Instructions: To make rice: Rinse rice several times in cold water until water runs clear.

Place in bowl with enough water to cover. Add 1/3 cup salt and disperse through rice with hands. Soak at least overnight. Refrigerate if soaking longer.

Using a colander or sieve, drain cherries from jam syrup (save syrup for another use).

Fill a stockpot with 12 cups water and bring to a boil. Tilt bowl in which rice has been soaking and carefully pour off water. Do not re-rinse rice. Ease rice into boiling water and cook until al dente, 10-15 minutes after water returns to a boil. Pour rice into a colander and immediately rinse with a spray of cool running water to halt cooking. Tilt colander for about 10 minutes to drain well.

Using lid of a pot as a guide, cut lavash in a circle 1 inch wider than circumference of lid. Lightly pierce bread with a fork. Melt butter over medium heat in pot. Add vegetable oil and 1/8 teaspoon saffron powder. Position lavash in bottom of pot.

Layer rice and cherries in a pyramid atop lavash, starting with 1/4 of rice and 1/3 of cherries. Make sure cherries do not clump. Sprinkle them lightly with pinch of saffron powder before adding more rice. Continue layering, topping with rice and a final touch of saffron powder. Cover pot and place over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes. Once condensation begins to form under lid, uncover pot and stretch 2 layers of paper towels across top, then recover. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for an hour or until rice is cooked through.

For turkey meatballs: Season meat with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Place onion and 1 tablespoon water in a blender and thoroughly puree. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve over a small bowl, separating onion pulp from juice; set both aside. Add onion pulp to turkey in a mixing bowl and knead mixture until it becomes sticky. Using palms of your hands, roll meat into tiny meatballs about the size of a hazelnut. Dip your hands in cold water frequently to keep mixture from sticking.

Place meatballs in a frying pan in a spiral formation, starting from center of pan. Place over medium heat and saute 3 minutes, then add reserved onion juice. Cover and cook over medium-high heat 8-10 minutes, or until all liquid evaporates.

Uncover and add butter slices to meatballs. Immediately add liquid saffron, reduce heat to medium and saute meatballs until golden orange, about 5 minutes.

To assemble: Melt butter in a small saute pan over low heat. Add pistachios, saute 2 minutes or just until nuts are warm and toasty; keep warm.

Use a kafgir, a large flat spoon with or without small holes, to transfer the very top layer of the rice pyramid to a shallow bowl. Sprinkle with liquid saffron while rice is hot; blend together and set aside.

Gently scoop out half of remaining cherry rice from pot, shaking it off the kafgir onto serving platter so that the grains fall separately and are not broken. Layer with 1/3 of meatballs. Add rest of rice and another 1/3 of meatballs. Top with saffron rice. Arrange remaining meatballs around edge of platter. Garnish with pistachios and pour clarified butter over entire dish.

Hold a round platter on top of rice cooking pot and flip both over to remove the tahdig, the crispy bottom-of-the-pot layer of rice. Cut tahdig into pie-shaped wedges for serving.

Note: To make liquid saffron, steep 1 teaspoon saffron powder in 1/2 cup hot water. Refrigerate in a tightly sealed jar until ready to use.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.