Pilaf with sour cherries and lentils

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Title: Pilaf with sour cherries and lentils
Categories: Grains, Middle east
Yield: 2 servings

2 c Basmati rice (*)
2 Onions, peeled
-(thinly sliced)
1/2 c Red lentils (*)
7 oz Sour cherries,
-or more (*)
2 c Chicken or meat
-broth (*)
4 T Butter, unsalted,
-or more
Turmeric, cumin, salt

In a 4-5 quart Dutch oven, melt most of the butter and slowly brown the
onions. Add the cleaned lentils and fry a bit; then the same for the
cleaned rice. Stir constantly, browning the rice without letting it stick.

Add the cherries and about 2 1/4 cups liquid made up of cherry liquid,
stock and water. Add about 1/4 - 1 t turmeric and about 1/4 t ground cumin
if desired; add necessary salt (depending on the saltiness of your broth).

Bring to a boil, stir with a fork, cover tightly, and let cook over the
very lowest heat for about 20 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork (never
a spoon) and add the remaining butter to the bottom of the pot.

Raise the heat slightly for 5-10 mins to form a crust on the bottom (with
the right technique, this should be possible without this step...). Serve,
making sure to include a bit of crust in each serving.

NOTES:

* Pilaf with sour cherries and lentils -- This Pilaf with sour cherries
and lentils is a Persian-style dish, although I cannot vouch for its
authenticity. It is rich enough to eat for dinner by itself; as a side
dish, it might be good with a spiced grilled chicken or a lamb stew. It is
a composite of recipes from cookbooks and from a Iranian Jewish family I
know.

* An excellent side dish is yoghurt, possibly flavored (like the Indian
raita) with one or more of: fresh chopped herbs (parsley, coriander,
mint), some salt, some spice (paprika, black pepper, black onion seed, or
coriander seed), olive oil and lemon juice. Even better than yoghurt as a
base is strained yoghurt, also called Lebany Spread or Lebanee, available
commercially in New England from Columbo or Eunuch (look in
Armenian/Arab/Greek stores).

* Basmati or Patna rice is a particularly flavorful and long-grained rice
from India or Pakistan. Any Indian store and many "natural foods" stores
carry it. It is well worth the premium price (about $1.10 a pound);
"Texmati" is apparently the same strain grown in Texas, but does not have
anything like the same taste. Inspect and clean it before using, there are
often unhusked grains and occasionally pebbles mixed in. Then rinse in two
changes of water and drain thoroughly. If you cannot get Basmati, use a
good-quality unconverted long-grain rice (Alma, Carolina, but NOT Uncle
Ben's!).

* Red lentils are about half the diameter of ordinary brown lentils. Do
not substitute brown lentils, which will probably not cook fast enough. Red
lentils are available in Indian, Middle Eastern and some "natural foods"
stores. They often contain largish pebbles, so inspect them carefully.
Rinse to get rid of dust, and drain. Red lentils are also very good by
themselves, simply boiled with a few spices and served with butter.

* Sour cherries (in the Middle East, v/w + i + s/sh + n + e/a/ino: Greek
Vissino, Slavic and Turkish Vishnea, Arabic Wishna) are available fresh for
about one week a year. Most sour cherries go into cherry syrups, pies and
preserves. Canned sour cherries are quite good. You will usually find
them in the home pie-making section of your market, near the canned
blueberries and baker's supplies, or with the canned fruits. There are
occasional stones. (That is, pits, not rocks!) Middle Eastern stores will
often have sour cherry preserves, which are too sweet for this recipe.

* Almost any stock or broth will work in this recipe. Chicken or lamb is
most appropriate, in the latter case, used rather dilute. This is one of
the few recipes where you can actually get away with canned chicken broth,
but watch the salt.

: Difficulty: easy to moderate.
: Time: 30-40 minutes.
: Precision: approximate measurement OK.

: Stavros Macrakis
: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard
: macrakis@harvard.ARPA

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust

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