Khalta Savo

Khalta Savo - Bukharan Jewish cuisine
Today the topic is Khalta Savo: another gem of Bukharian-Jewish cuisine.Pilaf or not Pilaf ? Cholent not Cholent ? Well, it's how everyone decides. In a bag! In Khalta. In Farsi, in Tajik, and in almost all Turkic languages Khalta is a bag. I don't know how or when this method was invented, but obviously long before Sous Vide became a haute cuisine trend. The method is completely unique, the dish is prepared . To learn how to make it I heard about a dozen recommendations. I invited myself to visit nice people, and even more than once, after this I made several versions of the dish.
As often happens with national cuisine, the only and unique authentic recipe was not found, but certainly the picture from the abstract has developed into a very realistic and tangible idea of how and what Khalta Savo is. No one called the dish pilaf, rather cholent, but everyone agreed that there must be a sweetish aftertaste, the dish should be light brown, a kind of 'coffee with milk' color, and that the dish is prepared for a long time, it takes 8-12 hours, since originally it was a Shabbat dish, all the cutting is made before Shabbat, the pot is put on the stove, and later on the plate, and finished when everyone returned from the synagogue happy and hungry at noon on Saturday.
I The recommendations were quite different, but each one was interesting in itself. People who shared their recipes had roots from different places, someone from Samarkand, someone from Tashkent, from Dushanbe, Margelan. Maybe geography has postponed small differences in the character of the dish, maybe some family traditions influenced... I am convinced that if I did a survey in one makhala (Jewish quarter), I probably would have come to the same conclusion that two Jews have three opinions ...., and maybe more ...
In general, I will try to describe the process “strait forward”, and try to put together a puzzle from different recommendations ...
1. Ingredients:
Rice: here everyone agreed on the round rice...although someone recommended parboiled rice.
Fruits: opinions differed here ... what fruits? Someone was talking about dates and dark raisins… Someone else was talking about dates, dried apricots, raisins and prunes. Someone spoke only about raisins. Someone talked about several different varieties of raisins. Several people mentioned the fresh apple. Someone talked about black tea leaves ... All of the above is responsible for the nature of the dish, color and sweetish aftertaste...
Meat: There is also no consensus. Someone talked about a mix of lamb or beef with poultry. Someone about choosing meat with a good percentage of connective tissues and collagen, that is, veins ... inner parts... in general, almost complete freedom.
Fat: of course fat tail, or beef ribs - Asado.
Onions : almost a consensus ...
Spices: here, too, opinions differed. Only salt and pepper (black of course). Someone talked about salt, pepper, cumin, sweet chili and paprika. In general, too, it's is open to interpretation.
Vegetable oil in a much smaller proportion than in traditional pilaf in a cauldron ...
2. The next stage, after all the ingredients are collected, the most time-consuming and painstaking part of the dish making is the preparation of products, that is, slicing and cutting: slicing must be very fine and thorough, including raisins, although for some people the size of the small raisins quite suited. And of course, all the other ingredients are cut in exactly the same way.
All of the above indicates a relatively homogeneous consistency of the components of the dish...
This is the overall picture of the most painstaking preparatory part.
Use special linen bag from heavy material - to clean it shouldn’t be washed using clothes shampoo with the clothes in washing machine, but you should boil it separately with soda.
To stuff the bag - water it, stuff it with the rice and meat mixture - watch in the clip how to do it. Leave 2 -3 fingers above and tie.
Boil water in a big pot, put small plate inside, so the bag won’t burn, put the bag in, and close the lid.
I cooked 1.5 hours , then flipped the bag on the other side, and cooked another 1.5 hours, since all my versions are closer to pilaf than to cholent. I really wanted to see clearly meat and dried fruits against the background of the light rice, but it is my personal preference. You can be closer to the original and prepare it like cholent. Then you need to adjust the cooking time a little differently, that is, longer.
well, and the choice of ingredients responsible for the color: you can add black tea leaves, it will do the job. If it seems to someone that it can spoil the taste, then you shouldn’t worry at all, I did it - I didn’t feel any additional flavors, except for color, in the finished dish.
Bye for now ...