Bukharan Plov

Samarkand-Bukhara Uzbek·Hard·43 min active + 1 hour 45 min resting

Yellow plov — turmeric-tinted rice with dried apricot, currant, and chickpea. Bukharan-Jewish heritage dish.

A Bukharan-Jewish Shabbat dish (oshi savo, 'Sabbath plov'), kept warm overnight in a sealed pot since cooking is forbidden on the Sabbath. The Bukharan Jews descend from Persian Jewry — among the oldest Jewish diaspora groups, present in Central Asia since the Babylonian-exile era, reinforced by Persian Jews fleeing the persecutions of King Peroz I (5th c. CE) and firmly established in Bukhara by the 16th century. Diaspora communities in Queens, Vienna, and Tel Aviv preserve the same recipe.

Tashkent's Pearl restaurant (run by the Yusupov Bukharan-Jewish family since 1991) serves the canonical Bukharan plov to both Jewish and Muslim diners; the apricot-to-rice ratio is fixed at 1:8 by weight. Queens, NY has 40+ Bukharan plov restaurants serving the diaspora community since the 1980s.

Turmeric-yellow grains, the apricot reconstituted soft-sweet, raisins chewy, chickpeas floury. Beef in the strict-kosher branch, lamb in others, occasionally chicken. Sweeter than Tashkent plov by design — the dried fruit is non-negotiable.

Same two-stage zirvak as Tashkent plov but with turmeric added (1 tsp/kg rice) for color and dried apricot soaked 30 min before going into the zirvak — the soaking liquid replaces some of the rice water. For Shabbat version, the sealed kazan goes into a warming oven Friday at sundown, served Saturday noon.

Variations

Bukharan-Jewish Shabbat oshi-savo (kept warm overnight), weekday Bukharan plov (cooked fresh), Samarkand-Jewish variant with more turmeric, Tashkent-restaurant 'yellow plov' (faster, no overnight), Queens diaspora version with chicken substitute.

On the Palate

Where Bukharan Plov sits in the Uzbek flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Layer the rice on top of the finished zirvak and steam without stirring — the grains cook in the trapped fragrant steam and stay separate, so folding meat and rice together turns it to mush.

Techniques

Steaming Sauteing

Ingredients

Serves 6

400 g (14 oz)Devzira Rice

soaked 1 hour

500 g (1 ⅛ lb)Lamb

cut into 4 cm pieces

3 medium (11 oz)Carrot

julienned

100 g (3 ½ oz)Dried Apricot

pitted

50 g (1 ¾ oz)Currant

100 g (3 ½ oz)Chickpea

How it's made

6 steps · 43 min active + 1 hour 45 min waiting

1
15 min
Render 200 g lamb tail fat in heavy pot.
2
18 min
Brown 1 kg cubed lamb; remove. Sauté 4 sliced onions until golden.
Watch out
Fry the onions to a deep even gold before the carrots go in — this browning is the flavor base of the zirvak.
3
10 min
Add 4 grated carrots; cook 10 min until soft.
4
60 min
Return meat; add 100 g dried apricot + 100 g chickpeas + 100 g currants + 1 tbsp turmeric + salt + 2 L water; simmer 1 hr.
Watch out
The zirvak should simmer down to a rich, oily broth with the fruit plumped — taste it now, it should be assertively seasoned.
5
35 min
Layer in 500 g basmati rice; add boiling water just to cover; steam covered 35 min.
Watch out
Keep the lid on tight and the heat low; steam should not escape, or the top layer of rice stays hard.
6
10 min
Rest 10 min off heat; mound on platter, meat on top.

Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed

These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.

Saucepan

Round metal pot, 14-26 cm diameter, with vertical walls and a long handle, designed for sauces, soups, oatmeal, rice, boiled vegetables. The vertical walls minimize evaporation (vs. a sauté pan). Sizes: 1 qt for melting butter, 2-3 qt for sauces, 4 qt for soups. Stainless-steel-clad aluminum or copper is best for conduction; cast-iron is too thick for delicate sauces.

Techniques

Sauteing