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Word of the Day – Monday, November 15th |
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PILAF (pih-LOFF) A
steamed rice dish in well-seasoned broth usually with meat or
vegetables
Pilaf, also spelled pilau, perloo, perlau, plaw, pilaw, and pilaff is a Middle Eastern and Central Asian dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat, is generally first browned in oil, and then cooked in a seasoned broth. It is originally Turkish. Depending on the local cuisine it may also contain a variety of meat and vegetables.
One of the earliest literary references to Pilau can be found in the histories of Alexander the Great when describing Sogdian (an Eastern Iranian province probably the birthplace of Alexander's wife Roxana and geographically situtated in modern Uzbekistan) hospitality. Uzbek "plov" is often considered to be one of the oldest preparations of rice. It was known to have been served to Alexander the Great upon his capture of the Sogdian capital of Marakanda (modern Samarkand).
The pilau became standard fare in the Middle East over the years with variations and innovation by the Arabs, Turks and Armenians. The Arabs probably introduced Pilaf to Iberia. Spanish paella was more than likely a standard Moorish method for cooking rice - with no wasted water, important in desert regions like North Africa.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pilaf".
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