Pilaf-Stuffed Onions

Ingredients:

100g blanched Almonds, coarsely chopped
200g basmati rice
1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
3 tbsp Butter
1¼ Chicken Stock
7cm length Cinnamon Bark
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
6 Spanish Onions
2 tsp sumac

Method:

Bring 75ml of the stock to the boil in a large pan, add the rice, 1 tsp of the sumac, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon and 1/3 of the crushed garlic, and gently simmer, covered, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice tender, about 12 minutes. Set this mixture aside.

Meanwhile, put the onions in a large pan of boiling water for 10 minutes to blanch drain and cool.

Peel each onion and cut a 1.5cm slice off the top. Keep these 'taps' for later. Remove the inner core of each onion keeping the outer three layers intact. Then finely chop the inner cores and put aside. In a small pan melt the butter and sauté the chopped onion cores for 10 minutes until just brown. Mix these onions with the rice mixture, add in the almonds and spoon into the onion shells. Finally sealed by adding the reserved onion 'caps'.

Put the stuffed onions in an oiled baking dish. Mix the remaining sumac, garlic and lemon juice with the remaining stock and pour around the onions.

Bake in a preheated oven (180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4)) for 30 minutes, basting now and again to prevent burning.