Uzbek recipes

South of the mountains, along the Fergana rim, Irad’s cooking is Uzbek through and through. This is orchard country: walnuts, apricots and green tea, samsa slapped onto the wall of the tandoor, and the long-grain plov that the men cook at every wedding in a cauldron the size of a bathtub.

Talas has learned to love all of it. You can buy a plate of plov on any corner for 25 or 30 som, but I still make my own, and these are the recipes I use.