An azerbaijani dish fit for a king: "Shah Pilaf"
"Shah" is the arabic word for "king". (It's where the name of the game "chess" originates from.)
"Pilaf" is the slavic/caucasian word for rice-dishes. (Pronounced "plof" in Russia.)
Shah Pilaf is a sweet-and-savory rice-casserole, but the BIG part of it is that it looks impressive when you serve it. This is a dish you cook for a whole table of people on a big occasion.
For a casserole-dish of 12 inch diameter and 4 inch height, with a lid:
- 250g edible chestnuts, boiled and peeled
- 500g lamb-meat, diced into 1 inch pieces
- a small onion, diced
- a handful of dried dates, chopped
- a handful of dried apricots, chopped
- a handful of golden raisins
- salt, pepper, lemon-juice
- about 10 leafs of lavas-bread (you can substitute with soft wheat-tortillas)
- molten butter
- 300g rice
1.
In a pot, fry the chestnuts in some oil, until they have nice brown color.
2.
While all of this is frying, brush the lavas-bread/wheat-tortillas with molten butter on both sides. (Use the stack of bread itself as a work-surface.) Lay out the bottom and sides of your casserole-dish with the buttered bread, on an overlapping pattern. Be generous, so you later have enough to fold over.
Also boil the rice until its almost done, al dente. Then drain. (You can color the rice with some saffron. I will try Curcuma next time.)
Preheat the oven to about 200°C, 390°F.
3.
When the chestnuts are brown, take them out and put them aside in a dish. In the same pot fry the lamb. When the lamb is done, add the onions and the chestnuts. When the onions are done, add the dried fruits, raisins, salt, pepper and the juice of about half to a whole lemon. Gently stir until everything is evenly mixed.
4.
Put half of the pre-boiled rice in the bread-lined dish. Even out the surface.
Pour the meat-fruit-mixture onto the rice. Even out the surface.
Pour the rest of the rice onto the meat. Even out the surface.
Fold the bread over the filling, then top off with more leafs of buttered bread as necessary.
Then put the lid on the casserole-dish, making sure that everything is tightly sealed, to keep the steam in.
5.
Bake for about 1.5 hours.
(If you use a pyrex-glass casserole-dish, you want to aim for a nice brown crust. Crunchy but not too dark.)
6.
Take out, take off the lid, let cool for about 5 minutes, then flip upside-down onto a large serving-tray.
Cut open on the table.
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