Matanjan (Rainbow rice)

Cook, eat and celebrate your own connections with trees: Orange, Almonds, Cashews,

Pistachios, Coconut.

Ingredients

- 1 cup rice (soak for about an hour)

- ¾ cup sugar

- 40g butter

- 6 or so cardamoms

- Juice of an orange and orange rind

- Nuts of your choice (Almonds,cashews, pistachios)

- Dried fruit of your choice (sultanas,coconut).

- Food colouring; a few different colours, e.g. red yellow, green,blue.

Instructions:

• Put 2-3 cardamoms into water, and boil. Once water boiling add rice and cook until rice is partially cooked. Drain the rice and set aside.

• In another pan melt butter and add 2-3 cardamoms (without pod, just the seeds), after a few seconds add the chopped dried fruit and nuts of your choice. Add the orange juice and rind followed by the sugar. Then add a little less than ½ a cup of hot water and then quickly cover and cook on a medium heat for like a minute. Then add the rice and cook for about 3-5 minutes more.

• Mix food colouring with a little water on a table spoon, and add a few drops over the rice in different places. Repeat this with all the colours.

• Finally do the dam, this is done by wrapping the pan lid with a damp tea towel, so when replaced a seal is created. Leave on very low heat for about 5 minutes then turn fire off, but do not open pan as the rice will cook perfectly in the steam in the sealed pan.

Recipe written by members of the Awaz Utaoh Group