After 18 dishes in the last 10 months, we’ve hit a milestone: A repeat dish.

It was bound to happen, an anticipated side-effect of the project – a food that transcends borders, something that means almost – but not quite – the same thing in one place as in another.

There are going to be a few of these, and I’d wondered how I would approach them. Would I tweak the recipe? Make the same thing again?

Osh is the Tajik version of Pilaf, which we first visited in Afghanistan with Qabuli Palao last December. It’s got the same basic ingredients – meat, rice, carrots – but from what I gleaned online, some different stuff too: lamb instead of chicken, currants instead of raisins, no pistachios in this meal.

Different meat, different preparation. I was fortunate to have a helpful butcher at New Seasons tell me to go for the lamb shoulder for this recipe – and to chop it and save the bones, which made great stock flavoring. This was a wonderfully aromatic dish, and I can’t wait to have it again… when we get to Uzbekistan.

Tajik Osh 🇹🇯

• 1 lb lamb blade shop, cubed, bones set aside
• 1 large onion
• 3 carrots, julienned
• 2 cups arborio rice 
• 3 Tb currants
• 1 bulb garlic
• canola oil
  
  

  Spice pile: Cumin, chili, coriander, anise.

• 1 star anise seed
• 1 ts cumin
• 1 ts coriander
• 1/2 ts chili pepper
• vegetable bullion cube

1. Cube the lamb.
2. Heat oil in a heavy skillet, then cook lamb. Add onions and caramelize.
3. Add the carrots and salt to taste. Stir continuously until carrots are just on the edge of turning dark. Add spices. Turn down heat.
4. Add 5 cups of water, lamb bones and bullion cube. Place the garlic bulb on top of the meat pile, then simmer for one hour.
5. Rinse the rice, add currants and set aside.
6. Remove the garlic bulb. Add the rice. Do not stir – distribute the rice evenly.
7. Put the garlic bulb back in on top, and simmer until rice is finished, about 15 minutes.