Eggplant Apricot and Nut Pilaf

This is a version of an slow cooker recipe I have in a cook book. I took the slow cooker out of storage to prepare lamb shanks tomorrow and thought about a dish for Saturday lunch. But after I came back from grocery shopping at our huge Turkish supermarket I was a bit late for a slow cooked lunch. Since I had to prepare all the steps in a pot anyway I decided to cook the pilaf in the pot until it was done. I served it with chicken thigh.

I can recommend this method because the whole prep and cooking time came to 45 minutes. There are a lot of ingredients that goes into that pilaf, but if you have people over who are allergic to some nuts, go with seeds and almonds, that makes it edible for them. I bought a bag of double roasted chickpeas and shelled hazelnuts and a bag of cashews - sooo  good!

recipe for 3:
3/4 cup basmati rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 bay leaves
1/2 large onion
1 egg plant
10 dried soft apricots
4 dried soft dates
30 g whole shelled hazelnuts
30 g roasted chickpeas
50 g cashews
30 g golden linseed
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
3 chicken thighs
2 tbsp sweet beets syrup
chicken spices
3 tbsp Bourbon whiskey
salt and pepper
a bunch of flatleaf parsley

Make the pilaf:
Chop onion and eggplant and start the onion in oilve oil, then add the eggplant, salt and pepper. Cook until light brown.
Chop apricots and dates.
Add nuts and seeds to the pot, then the rice, the fruits and the spices, stir well and add hot stock.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat down to very low and let it soak up the liquid until the rice is tender. Give it a good stir.

Chicken:

Season the chicken with the spices, salt and pepper and in some oil fry them on both sides, add the syrup to glaze them, then the whiskey and close the lid and let them get done.