Polo (Uyghur Pilaf)

Polo, from the Uyghur word polu, is rice simmered in one pot with lamb, yellow carrot, onion and oil until plump, glossy and amber-red, the best-loved staple of the Uyghur, Uzbek and other peoples, taking its Chinese name from the old way of eating it by hand.

The word polu comes from Persian and reached Xinjiang along the foodways of the Silk Road, spreading widely across Central Asia; folk tales even link its restorative recipe to the eleventh-century physician Ibn Sina, marking it as a fusion of nomadic meat and farmed rice in the Ili valley.

Once eaten by hand after washing, today it is usually taken with a spoon; the finished rice is crowned with bone-in lamb and often served with raw onion, yoghurt or a light brick tea to cut the richness, the centrepiece of weddings, festivals and hospitality.

The richness of lamb fat, the bright sweetness of yellow carrot and the savour that the melted onion leaves through the grain are what set polo apart from fried rice elsewhere.