Pilaf

I was pretty excited when Minoo told me that Manijeh is going to share with us how to make Pilaf in the Caring Place Community Kitchen.  This will be another addition to the many rice recipes which I had blogged about in Chowtimes.com.

Manijeh shared with us that Pilaf originates from Persian around 500 BC.  Pilaf is a rice dish with meat or grain or vegetable.  It is very popular in Central America and South Asia.  Pilaf is usually spiced up with cumins, tumeric, cinammon, saffron and lots of herbs.

Manijeh also emphasized that a Persian woman is deemed as a good cook if she can cook good rice.  The rice cooking process is much longer than the way Chinese does it because the rice is cooked with meat or grain or vegetable.  Unlike Chinese who serves plain steamed rice with a few accompanying dishes.  It is the accompanying dishes which take times to prepare.

The Pilaf can be a meal by itself as it is rice, meat and lentils in it which are rich in carbohydrate, protein and fiber.  A side dish of vegetables will make it a complete meal.

This recipe is for 4 servings.

Ingredients

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Pilaf (416 words)