INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

In a 4-5 quart Dutch oven, melt most of the butter and slowly brown
the onions.  Add the cleaned lentils and fry a bit; then the same for
the cleaned rice. Stir constantly, browning the rice without letting
it stick.  Add the cherries and about 2 1/4 cups liquid made up of
cherry liquid,  stock and water. Add about 1/4 - 1 t turmeric and about
1/4 t ground  cumin if desired; add necessary salt (depending on the
saltiness of  your broth).  Bring to a boil, stir with a fork, cover
tightly, and let cook over  the very lowest heat for about 20 minutes.
Fluff up the rice with a  fork (never a spoon) and add the remaining
butter to the bottom of  the pot.  Raise the heat slightly for 5-10
mins to form a crust on the bottom  (with the right technique, this
should be possible without this  step...). Serve, making sure to
include a bit of crust in each  serving.  NOTES    Pilaf with sour
cherries and lentils -- This Pilaf with sour  cherries and lentils is a
Persian-style dish, although I cannot vouch  for its authenticity. It
is rich enough to eat for dinner by itself;  as a side dish, it might
be good with a spiced grilled chicken or a  lamb stew. It is a
composite of recipes from cookbooks and from a  Iranian Jewish family I
know.    An excellent side dish is yoghurt, possibly flavored (like the
Indian raita) with one or more of: fresh chopped herbs (parsley,
coriander, mint), some salt, some spice (paprika, black pepper, black
onion seed, or coriander seed), olive oil and lemon juice. Even  better
than yoghurt as a base is strained yoghurt, also called Lebany  Spread
or Lebanee, available commercially in New England from Columbo  or
Eunuch (look in Armenian/Arab/Greek stores).    Basmati or Patna rice
is a particularly flavorful and long-grained  rice from India or
Pakistan.  Any Indian store and many "natural  foods" stores carry it.
It is well worth the premium price (about  $1.10 a pound); "Texmati" is
apparently the same strain grown in  Texas, but does not have anything
like the same taste. Inspect and  clean it before using, there are
often unhusked grains and  occasionally pebbles mixed in. Then rinse in
two changes of water and  drain thoroughly. If you cannot get Basmati,
use a good-quality  unconverted long-grain rice (Alma, Carolina, but
NOT Uncle Ben's!).    Red lentils are about half the diameter of
ordinary brown lentils.  Do not substitute brown lentils, which will
probably not cook fast  enough. Red lentils are available in Indian,
Middle Eastern and some  "natural foods" stores.  They often contain
largish pebbles, so  inspect them carefully. Rinse to get rid of dust,
and drain. Red  lentils are also very good by themselves, simply boiled
with a few  spices and served with butter.    Sour cherries (in the
Middle East, v/w + i + s/sh + n + e/a/ino:  Greek Vissino, Slavic and
Turkish Vishnea, Arabic Wishna) are  available fresh for about one week
a year. Most sour cherries go into  cherry syrups, pies and preserves.
Canned sour cherries are quite  good. You will usually find them in the
home pie-making section of  your market, near the canned blueberries
and baker's supplies, or  with the canned fruits. There are occasional
stones. (That is, pits,  not rocks!) Middle Eastern stores will often
have sour cherry  preserves, which are too sweet for this recipe.  
Almost any stock or broth will work in this recipe. Chicken or lamb  is
most appropriate, in the latter case, used rather dilute. This is  one
of the few recipes where you can actually get away with canned  chicken
broth, but watch the salt.  : Difficulty:  easy to moderate.  : Time:
30-40 minutes.  : Precision:  approximate measurement OK.  : Stavros
Macrakis  : Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard  :
macrakis@harvard.ARPA  : Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 586
Calories From Fat: 272
Total Fat: 30.6g
Cholesterol: 180.1mg
Sodium: 1401.8mg
Potassium: 1001.6mg
Carbohydrates: 21.9g
Fiber: 3.2g
Sugar: 14g
Protein: 54.2g