Around the World in Foodventures (Uzbekistan: PLOV with SALAT ACHICHUK)

For funsies, I decided to use Dart on Map to pick the next country. After several tries drowning in open ocean water 😃, it landed on Uzbekistan.

Being from the region of the world that it is, I'm not surprised that this traditional pilaf contains lamb.  It's similar in ingredients and cooking procedure to the first installment of my "Around the World in Foodventures" series (Afghanistan: KABULI PULAO), except it contains different spices.  As such, it's a little more mildly flavored, but still very pleasant -- and the tomato and onion salad that it's served with brings a nice tang to cut through this dish's somewhat sweetness.  It's nice if you put the salad right on top and/or mix it into the pilaf.

Here is the recipe I followed: https://www.whats4eats.com/grains/uzbek-plov-recipe.  I think mine came out a lot darker in color than the recipe because it didn't specify what kind of stock; I used a dark brown veggie stock, and I assume the recipe writer used something more like a lightly colored chicken stock.

This post is part of my project: "Around the World in Foodventures" (I decided I want to expand my culinary horizons even further by making the national dish or a popular recipe, or some signature food or traditional meal from every country in the world. Maybe it'll happen alphabetically, or by region, in random order, or something else. I figure if we can't (yet?) travel everywhere, we at least have the luxury of being able to taste it. It’ll be fun and interesting, but obviously, will take a long time to get through -- as we'll only be doing it once a week or so at most. I am chronicling the journey here.)