Shila Plavi recipe

The introduction

Hello people, I hope you are doing just fine!

Now I want to tell you about "Shila Plavi" and how they prepare it.

Well, first of all, you should know what it is. It's a cooked rice with spices and some onions and fat. Don't be scared, this fat doesn't taste bad or anything, you know. It's like giving the dish its own taste and oil, too, I mean, every dish needs its oil, you know. However, it's good to add some small pieces of meat to the dish, as it gets some good taste to the dish.

Well, people love this dish, I can say, however many of them doesn't like preparing it, because it really needs some time and mind and it always needs to be under your watch, you know. It is really kind of time consuming dish, however it's really delicious when prepared well. It's usually served when someone dies and people make services and stuff like that, you know. It's known, that when this dish is served, the service is getting to the end.

Well, let me tell you about how it’s prepared, because many people can prepare it kind of differently, if you want to know the truth, however, the thing is, that it should have that fat and rice and black pepper and that spice that we call “Dzira” in Georgia, well, it’s Cumin, just so you know. And it's really important, that you have those black pepper and cumin, because those two things bring the dish this distinguished taste besides the sheep meat! To be honest, you can prepare this kind of dish with mushrooms, too, if you don’t want it to have meat or fat or something like that. I remember, I tasted it once when my aunt prepared it and it was pretty delicious, I can’t say that it was not. And it had this taste of real Shila Plavi, so that, it was nothing different, just that it didn’t have that meat, rather it had mushrooms. So that you can have mushrooms in your Shila Plavi, if you want, however, the real one is made of that meat that is of sheep and its fatty pieces.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogramme meat (sheep)
• 100 grams of fat
• 2 cups of round rice
• Onions 2-3 pieces
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Cumin

Preparation process

The preparation process starts with chopping that fat into very small pieces, because then you should put them into a large saucepan and cook them, so that they will kind of melt and you will get the oil that you need for cooking and preparing this dish, you know. So, you chop those things and wash them thoroughly and put them into the saucepan. When they are kind of melted, you should add some chopped onions and continue cooking stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, you should cut that meat into really small pieces and wash them and have them ready.

After a couple of minutes, you should add those meat pieces to the saucepan and cook them together, however you should cook them just so that they don’t become red, you know, if you want your dish to be kind of white, but it really doesn’t matter, if you ask me, because the main thing here is that it is delicious, and it doesn’t matter whether the dish is really white in colour or kind of dark. So, after some time, you should pour water into the saucepan and let the meat cook. I mean, the meat should be halfway cooked to get to the next step!

Of course, the real Shila Plavi is what we usually have, I mean, the meat is just what we love and so that we always have that Shila Plavi with meat that is of sheep. Sometimes people just don’t put meat in the dish, however, it’s just better if there’s meat in the dish, of course, because it gives the dish that special taste, and, besides, you can’t really eat those fatty stuff, of course, so that if you want something to eat with the rice, that is the meat. Well, not many people use meat, I guess, because usually they use it in another dish and they use those pieces that is left from it in this dish, so you know now, why there are mostly fatty pieces in this dish and not other pieces of meat. The thing is, that I really like small pieces of meat in the dish, I mean, it’s really good to have something to eat with the rice and not eat just the rice, you know, because this dish is prepared with meat still, so that there should be some meat pieces, too, if you ask me. So, if it’s about me, I like to add some meat pieces, I mean, they should be chopped pretty well, in very small pieces, you know, so that they are just one bite size and they should be very well cooked, of course. That’s because we cook it beforehand and then add the rice and stuff like that, you know.

Well, after cooking those fatty pieces and onions and meat stuff, you should add the rice to the dish. So, when the meat is halfway cooked, you can add the rice. Well, the rice should be 2 cups and it should be white rice and it should not be long or something like that. The dish needs the round white rice. And when the meat mixture is cooked halfway, you add the rice to the dish. Then you should wait and see when the rice starts growing in size. Well, you can have the dish with some stock in it, or you can have it all dried up and stuff, just as you wish. And if the dish is dried more than enough, you can add some boiled water to eat and let it be like that for some time. And, of course, you should stir occasionally, so that the rice won’t get on the bottom and get stuck there and be burned. And that’s good for the rice to absorb more water easily, too, you know. So that, you should definitely stir the dish and be careful, I mean, you should try and keep an eye on the dish the whole time, because it really needs some attention, if you want to know the truth. So, if you think, that you can just put the saucepan on the gas and let it be like that and you go and do some other things, I will tell you, that you are wrong! You won’t have that happiness of leaving a dish unattended and doing some other stuff while it’s being prepared. Well, there are some dishes, that you can leave and let it cook and it doesn’t need your attention, but this dish is not like that. You should check on it from time to time and stir occasionally and see, whether the rice has grown in size or not and whether it has all the water absorbed or not and things like that, you know. So that, you should be ready for this, I mean, you should know beforehand, that you will need your time to spare for the dish and not do some other things while preparing it.

