INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup fine brown beans
• 5 tbsp. l. ghee
• 2 cups long grain rice (Basmati, Lankaran, or Pakistani)
• 300 g fish kutum (or asp, carp, bream)
• salt
• fresh thin pita bread
• 0.5 tsp turmeric
• 1 pomegranate

STEP-BY-STEP COOKING RECIPE
Soak the rice overnight in warm, very salty water. Soak the beans overnight, boil until tender and discard in a colander. Gut the fish, cut out the gills, clean the scales. Boil whole in salted boiling water with half a lemon for 5-6 minutes, drain in a colander, let cool slightly. Disassemble the fish into large pieces by removing the skin, bones, head and fins.

Rinse the rice with running water, pour in boiling salted water, let it boil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, put in a colander and gently mix with the beans with a slotted spoon. Pour 1 tbsp into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan (or cauldron). l. butter, make a kazmag, that is, cover the bottom of the pan with 2-3 layers of lavash, add a layer of rice with beans 1 cm thick, then put the fish and pour the rest of the rice on top. Sprinkle with turmeric.

Gently, on a knife, pour in 6 glasses of hot water. Close tightly with a lid wrapped in cotton cloth and put on low heat for 40 minutes, until the rice is cooked. Pour the remaining melted butter on top, cover the pilaf with a plate and then again with a lid, and simmer over the lowest possible heat for another 10-15 minutes. Put the finished pilaf in the center of the dish, and spread the pieces of fish and kazmag around. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds. With pilaf, you can serve raisins and dried apricots fried in ghee, crispy fried onions.