Sayadieh (Spiced White Fish with Caramelised Onion Rice)

Ingredients

• 3 onion
• 5 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 300 g basmati rice
• 600 g white fish fillets (such as pollock)
• 40 g flaked almonds
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 2 lemon
• 15 g fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. 1

   Halve and thinly slice the onions. Heat the sunflower oil in a wide, heavy pan over a medium-high heat and fry the onions for 20 minutes, stirring often, until very dark brown but not burnt. Lift out a third with a slotted spoon for the topping.

2. 2

   Pour 750ml water over the onions left in the pan, scraping up the brown bits, and simmer for 5 minutes. Blitz with a stick blender to a brown broth, then stir in 1½ tsp cumin, the allspice, cinnamon and 1½ tsp salt.

3. 3

   Rinse the basmati rice and stir it into 600ml of the onion broth in a pan, keeping the rest. Bring to the boil, cover and cook on the lowest heat for 8 minutes.

4. 4

   Cut the white fish fillets into large pieces and season with the remaining cumin and a pinch of salt. Lay them on top of the rice, cover again and cook for 8-10 minutes until the rice is tender and the fish is opaque and flakes easily, adding a splash of the reserved broth if the rice looks dry.

5. 5

   Toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan for 2-3 minutes until golden. Whisk the tahini with the juice of 1 lemon, a pinch of salt and 3-4 tbsp water to a pourable sauce.

6. 6

   Spoon the rice and fish onto a platter, top with the reserved onions, almonds and chopped parsley, and serve straight away with the tahini sauce and the other lemon in wedges.