Christmas food in spring...

The air has spring-ish flavor in it, the wind blows sweetly, as it always does in march, and the sun is shining differently today… It is spring for sure!

Then why am I thinking of Christmas? Huh? It might seem crazy to think of winter when spring has just finally arrived. But people are different… and though I love-love-love spring more than any other season, today is one of the very few days when I miss winter…more specifically New Year and Christmas season. Maybe because I was going through folders on my husband’s computer and came across some Christmas photos of my daughter, Christmas tree, cookies and sweet rice…who knows. But as it happened, I decided to write a bit about my spontaneous Christmas mood and share a recipe!

Who needs Christmas recipes in spring?  Good question! Still, there are people who look forward to New Year and Christmas, because they are going to eat special food and spend time with their family. If you know anyone that kind, then why not prepare the special Christmas food on an ordinary day and surprise your beloved one! Or if these are not traditional Christmas dishes for you, why not try them out on an ordinary day and enjoy something new and exciting…anyway, let me share some recipes for Christmas or for when Christmas mood is there for no reason…

Armenian traditional sweet rice

Sweet rice is a traditional Armenian dish, common for Christmas. It is also prepared for Easter in some houses.

To serve 4-6 people

Rice:

2 cups of rice
2 liters of water
lavash / thin pita bread cut in about size of A6 paper (1/4 of A4)
100 gr. butter
vegetable oil

salt

Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil, add salt. Add the rice and stir from time to time. After some 15 minutes (or once the rice is cooked), drain the rice using a colander.

Heat a pot, that can be later placed in oven, on stove. Put a bit of vegetable oil and fry pieces of lavash/ pita for just 1 -2 minutes from both sides. Place all pieces of lavash in the pot so that they fully cover the bottom.

Place half of the drained rice over the lavash/pitas. Slice butter in 2 cm thick slices. Put half of slices on top of rice. Pour rest of the rice and put the remaining slices of butter on top. Cover the lead of the pot and place in oven on low heat around 100 C. It will help to keep the rice warm while you prepare the topping.

Topping:
The topping allows you to be as creative as you can, do whatever you want with nuts and dried fruit, but please do add dates; they make the mixture really rich in taste. You can use any dried fruit which are sugar free, all kinds of nuts and raisins, and any type of syrup.

My mixture has:

50 gr. Walnuts

50 gr. Hazelnuts

Dried apricots

Dried plums

Dried peaches

Dried cherries

Dates

White and black raisons

White cherries from preserve

¼ cup of white cherry syrup  (you can use any other syrup or honey, or just sugar with water)

100 gr. Butter

Cut all dried fruit in small pieces. Remove the seeds from dates and cut them in forth. Wash and dry raisons. Fry hazelnuts and walnuts in a pan without butter. When they get a bit pinkish take off the heat and remove their shells, they mostly come out automatically. Add nuts to the fruit mixture.

Heat the butter in a pan, add all the fruits and nuts, fry 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Add cherry preserve if using any, if not, add syrup and mix well. Put the fire down to mid-low and continue mixing. Try the sweetness, 

it should be really sweet, if it is not, add more syrup or honey, or sugar. The topping is ready.

Caramelized apples:

Heat a bit of butter in a pot, add some sugar and place the apples in the pot, mix well for 3-4 minutes, add cinnamon and remove from fire.