Recipe Roundup, or Never Eat over the keyboard...

When I cook, I rely mainly on two books: Larousse (Oops, I just dropped a lentil on the keyboard and I have to stop to fish it out before it combines with the dried coffee and dust to put an end to all Holland Maier blogging...) and the CIA textbook; neither requires actually being a professional to use, of course. If you move a lot, you just want a cookbook that is comprehensive. We have recently been reading The Man Who Ate Everything, and besides being a very entertaining read it has quite a few intriguing recipes one of which I finally tried out last week. In the chapter called 'Staying Alive' about foodstamps and true levels of subsistence eating, author Jeffrey Steingarten proposes his own findings about budget cooking that also involve some appreciation of cuisine. I thought it looked great because I've become a great fan of lamb (popular in the more affordable Turkish butcher here,) and of course because it is zuinig (economical). If cheap cuts of lamb are unavailable you can really substitute almost any meat (though I would reduce the cooking time with chicken).

Perfumed Rice with Lamb and Lentils

"Lentils and rice eaten together compose a complete and extremely economical source of protein. [...] the other evening I took a well-known Persian basmati rice and lentil recipe from the excellent New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij, cut in half the amount of lamb, dates, and butter and eliminated the saffron (the four most expensive ingredients), and cooked a princely feast for six.
3 cups long grain white basmati rice
salt
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1lb. lamb shoulder, bone in, cut into 2- to 3-inch peices
black pepper
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 1/2 t Persian allspice (mix generous 1/2 t each ground cinnamon, cardomon, and cumin
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 cup white raisins
4 oz. (about a cup) pitted dates, chopped
1 stick of butter (1/4 lb.)
2 tablespoons yoghurt

Wash the rice vigorously in five changes of warm water and soak it for at least 2 hours in 8 cups of water mixed with 2T salt. Saute half the onions in 2 T oil over med-high heat until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the lamb; season with 3/4 t salt, pinch of pepper, the turmeric, cinnamon, and 1/2 t Persian allspice mix; saute another 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of water, cover, and simmer until the meat is very tender, 2-3 hours. Set aside.
In a saucepan, mix the lentils with 3 cups water and 1/2 t salt, bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes, and drain.
In a frying pan, saute the remaining onion in 2T oil over med-high heat until soft and golden, stir in the raisins and dates, cook 2 more minutes, and set aside.
Parboil the rice by bringing 2 quarts of water and 2T salt to a boil in a 4 qt. pot (nonstick is best), adding the presoaked rice, and boiling for 3-5 minutes, stirring every so often, until the grains just lose their brittle core but are still quite firm. Drain the rice and rinse it in several cups of warm water.
In the same pot, melt the butter. Pour half of into a small bowl and set aside. Take 2 cups of the rice, mix it in a bowl with the yoghurt, and spread it on the bottom of the pot over the butter. Sprinkle a layer of lentils over the rice, then a layer of raisins, dates and onions, then another layer of rice. Continue until all the ingredients are used up, sprinkling the remaining Persian spice between layers. Fluff the rice as you add it. Reduce the diameter of each layer of ingredients to taper into a pyramid.
Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes so a delicious crust will form on the bottom of the rice. Then uncover, pour the rest of the butter over the rice, put a dish towel over the pot, cover again, and cook on low heat for 50 minutes. Remove from heat but do not disturb the cover; place the pot on a cold, wet dish towel for 5 minutes (meant to help loosen the crust). Then uncover the pot and transfer the contents by the cupful to a serving platter, mounding the rice and other ingredients into a fluffy pyramid. When only the crust remains on the bottom of the pot, dislodge it with a knife and spatula and serve it in one or two peices (if you're lucky) on a seperate plate. Surround the rice and lentils with the meat mixture and serve."

So, my version was based pretty close to this and came out nicely. I think the cooking times are crazy long; its nice if you have that much time to putz in the kitchen but I just cooked the rice till it seemed okay, which it was. I also skipped the pyramid shape, couldn't find dates so left them out and only simmered the lamb for an hour which was plenty. The nice part is the crust the rice forms with the yoghurt and butter, the sweetness of the raisins with the lentils and rice, and the lamb with those spices.

Next week- my version of chicken enchiladas...
Eet smakelijk!