Rice with Lamb, Carrots, Onions and Spices

Lamb, rice, and yogurt go awesomely wonderful together. Here's an ancient dish that is as nutritious as it is delicious. It's also fairly easy to prepare. And alternate method to that described below -- instead of precooking the lamb, saute the cubed lamb along with the onions, garlic and oil before adding the rice and the other ingredients. This will allow the lambs' natural juices to add flavor to the rest of the rice.

The recipe below is from Ghillie Basan's The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking All the Ingredients, Techniques and Traditions of an Ancient Cuisine.

An ancient Mongolian dish and a great Anatolian favourite, this pilaff -- Kasgar Pilav -- is cooked in a large pan and eaten communally with yogurt as a meal on its own. As you travel further east in Turkey, variations of this dish appear under different names, identifying it with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

Serves four

Ingredients:

30 ml / 2 Tbsp ghee, or olive oil with a knob (pat) butter
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
about 450 g / 1 lb cooked lamb, cubed
2 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
350 g / 12 oz / 1 3/4 cups long grain (brown) rice, rinsed and thoroughly drained
5 ml / 1 tsp ground cinnamon
10 ml / 2 tsp ground allspice
1 litre / 1 3/4 pints / 4 cups lamb or chicken stock
sea salt and ground black pepper
a few parsley sprigs, to garnish
thick and creamy natural (plain) yogurt, to serve

Directions:

1) Heat the ghee, or olive oil and butter, in a heavy pan and stir in the onions and garlic. Cook until they begin to colour. Toss in the cubed lamb and cook for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the carrots.

2) Toss in the rice with the spices and pour in the stock.

3) Stir the rice and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and boil for 1-2 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes (for brown rice this will be around 30 minutes), or until all the liquid has been absorbed.

4) Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a clean dish towel and place the lid on top. Leave to steam for 10-15 minutes.

5) Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with the parsley sprigs and serve with dollops of creamy natural yogurt.

Per Portion:
energy 621 kcal / 2590 kJ
protein 30 g
carbohydrate 77.1g, of which sugars 4.2g
fat 21.2g, of which saturates 9.5g
cholesterol 86 mg
calcium 51 mg
fibre 1.1g
sodium 100 mg