Acem Pilawi (Ottoman Pilaf)
Rice and lamb cooked with warm spices, currants, and pistachios
City/Region: Ottoman Empire
Time Period: 1844
At an Ottoman banquet, you were only ever meant to eat a few bites of each dish that was brought out (having more was seen as being greedy). But there was no danger of leaving the table hungry, as there could be upwards of dozens of dishes. To European visitors, the order that the dishes were brought out in made no sense. Cakes could be brought out between meat courses, a rich pastry brought out after fish, and fowl after chocolate cake. Amidst this seeming chaos, pilaf was always the last dish served.
Let’s address the elephant in the room and state that yes, the pilaf is supposed to come out layered and all in one piece, but mine did not. Ottoman dishes were meant to be not only flavorful, but beautiful as well. That being said, even if you mold yours in a separate container like I did, it is still delicious (and quite nice looking). The warm spices are a wonderful and unusual combination with the lamb (at least to my palate), and there is a fantastic array of textures.
“Chop a piece of good mutton into small pieces, place them in a pot…add one or two spoonfuls of fresh butter and after frying, take the cooked meat from the pot with a hand strainer. Finely chop three or four onions and fry them, then put the roasted meat on top. Then add plenty of pistachios, currants, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom on top. After that, according to the old method, one measure of washed Egyptian rice. Add two measures of cold water without disturbing the rice, add sufficient salt, then close the lid of the pot and cover it thoroughly with dough. Boil it slowly on coals and when the water is absorbed, take the cover off, and turn the contents out of the pan onto a dish so it comes out intact. This makes a Pilaw that is very pleasing to the sight, and exceedingly pleasant to the taste. ”
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons (55 g) butter
- 1 1/2 lbs (680 g) lamb or mutton, cut into very small pieces
- 3 onions, finely chopped
- 1 cup (235 ml) warm water
- 2 cups (370 g) baldo rice*
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1/2 cup (60 g) currants
- 1/2 cup (70 g) pistachios
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
- A generous pinch of salt
- 3 cups (700 ml) cool water
*This is the kind of rice that is used in Türkiye for this dish, but you can use any rice that you have.
Instructions:
- Melt the butter in a deep pan over medium high heat. Cook the meat in the butter, about 7 to 8 minutes, until most of the juices have come out. Set the cooked meat aside.
- Add the onions to the pan and sprinkle them with a pinch of salt. Fry for 10 minutes or until they’re nice and soft. Reduce the heat to medium low. Arrange the onions in an even layer, then gently add the meat back in in an even layer on top of the onions. You want the whole dish to have defined layers. Slowly add the warm water, trying not to disturb the layers. Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 1 hour, or until the meat is nice and tender. Check it occasionally and if the water gets low, just add a little more.
- Add the salt to a medium sized bowl of water and stir. Add the rice and let it soak for 30 minutes. Put the currants in a bowl and cover them with water and let them also soak for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, drain the rice and rinse it several times, until the water runs clear. Set the rice aside. Drain the currants and mix them with the pistachios. Add the spices and stir until the currants and pistachios are evenly coated in spice.
- When the meat is cooked, sprinkle the currant and pistachio mixture evenly over the meat, again going for an even layer that doesn’t disturb the ones underneath.
- Sprinkle the rice over the currants and pistachios to create yet another even layer. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt. Carefully add the 3 cups (700 ml) of cool water, cover the pan, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes.
- After the rice has cooked for a total of 20 minutes, lift the lid off the pan just to make sure that the rice has absorbed all of the water. If it’s watery, let it cook for a few more minutes until all of the water is absorbed. If it’s ready, turn off the heat, take off the lid, and put a cloth or a double layer of paper towel over the dish, then cover again with the lid. Make sure the lid is on tight. Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
- After the pilaf has rested, take off the lid and towel. Now comes the moment of truth. Invert a serving plate over the pan. Put on some oven mitts and hold the plate while you quickly and carefully flip the pan over. This will take a bit of skill, which I could use some practice at. Mine didn’t come out terribly, but it didn’t come out all at once and hold together nicely. Best of luck! If yours came out less than perfect, you can do what I did and what is often done today, and put it all in another vessel to use as a mold (I used a large bowl). Gently press the pilaf down into the mold, then flip it onto a plate and serve it forth.
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