Turkey – Traditional Perde Pilav (Buttery Dough Filled With Rice and Dry Fruit)

by Fariha Saeed

About the dish

This is one of the most eaten dishes in Siirt. It is basically a very buttery dough filled with rice, chicken, currants, almonds, raisins, pine nuts, and butter. It is a combination of parde pilav and kabli pilav because ”parde” means” covered” so the rice is covered in dough and kalbi pilav has a lot of dry fruit in it so it is basically a combination of it. The texture of the dough is so soft and the flavor is delicious and buttery. The texture of the dry fruits and nuts is a little soft from the outside and crunchy from the inside. People serve this dish on the new year, Christmas, eid – ul – fitar, etc. This is very popular around the world. The shape of it is like a bol but it is flat from bottom and top. The components of the dish are:

• Buttery dough
• rice
• pine nuts
• raisins
• almonds
• chicken
• currants
• cashew
• butter
• spices

The rice filling is so simple. Some people like spicy rice, some people like plain rice, some people like boiled rice so you can make rice spicy, plain, boiled, vegetable, etc. The dry fruit in it adds so much texture and flavor, This adds a little sweet flavor to the rice and the aroma of butter, dry fruits, chicken is out of the world. If you do not like chicken you can add turkey, beef, lamb, and vegetables to it. There are two things in the dish which depends on you

• If you want to add all the dry fruits raw then add them in the end
• If you want to add all the dry fruits cooked then add them in the first

The color of the rice is little orange and the color of the dough is a little brown. This is available at restaurants and street vendors. You can serve this with yogurt sauce, tamarind sauce, cheese, and salad.

Nutrition list

• calories 215
• carb 35 g
• fat 20 g
• protein 7 g

Ingredients of the dish

Rice

• 2 cups rice
• 1cup butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder
• 3 tbsp almonds
• 3 tbsp raisins
• 2 tbsp currant
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1/8 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 boiled chicken cubes (small)

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Cooking

Rice

• Take a bowl and fill it with water and put the rice in the bowl. Now take a large cooking pot and the flame low and add the butter when it started to melt add the currants, pine nuts, almonds, chicken, dried oregano, red chili, black pepper and mix well. Now add the rice and water to it and let it cook for 20 minutes. Stir after 5 minutes otherwise, it will stick to the bottom.
• Now you can see that the water is almost evaporated. Now put the lid on and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Dough

• Take a bowl and add all the ingredients and knead it until it formed a smooth dough. Now take a medium piece of dough and roll it. Now take a medium-sized bowl put the rolled dough inside and fill it with rice and then take a small rolled dough and place it on top.
• Now preheat the oven for 10 minutes then put it in the oven and let it bake for 15 minutes. Serve with sauce and salad.