Adas Polo — Persian Lentil Rice

Ingredients

• 1½ cups basmati rice
• ¾ cup green or brown lentils
• 1 onion, sliced and fried golden
• ½ cup dates, chopped + ⅓ cup raisins
• ½ tsp cinnamon + ½ tsp cumin + pinch of saffron in 2 tbsp hot water
• 3 tbsp butter or oil
• Yogurt, to serve

Method

1. Simmer the lentils 15 minutes until just tender; par-boil the rice separately in salted water 6 minutes and drain.
2. Butter the pot bottom generously — tahdig territory — and layer: rice, lentils, cinnamon-cumin, repeat, mounding into a pyramid.
3. Poke steam vents with a spoon handle, drizzle the saffron water over the peak, wrap the lid in a towel, and steam on LOW 25 minutes.
4. Warm the dates and raisins with the fried onions in a little butter — the sweet crown.
5. Serve mounded with the fruit-onion mixture over, then flip out the tahdig — the golden crust at the bottom — and present it with ceremony. Persian tables assign it by love, seniority, or speed.