Wash the rice under the tap until clear, cover with cold water and let it soak for a while.

Cut the meat with bones into match-box pieces. Cut the carrots into 0.5 x 0.5 cm thick sticks. Slice onions into thin rings or half-rings. Clean heads of garlic from the remains of roots and dirt.

Heat oil in a 5 litre heavy cast-iron cattle or dutch oven (preferably round-bottomed) on a very high flame, deep-fry meat until golden-brown, in 3-4 batches. Fry the onions until golden, add meat to the cattle, stir well to prevent onion from burning. Add carrot, stir from time to time, until it starts to wilt and browns a little (15-20 min). Add 2/3 of the cumin - rub it in your palms a little to release the flavour, stir gently to keep carrot from breaking.

Lower gas to moderate, pour hot water just to cover all the goods, add salt and let it simmer for 40 min to 1.5 hours until almost all water evaporates and meat becomes tender and juicy. Do not stir.

Turn gas to max.

Drain rice well, place it on top of the meat and veg in one layer, stick the garlic and whole chillies in it, and carefully pour boiling water over it (place a spoon or ladle on top of the rice to keep the rice layer from washing away). Cover the rice with about 2 cm of water, let it boil. Add salt to make the water a bit over-salted. When the water goes down the rice, reduce the gas a bit, keeping it boiling rapidly. Keep checking until it evaporates and absorbs into rice completely - rice should remain rather al dente. Make a hole in the rice to the bottom of a vessel to check the water level.

Reduce gas to the absolute minimum, cover tightly with the lid and let it steam for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the garlic and chillies on a separate plate. Carefully mix rice with meat and carrots, if the rice tastes a bit blind add some salt, mix and let it stand for 5 minutes. Pile the plov on a big warmed plate and serve with garlic, chilies and plain thinly sliced tomato.