The Uzbek dishes

Kukon Kabobi - Kokand Shahlik (barbecue)
300 g lamb (boned), 300 g liver, 300 g kidney, salt, zira, coriander and pepper to taste. Slice fresh lamb (boned), liver and kidney into pieces about the size of a walnut braise, dredge with spice grounded with salt, and, without marinating, put it all on a special forked three-bracket range with a short wooden handle: a piece of meat on one bracket, a piece of liver on another, and a piece of kidney on the third. Grill on a charcoal fire, turning frequently. Serve on a big flat cake, garnish with rings of onions finely sliced. Serve a tomato salad separately.

Kainatma Shurva - Meat-and-Vegetable soup
500 g turnips, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 2 medium size tomatoes, 1 pod cayenne, 300 g meat (boned), 300 g bones, salt to taste.
Wash the bones, put them in a saucepan with cold water and simmer for 2 hours. Then sieve the broth, add the meat and all the vegetables cut into big chunks and boil till done. Add salt to taste. Serve the broth in kasas (soup-bowls). The vegetables and meat are served separately. This is both a first and second course, prepared simultaneously in one and the same pot.

Kovatok palov - plov with stuffed vine-leaf rolls
1 kg rice, 600 g meat (including 300 g force-meat), 300 g onions (150 g for the force-meat), 400 g carrots, 250 g fat, salt and spices to taste.
The vine leaves are taken to the ratio of 12-15 per portion.
The lamb for the plov is divided into two; mince one half, brown off the other in fat together with onions and carrots, add water, season with salt and spices, and simmer. Add thinly sliced rings of onions, salt, zira and ground pepper to the force-meat and blend well together. The vine leaves must be of medium size and tenderness (the 3^rd-4^th from the top of each vine). Remove the grafts and wash in cold water. Lay a teaspoonful of minced meat on each leaf and turn over with the stuffing to make rolls. Place them on a board (seams downward) and press down gently with the palm. Then pair the rolls together with seams face to face and string (in groups of a few) with a thick thread. Cook the rolls (strung together as mentioned) in a cauldron. When done put the rice in and prepare the pilau.

Dice the mutton fat, melt it, remove the cracklings and continue to heat. Put the onions sliced in rings into the boiling fat and brown them off. Then add slices of meat and fry them with the onions to crustiness. Then plunge shredded carrots in and braise till partially done. Stir from time to time. Pour water over (just enough to cover the contents) of the pan, bring to boil and simmer. Season with spices (ground sweet cayenne, zira, barberries; a cayenne pod may also be used). When it boils, add salt and cook slowly for 50-80 minutes (the longer it boils, the more savoury it becomes). If the rice has taken up the water, add some boiling water. When done, spread rice in an even layer (the rice must be well sorted and washed), raise the heat, pour more water in to cover the layer of rice by 1.5-2 cm and bring to boil intensively. Before the liquid passes off taste to ensure there is enough salt. If necessary add some. As soon as the water evaporates, remove from the heat or lower it to minimum if cooked on a gas stove. Then take a skimmer and pile the plov in the middle of the cauldron. With a paddle make several vertical pipe holes through the plov to the bottom of the pan and cover it. The time necessary for softening by steam depends on the kind of rice used. If the rice has a medium absorbality coefficient, 20-25 minutes will suffice for it to steam. When detaching the lid, be careful not to let drops on it fall onto the plov. Blend the plov well together.

Before serving take out the stuffed rolls with care, heap the plov on a platter, top with the rolls after removing the thread. This is a classical version of plov, which originated among the peasants and then became a popular dish everywhere. It is only prepared in spring in the month of May. However, it may be cooked of preserved leaves in winter.
Popular medicine recommends this kind of plov to persons suffering from vascular dystonia, hypertension, sclerosis and diseases of digestive organs. The force-meat is assimilated with ease, while the tender cellular tissue of the vine leaf improves the peristalsis of the bowels. The dish is also useful when the body lacks vitamins, especially vitamin C.