Categories: Grains, Middle east, Usenet 
      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