Dish · Nationwide
Plov (osh)
The centrepiece of any Uzbek meal: meat, onions and yellow carrots are cooked into a rich base in a kazan, then rice is steamed on top. UNESCO-listed since 2016.
Dish · Nationwide
Dimlama
Meat and seasonal vegetables layered in a kazan and braised for hours in their own steam.
Photo: EugSan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Layers in the pot
Dimlama belongs to vegetable season. Chunks of meat, usually lamb, go into the bottom of the kazan with a little tail fat, followed by onion rings, carrots, potatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers and tomatoes, crowned with cabbage leaves or wedges. Each layer is seasoned with salt, cumin and pepper, with garlic and herbs tucked in between. The lid goes on tight and the pot braises over a low flame for an hour and a half to two hours; the vegetables release so much juice that hardly any water is needed. It is never stirred.
The name comes from the Uzbek verb dimlamoq, ‘to cook covered, in its own steam’.
A garden dish
Dimlama is cooked mostly in spring and summer, when the bazaars overflow with vegetables. In orchards and country houses it is made in a big kazan over an open fire, cooking itself while the guests drink tea. Some families add quince or cherry plums, and a meat-free dimlama is a good choice if you want something lighter.
Sources (2)
Photos
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Tashkent plov
The capital’s style of plov: everything is fried first and the rice is mixed into the base; wedding plov adds kazy sausage, chickpeas, raisins and sometimes quail eggs.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand plov
A layered plov in which nothing is stirred: the rice stays pale, and the carrots and meat are served on top of it.
Dish · Bukhara
Bukhara plov and oshi sofi
Bukhara’s own plovs: oshi sofi, made with separately boiled and drained rice, and plov cooked with mung beans.
Dish · Fergana, Andijan +1
Fergana plov
The dark plov of the Fergana Valley: a bone, meat, onions and carrots are fried long and hard until the zirvak turns deep brown.
Dish · Khorezm
Khorezm plov
Khorezm’s plov tradition, including suzma palov, in which the rice is boiled separately and drained before it meets the zirvak.
Dish · Nationwide
Samsa
Flaky pastries baked on the inner wall of a tandoor, filled with hand-chopped lamb, tail fat and onion — or wild greens in spring and pumpkin in autumn.
Dish · Jizzakh
Jizzakh samsa
Jizzakh’s culinary calling card: a large dome-shaped samsa made from three layers of dough, packed with lamb and tail fat and dipped in sunflower oil.
Dish · Nationwide
Kabob (shashlik)
Skewered meat grilled over embers — lamb, beef, meat with tail fat, liver, minced qiyma (lula) kabob — served with onion, vinegar and hot bread.
Dish · Bukhara
Gijduvan kebab
The famous minced-meat kebab of Gijduvan in Bukhara Region: the meat is minced twice, frozen, chopped and pressed onto skewers.