Dish · Tashkent (city), Fergana
Patir (Tashkent patir)
A rich, layered tandoor bread made with butter, cracklings or onion; Tashkent and the Fergana Valley bake dozens of kinds.
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.
Photo: UzbekistanWikiEditor · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Where the colour comes from
Fergana plov is the classic qovurma, or fried, plov. Sheep’s tail fat is rendered and the cracklings removed; a meat-stripped bone goes into the hot fat and is fried until reddish, which colours the whole dish. Then come onion rings, chunks of meat and carrot matchsticks; once the carrots brown, water is added and the zirvak simmers for 20–25 minutes. Russian-language sources make the same point: plov in the Fergana Valley is darker and more fried, Tashkent’s lighter.
The textbook ratio for a kilo of rice is 500 g of meat, 250 g of fat and 500 g of carrots, with cumin, barberries and pepper.
Valley rice and the table
Reddish devzira rice, grown in the Fergana Valley, is prized by plov masters because it absorbs liquid well yet stays separate. In Fergana, Kokand, Margilan, Andijan and Namangan, canteens usually have plov ready by lunchtime, and weddings here, as elsewhere, begin with morning plov.
Photos
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 · 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 · 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.