So, after you add the rice to the dish, you should season it and add some spices in it. You can also add some bay leaves, however, it’s better if you add them to the dish when you pour the water to cook the meat.

I’ve already mentioned, that many people love this dish in Georgia and we also love it. So, when my sister was here in Georgia this summer, we went to Batumi and one day I was really surprised, when she said, that she missed Shila Plavi. I didn’t really remember if she loved this dish so much. So that, when she told me that I didn’t really believe it, however, then it all got clear and I definitely knew that she was not joking. Well, I couldn’t know where to eat Shila Plavi in Batumi, you know, and there was no time or something like that to prepare it there, though it was pretty possible, because we had this small kitchen and there was everything necessary there for preparing some dishes. But it would be a stupid idea to prepare this dish there, if you ask me. So, I told her, that she could eat that dish in Kakheti, when we went back home and where anyone would prepare this dish for her if she asked to, of course.

Well, when we came home it was soon that we had this kind of getting together of the relatives and we went to Sagarejo and then we decided to have a visit to our grandmother and aunt and cousin there and so that we went there. I’ve told you about my aunt and how great cook she is, so that she can prepare anything and by “anything” I really mean anything, because there’s nothing that she can do, I guess. And, the one thing is preparing and the other is that it’s really delicious. So, she really is an amazing cook and baker and she is a doctor, at the same time. And, well, my sister kind of said something about Shila Plavi, I guess, or maybe my aunt asked us if we wanted some, because she had this meat left, or I don’t really remember how it was. The main thing is, that she prepared this Shila Plavi and my sister ate it a lot and I was really surprised, because she usually doesn’t eat such stuff so much. I guess, she had really missed this dish a lot! It was pretty fascinating how she ate it, if you ask me. Well, my father loves that dish, too. So that it was after some time, when we went to Kakheti again and there was this sheep or something like that, well, not the sheep, but its meat, and it was pretty good, I mean, they prepare some dish with that, which they call it “Chakhaluli” or “Dakhaluli” or things like that and it basically means, that the meat is cooked in water and it slowly evaporates, of course, and there are some fatty pieces, too, in the dish and then they melt away, when the water is no longer in the saucepan and it gets cooked in that oil and it has this amazing taste that no one can resist. I mean, once my father preparing that dish and there were my groupmates and some of them didn’t eat sheep meat at all because of its fat and stuff like that, however, once they tasted this dish, they couldn’t stop eating it and I’m not exaggerating that, if you want to know the truth. That’s what I was telling my sister, too, because she didn’t want to taste that dish when my father prepared it. She said that she wouldn’t like it and stuff like that, however, when she finally made a decision of tasting one piece, she just mumbled with surprise, that she was not expecting it to be so delicious. Well, it was a spontaneous decision then to prepare this Shila Plavi, too, and that’s why I told you all these things, if you want to know the truth. This sheep meat had much fat on it, so that when my father was cutting meat for the Chakhaluli dish, he just left those pieces of fat, that was more than enough for that dish and it was decided to prepare Shila Plavi, too.

Well, after preparing Shila Plavi, I mean, after the rice has grown in size and it’s cooked and stuff like that, you should turn the gas off and put the lid on the saucepan and leave it like that for a while, so that the rice will absorb the water and everything will get together and the dish will just “calm down” and stuff like that. It’s better if you eat the dish some time later and not immediately, because it won’t be as good as after some time, trust me! And it’s pretty good the next day, too, I mean, of course, you will want to warm it up and then eat it, because it has so much oil in it and it will be frozen and stuff like that. And you should warm it up pretty carefully. And it’s better if you have much Shila Plavi and you only need to eat some of it, you should take that amount to another saucepan and warm it up there, so that you won’t need to warm the whole dish. First of all, warming the whole dish will take longer, and, secondly, it will get all dried up and, well, nothing is good when you heat it up many times, if you want to know the truth. So that, trust me and when you want to eat it, heat its small amount up in another saucepan. And you should not heat it on a high or even medium gas, because it could get easily burned. And you should stir from time to time because of that. Well, to be honest, those amount of ingredients, that I have listed here makes one large saucepan of Shila Plavi, so that it serves many people, I mean, I guess, it can serve more than 20 people, I really haven't counted how many serves there can be, however, you should know that and consider that. I mean, if you don't want that much of the dish, you can just use less amounts of those ingredients, you know, it won't change the dish, it will just change the amount of it.

So, that was my another dish recipe. I hope that you will find it pretty interesting and prepare it and find it just as much delicious as I think it is.

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