What the dish is and where it came from
Plov, also called osh, palov or palaw, is the Central Asian version of pilaf, a rice dish cooked in stock or broth with spices and other ingredients. It is made across Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Kazakh, Turkmen and Karakalpak cooking. It is the national dish of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and UNESCO inscribed it on its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2016. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also treat it as a staple, with their own regional variations. It is also found in the post-Soviet countries and in Xinjiang, China, where it is called polu, polo or pola and is often served with pickled vegetables, including carrots, onion and tomato.
Under the Abbasid Caliphate, methods of cooking rice close to modern pilaf spread across a vast territory from Spain to Afghanistan. The food historian Charles Perry calls pilaf a post-10th-century eastern Arabic innovation.
How it works, in terms someone would actually use
Central Asian plov differs from other pilafs because the rice is not steamed. It is simmered in a rich stew of meat and vegetables called zirvak until all the liquid has been absorbed, and covering the pot gives a limited degree of steaming. It is usually cooked in a kazon, or deghi, over an open fire.
The usual meat is lamb or beef, browned in lamb fat or oil and then stewed with fried onions, garlic and carrots. Spicing is simple: salt, peppercorns and cumin, with coriander, barberries, red pepper or marigold added according to region or the cook’s preference. Heads of garlic and chickpeas are sometimes buried in the rice as it cooks.
What it gets right
It scales. Plov is often made at home, but for holidays and weddings an oshpaz, or master cook, makes it over an open flame, sometimes serving up to 1,000 people from a single cauldron. Oshi nahor, or “morning palov”, is served between 6 and 9 am to large gatherings, typically as part of a wedding celebration.
It also bends to place. Samarkand-style plov commonly uses zig’ir oil, a mix of melon seed, cottonseed, sesame and flaxseed oils, and some regions use other oils to cook the meat.
What it does not
Plov asks for particular kit and a particular meat. It is usually cooked in a kazon over an open fire, and it is made with lamb or beef: chicken plov is rare, found in traditional recipes from Bukhara.
What it changed
The pilaf family that plov belongs to is tied to the spread of rice cooking: the Spanish paella, the South Asian pilau or pulao, and biryani evolved from the dishes of the Abbasid era. The name travelled too. Lithuanian pilaf is often called plovas and Latvian pilaf plovs or plov, and in both it tends to be rice with vegetables, often with chicken or pork.
Who it is for, and who it is not
It is for cooks who want a one-pot, meat-based rice with simple spicing, and for anyone feeding a crowd. Sweet versions with dried apricots, cranberries and raisins are made on special occasions. It is not for a cook expecting a pilaf whose rice is steamed: in plov the rice is simmered in the zirvak instead.
Is it worth your time
Yes, if you cook for company or want to see how a Central Asian pilaf differs from other pilafs. The dish rewards a large pot and an open fire, and its simple seasoning leaves the meat, onions and carrots to carry the flavour.
