Recipe for “Languages of Central Asia”
As part of the “Food of the World” segment in my “Languages of the World” course at NTU Singapore, I have been cooking food from the part of the world we’re discussing that week. The goal is to give students a taste of the cultures and practices of different groups, and perhaps an idea of possible foods in a fieldwork situation. The course provides an overview of world languages, highlighting theories about language development and human migration, as well as surveying major families, and giving an overview of linguistic typology. I combine the student presentation weeks with sampling food, so each group of students can have a say in what gets prepared. This week I’m posting a recipe from Central Asia, which was the topic for the 8th week of presentations.
Restrictions
To cater for various student backgrounds and dietary restrictions, I restrict or modify recipes to be vegetarian/Buddhist (Mahayana) friendly. This means avoiding onions, garlic and other pungent vegetables. I also list out all the ingredients and preparation beforehand, so students can decide whether to partake in the week’s option. And of course I ask students to let me know of any allergies ahead of time.
Recipe for “Languages of Central Asia”: Uzbek Plov (steamed rice with nuts and currants)
The eighth week of presentations we focused on Central Asia. This is again a large area (when trying to cover the world’s languages, the areas kind of need to be big) and is known for its topgraphical and linguistic diversity. The area extends from the Caucasus, with mountains and one of the earliest known inhabited areas outside of Africa, to Siberia with broad open steppes. Major language families include Caucasian, Indo-European, Turkic, and Semitic.
This means that of course there are a lot of differnt food options as well. To meet the various requirements of the class and what I was able to prepare, we went with “Uzbek Plov”. If you’re familiar with Middle-eastern cuisine, this is the Uzbek version of “pilau” or “pilaf”, which is flavorful rice, often cooked with nuts and raisins or currants. In Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia it is often cooked in a large wok and eaten with local bread and skewers/kebabs. It is really tasty when fresh and is one of my favorite dishes, with many variants depending on the region. I took inspiration from here and here before ultimately coming up with my own version.
Uzbek Plov
Ingredients:
- olive oil
- large carrot (julienned)
- chickpeas
- almonds, sliced
- raisins, currants
- salt
- long grain rice, rinsed
- water
- cumin (ground)
- black pepper (ground)
How to cook:
- Heat oil in sauce pan and add carrot, chickpeas, nuts
- Sauté for a few minutes
- Add salt, spices, sauté another couple minutes, then add rinsed rice and raisins
- Stir mixture over low heat for 1-2 minutes
- Add 2x water as rice
- Bring to a low boil, then turn heat to minimum and simmer covered for 15 minutes
- Mix with a spatula/spoon
- Cover again and keep on heat for 5 more minutes
- Remove from heat and serve
Notes:
This one didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I didn’t measure the water as carefully as I should have, so I ended up having to cook it longer and it didn’t quite have the right texture. It was still pretty tasty, though, and it was still eaten up, so I guess it was successful in that sense. Next time I’ll be more careful with the preparation.