My first attempt at THE national dish, THE beloved delicacy of this country, THE big deal=
OSH
I finally did it. I took the step and took the risk. It took me almost exactly 9 months but I did it. Sounds like something serious, right!?! lol For me it has been :) But anyone who knows me, knows that most things are serious for me, right! I made Osh for the first time all by myself here in this country. I had made it a couple of times in America after our first trip to Uzbekistan a few years ago, but it definitely didn't seem to be the same type of challenge after I arrived in country and started making this place my home. Something becomes higher risk to me when EVERY woman in this country cooks the dish, almost EVERY national restaurant sells the stuff, and it's completely and totally different in every region of the country! There are so many varieties etc it was just overwhelming to think I would ever try to make the dish here. A local friend of mine "taught" me a couple of times, my tutor "taught" me a time or two, and then my friend's daughter "taught" me too, oh yeah and an american friend taught me once and another american friend gave me a recipe once, but I was still too nervous to try. I mean, every time something was a tiny bit different about how each of them made the stuff. Well, the other day, I gave it a shot. And we didn't die after we ate, and my one neighbor friend said she liked it, another neighbor said it was good and pretty but I should cook the onions longer (totally normal here, lol, I once had a guest tell me my soup needed more salt, NOW lol), and then my friend who taught me really liked it (turned out just like hers apparently), and her daughter shrieked with delight to hear that I did it, since obviously SHE was the one who taught me lol. Any who, here's the recipe, "translated" as best as I can (by translated, I mean that locals here don't measure anything, I repeat THEY MEASURE NOTHING!, like they don't even use not one of the 20 tiny measuring spoons that I have in my kitchen or a cup or 1/2 cup or anything AT ALL!) :)
Osh (the version made by my friend and her family)
Ingredients:
oil (like maybe 2 cups)
onions (like maybe 2 medium to large sized ones)
carrots (maybe 4 big carrots, or 1/4-1/2 kg of the chopped ones, or in America, a pack of matchstick carrots :))
slab of beef
rice (900g...I have no idea how much that it! google it or just guess that it's near 2 or 3 cups maybe)
salt
water
cumin
oh and this big pot they call a kazon is helpful too but I guess a wok or just a big pot would work
Directions...kind of:
Heat up the pot, put 2 ladles of oil in the pot on high heat (I'm guessing this is like 1 1/2 to 2 cups of oil)
Cut up a little of the slab of meat. I know this is not very descriptive but it varies depending on what I have at my house really. We buy 1 kg of beef and then cut it into like three or four pieces, freeze the others and use one piece for osh. So maybe it ends up being like 1 cup or 1 1/2 cups of cut up meat. The pieces are one inch pieces. Cut up the onion into thin slices. Cut up the carrots into matchsticks (or make it a point to go to the local market and buy the ones that are already chopped and save yourself a half hour of time! I forgot this step and paid the 1/2 hour...doubt I will forget it again though :))
Once the oil is hot, fry the meat. Stir it around until all the sides of the meat look cooked to seal in the juices. Put in the onions and stir. Salt the onions generously. Stir a lot. Wait. Once the onions are cooked and starting to brown a little, put in the carrots. A lot of carrots (my friend says she puts in a lot of carrots for Americans for some reason lol). Stir the carrots every couple of minutes until they are limp and cooked thoroughly. Add one glass of hot water (maybe 12oz-15oz) and salt generously again. Put in a palm sized tablespoon of cumin (here it is whole and not already ground up, so check on the conversion from whole cumin to ground). Rinse your rice and pick out any sticks in there (maybe you don't have to do that in America, but I don't know since I never made rice in America anyway) After some of the water has cooked out a bit, put in the rice and spread it out flat on top of the carrots and onions. DON'T MIX THE RICE WITH THE VEGGIES AND MEAT UNTIL THE VVERY END. Pour in another 1 to 1 1/2 glasses of water until there is enough water covering the rice that it would go to the first joint on your index finger above the rice if you stuck your finger in there. DONT stick your finger in there, it's boiling hot water! But measure with the end of a spoon or something. :) Salt generously again. Cover with lid and wait.
15 minutes later, flip just the top of the rice. Make holes in the rice with the end of your spoons. (like one in the middle and four others around the circle). Cover and wait another 10 minutes or so. Using a big spoon make the rice form a rounded hill. Add cumin to the top of the hill and a little more salt. Turn the heat down to low and cook another 10-15minutes (turn the heat off at around 6 minutes) depending on how "done" the rice was. Taste it and see if you need more salt. Who knows how anyone would need more salt, but we always do lol. Serve with some cut up cucumbers and tomatoes (and apples if you are in our house!) You can add soaked chickpeas and raisins at some point but we don't so I don't know where to tell you to put them in there lol.
If ANYONE tries this recipe, PLEASE let me know~Take pictures~Share the experience! ENJOY! "Osh bo'lsin!" "Bon appetit" (I don't know how to spell that anyway!)
