Ashy's vegetarian recipes - ©Ashy Macbean 2005
A quick and simple recipe with an unusual result. Who would imagine a savoury dish of rice and apples? My friend Ludmilla would. Everytime I visit her she tries to prepare something new and unusual and she kindly said I could reproduce her recipe in my cookbook.
Ludmilla lives in Almaty, which used to be the capital of Kazakhstan and used to be called Alma-ata, which means 'Father of apples'. It is indeed, if not the father, the parent at least, of apples. The city lies at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains where the ancestor of the world's apples still grows. The foothills surrounding the city are cloaked in apple orchards and every garden has a few apple trees. Famous varieties were developed here. The enourmous sweet red 'Apurt' which can weigh up to a kilo and the little zingy yellow 'Lemon' with it's distinctive gold ring are among the city residents' favourites. In autumn the streets and markets are full of apple sellers. It's no wonder that people know how to cook with apples.
Ingredients
2 cups of rice
3.2 cups of water
1 large sweet apple
1 small onion
Olive oil
Salt
Put the rice and water in a pan with a little salt, stir once and bring to the boil. When it begins to boil stir once more, turn the heat down as low as possible and cover the pan tightly. Cook until the rice is soft and all the liquid has been absorbed. This should take about twenty minutes.
Peel the onion and cut in half. Slice the halves thinly then fry the pieces gently in a little oil until they turn golden. Lift the onion out of the oil and lay on a plate. Slice the apple into pieces about half a centimetre thick and fry in the oil for one minute on either side.
While the apple is frying, fluff the rice with a fork and pile
it onto a serving plate. Lay the apple slices on top, sprinkle on the cooked
onion and pour over any remaining oil from the frying pan.