Sweet spices with rice and pulses is standard across Persia and the Levant, and reads as strange only to people who have not eaten it. The cinnamon is not making a pudding; it is making the cumin taste warmer.
- Rinse the lentils. Into the pan with 700 ml of water, simmer 15 minutes until nearly tender.
- Rinse the rice. Add it with another 300 ml of water, the turmeric and the salt. Boil, lid on, lowest heat, 12 minutes without lifting the lid.
- Off the heat, lid on, 10 minutes to steam.
- Meanwhile heat the oil hard in a mug. Dried onion until deep gold: about 90 seconds, and it goes from gold to burnt fast. Cumin and cinnamon for the last ten seconds, raisins off the heat so they plump in the residual warmth.
- Fork the rice through and tip the onion, spices, raisins and all the oil over.
Cook this to the meal. Rice is the one thing here that should not be kept without a fridge, the rice page explains why reheating does not rescue it.
Serves 4.