop meat, some people wash rice, and they make a big pot in one day. I won’t make new ones, if I don’t eat it that day, I’ll have to wait until the next day.
After all the ingredients are ready, the rest of the work is handed over to masters who specialize in pilaf, called “oshpaz”. An oshpaz is usually an experienced and able-bodied male who performs a series of cooking operations outdoors on a large earthen stove.
In the traditional Muslim culture in Central Asia, although women are responsible for many housework in the kitchen, there are two dishes, pilaf and barbecue, which traditionally must be done by the men in the family. If you understand the cooking process, you will know the reason.
At important banquets such as weddings of Central Asian Muslims, it is very important to invite an oshpaz. This pilaf master not only possesses unique skills, but also his important household items include his huge pilaf pot. This pot is an oshpaz’s most important tangible asset, one that he has accumulated over a long period of time from apprentice to master. He can use this huge iron pot to make pilaf for dozens or even hundreds of guests at a time.
This kind of pilaf pot, called “kazan” in Central Asia, is a round-bottomed pot of black cast iron; the tool for frying is a large shovel with a hole called “shumovka” . When all the ingredients are ready, the oshpaz will first pour oil into the kazan pan (or sauté the suet in a more traditional way), then sauté the onions, add the meat, carrots, and fry again and again.
If it’s the kind of giant kazan, sometimes it even requires several strong chefs to work together to stir fry, and finally bury everything with rice, put a few whole, unpeeled garlic on top of the rice, use a Poke a few air holes with a stick on the flattened rice, then add water, and cover with a lid after the water boils.
Once the lid is closed, it cannot be opened or adjusted again. An experienced oshpaz will decide how much water to add based on the quantity of ingredients. After all the steps are completed, oshpaz will solemnly spread his hands in front of his chest, make a “dua” (prayer), brush his hands on his face, complete this series of movements, and wait for a big pot hand pilaf finish.
At a certain moment, the pilaf master will lift the lid of the pot, use a large spatula to prepare all the meat, carrots and rice in layers in a vast expanse of white steam, and then simmer for a while , a pot of hand pilaf is ready. When serving, the rice is at the bottom, then the radish, and the meat at the top. This is also the difference between it and Uyghur hand pilaf: the latter usually consists of meat, rice and carrots evenly served together.
Another interesting feature of Samarkand’s pilaf is that after the plate is served, the rice is often accompanied by a few boiled quail eggs. The golden pilaf is placed on a beautiful blue-green lagan ceramic plate. With quail eggs and salad on the side, it’s a work of art.
On the side of the road in any of the ancient cities of Central Asia – whether you are in Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Kokand, Khiva or Khujand, or even in other countries In big cities, as long as there is a restaurant opened by a Central Asian, you can watch the whole process of the chefs of the pilaf restaurant from preparing the ingredients to serving the plate. I especially like to stand by the open-air kitchen for a long time to watch this process.
Make pilaf in your own kitchen
If you make pilaf in the kitchen at home, the process and practice are similar, but you don’t need such a big kazan pot. Generally, a household cast iron pot is enough. The important thing is to have a very tightly sealed pot lid.
In my family, if I buy fatter mutton, I will deliberately leave some suet fat when cutting the meat, freeze it for preservation, and use it when making pilaf. If you don’t need suet, you can also use ordinary vegetable oil, or “hu oil” and “flax oil” used for filling and filling when people from Inner Mongolia and Shanxi make ” Shao Mai “, which is also called flax oil in Taiwan. ──I learned this trick from Uzbeks, flaxseed oil can give pilaf a special aroma. However, the smoke point of this oil is relatively low, so it should be mixed with vegetable oil with a high smoke point.
It is actually not difficult to make this Central Asian home-cooked dish, all it takes is the accumulation of preferences and experience.
Its basic steps are to fry the meat and onions first. Fry the onion until it is completely golden and soft, and even has entered the meat and can hardly be seen. Then add the carrots. When the carrots are completely soft, add the same amount of water as the rice to the pot and simmer.
After the water boils, add salt, cumin, black pepper, one or two dried red peppers, or two or three bay leaves, then cover the washed rice on top, spread it out, and poke a few with chopsticks Put a few heads of garlic in the hole, sprinkle a little salt on the surface, cover, turn to low heat, and simmer for at least 25 minutes. During this period, do not open the lid of the pot, otherwise the steam will escape and the rice will not be cooked.
Waiting for the simmering time, you can prepare a salad that can be seen everywhere in Central Asia to the Caucasus, which is tomato, cucumber, cherry radish, purple onion, cut into pieces, drizzle with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, sprinkle Serve with salt and cilantro. This salad and plain yogurt are the best side dishes for pilaf. Many people like to eat yogurt drizzled on their pilaf.
Pilaf is an unforgettable meal for anyone who has traveled through Eurasia and around the Silk Road. The current epidemic still makes it difficult to travel with peace of mind. When there are very few restaurants in Taiwan that have this dish, trying to make this most important dish on the Silk Road at home is a good way to experience the Silk Road with taste. way of the road.
Finally, please remember that this pilaf dish, which is regarded as a treasure by all ethnic groups in Central Asia, is meant to be shared with everyone. As is an important tradition for the people of this region, give generously, receive gratefully, and eat with the crowd. (Finish)
About the Author｜ Mustafa (born and raised in Beijing, now living in Taiwan, amateur research on the material culture and collections of the Muslim world. Contact: [email protected])
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This article is reprinted from: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/b6b
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