Hamsili Pilav

Ingredients

• 700 g fresh anchovies (hamsi)
• 300 g baldo or other short-grain rice
• 2 onions
• 60 g butter, plus more for the tin
• 40 g pine nuts
• 40 g currants
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• Small bunch of dill
• Small bunch of parsley
• 550 ml hot water
• 1½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Before you cook

• Rinse the rice and soak it in warm salted water for twenty minutes, then drain it.
• Snap the heads off the anchovies and pull the guts away with them.
• Open each fish flat along the belly and lift out the backbone, leaving the two fillets joined at the back.
• Rinse the butterflied fish and lay them on kitchen paper to dry.
• Soak the currants in warm water for ten minutes, then drain them.
• Finely chop the onions, dill and parsley.
• Butter a twenty-four-centimetre round cake tin heavily.

Steps

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Fry the pine nuts for two minutes, until they turn pale gold.
3. Add the onions and cook them for six minutes, until soft and sweet.
4. Stir in the drained currants and the allspice and cook for one minute.
5. Add the drained rice and turn it through the butter for three minutes, until the grains look glassy.
6. Pour in the hot water, add the salt, and bring it to the boil.
7. Cover the pan, drop the heat to its lowest, and cook for twelve minutes.
8. Take the pan off the heat and fork through the dill, parsley and black pepper.
9. Heat the oven to 200°C.
10. Line the buttered tin with anchovies, skin side down, laid in a fan from the centre outwards with the tails hanging over the rim.
11. Spoon the part-cooked pilaf over the fish and press it down firmly and evenly.
12. Fold the overhanging tails back inwards over the rice.
13. Cover the whole surface with a second layer of anchovies, this time skin side up.
14. Bake for thirty-five minutes, until the top layer of fish is golden and crisping at the edges.
15. Rest the tin for ten minutes, then run a knife around the rim and invert it onto a large plate.
16. Cut into wedges and serve warm with lemon.