Dried Fruit with Persian Rice YUMMY

One of my all time favorite Persian dishes is the dried fruit with Persian rice recipe that I always have with the chicken kabobs at Shamshiri in Westwood in Los Angeles. I cannot get enough of it. Today, I decided to go to the market and pick up ingredients for this dish so I could make it at home for dinner. I found a great recipe on Epicurious and I adapted it a little by adding some of Megafruit's baby pineapple. Wow was it a great addition to this traditional dish. The baby pineapple added an extra layer of flavor that was so different from the raisins and cranberries while perfectly complimenting the rice dish. Try it out for yourself sometime. Happy Eating.

Here is my adapted recipe:

I added 1 of the 2 oz. bag of Megafruit baby pineapple to the recipe.

• 3 cups basmati rice (1 1/4 lb)
• 4 qt water
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 1/2 cup dried apricots (3 1/2 oz), quartered
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (3 oz)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (2 oz)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped shelled unsalted pistachios (not dyed red; 2 1/2 oz)

Rinse rice in several changes of cold water in a large bowl until water runs clear. Drain in a large sieve.

Bring water and salt to a boil in a 6-quart heavy pot, then add rice and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes from time water returns to boil. Drain rice in sieve.

Toss together dried fruit in a bowl. Melt 6 tablespoons butter with cardamom and pepper in cleaned and dried pot, stirring to combine, then alternately layer rice and dried fruit over it, beginning and ending with rice and mounding loosely. Make 5 or 6 holes in rice to bottom of pot with round handle of a wooden spoon, then cover pot with a kitchen towel and a heavy lid. Fold edges of towel up over lid (to keep towel from burning) and cook rice over moderately low heat, undisturbed, until tender and a crust forms on bottom, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat and let rice stand, tightly covered and undisturbed, at least 30 minutes.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small skillet over moderate heat and cook pistachios, stirring, until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.

Spoon loose rice onto a platter, then break crust into 1-inch pieces and scatter over rice. Sprinkle with pistachios.

Cooks' notes: • Rice can be parboiled and drained 4 hours ahead and transferred to a bowl. Keep, covered with a dampened kitchen towel, at room temperature. • Rice can stand off heat up to 1 hour. • If you're short on time, you can skip letting the rice stand after cooking: Spoon loose rice onto a platter and then dip bottom of pot into a large bowl of cold water for 30 seconds to loosen crust.

photo by: Mikkel Vang - recipe credit www.epicurious.com