Turkish Pilav

No dairy, no pork, no lamb, no wheat. Those were the instructions for the Sedar (Passover) Supper that the Bookclubbers simulated on Maundy Thursday just past. After looking through some internet recipes for Kosher/Egyptian/Middle Eastern dishes, I decided to try something from the Turkish cookbook that I bought 3 years ago in Istanbul. It turned out to be a great hearty rice dish that I think I will be cooking quite frequently for dinner gatherings.

One thing though, whatever you do, don't use organic brown rice like I did. Even after 1 hour of soaking, 20 minutes of nuking in the microwave, 40 minutes of browning in the skillet, the rice was still a little too al dente (eventually if you simmer it for like 2 hours, it does become soft!)

Ingredients

2 cups of rice (I shall try long grain basmatic next time, or actual pilav)
3 cups of the chicken stock
2 tblsp of olive oil (or margarine if you are not cooking for Passover!)
1 medium size onion
1 can of diced tomatoes
4 pieces of chicken liver (or more! I found out that 20 of them costs only $1.30!)
2 tblsp of pine nuts
2 tblsp of currants
A dash of dill tips
2 tsp of salt
3 tblsp of sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon powder
1 tsp of marjoram
A dash of freshly ground black pepper

- Cover the rice with salted lukewarm water. Leave for 20 minutes. Wash several times and drain.
- Heat the olive oil in a deep large saucepan. Add cleaned and diced liver and saute lightly. Set aside.
- In the same pan, brown chopped onion and pine nuts. Add half cooked rice (I nuked them for a bit first) and brown on high heat fo 10 minutes.
- Add salt, pepper, sugar, currants, diced tomato and chicken stock. Mix well
- Cover and cook first on medium heat, later on low heat for 15 minutes, until water is absorbed.
- Add the various spices and simmer under cover on very low heat for 20 minutes.
- Mix in the liver with a wooden spoon and serve with a main meat dish (e.g. lamb, beef, or turkey)