This Almond And Rice Pilaf recipe, or Ali Pasha pilaf as we know in our country, is a festive recipe used to cook for centuries when this dish serves to sultans and viziers.
The recipe is similar to the Sultan’s Pilaf, which originates from Turkey, where it was the country of the sultans, but in our country, we cook it and name it as this was one of the recipes served for the Pasha of Ioannina, Ali Pasha.
Like traditional pilaf, the main ingredient in this recipe remains rice. It also enriches with a combination of dried fruits like almonds, raisins, and nuts, flavored with cinnamon and parsley.
The rice cooks with gravy and serves with the meat that we also use for the broth. You can cook it with mutton, beef or turkey. Since we just spent New Year’s Eve, we cooked it with roasted turkey juice and accompanied by rooster turkey.
It is a dish that is not cooked daily, but for holidays and festive family lunches. The rice we use should be round, short, and stuffed like Arborio rice, one of the best rice we also use for cooking risotto recipes.
Ingredients-4 Servings
- 200 g of arborio rice
- 70 g of raisins
- 100 g of almonds
- 100 g of nuts
- 1 small onion or ½ big onion
- cinnamon
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2-3 tbsp of olive oil
- salt
- 500-600 ml turkey broth
- fresh parsley
Directions
- We will roast the turkey and drain the juice with a colander.
- We will grind the dried fruits into small pieces with the kitchen knife and set them aside. If you want to remove the skin, we will put them in hot water a few hours ago to clean the almonds and nuts as much as possible.
- Finely chop the onion and sauté it in a deep non-stick pan with a tablespoon of butter and olive oil. Cook over medium heat with the lid on for a few minutes until golden brown.
- Once the onion tender, we will add the turkey juice and let it boil.
- We will also add the dried fruits minced in small pieces and let them boil well with the lid covered on medium heat for a few minutes until they soften.
- We will add a cinnamon stick that flavors the juice. You can also add cinnamon powder to a tablespoon if you do not have cinnamon sticks. We try the juice for salt, and we will add a little salt if necessary, as the juice also has salt from roasting the turkey.
- Meanwhile, prepare the rice by washing it in hot running water and add it to the liquid to boil for the required time according to the packaging. Usually, to cook pilaf, we use the ratio, one rice with two meat broth.
We will add a little more turkey juice to cook the dried fruit first in this recipe.
- Before the end, we will add a spoonful of butter that makes the rice even more creamy, and we will add a spoonful of fresh finely chopped parsley.
- Serve it warm, accompanied by roasted turkey.
Bon Appetit!
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