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1
Set the oven to 350.
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2
Make the wild rice the day before, and refrigerate.
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3
Make the white rice. While it cooks toss together the dried fruits and apples in a bowl, add the orange juice, honey and vanilla.
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4
Drain the cherries and put them into a mixing bowl. Add the Harvey's and Amaretto and honey. Let stand during the cooking time.
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5
When the white rice is finished, fluff it, and stir in the dried and fresh fruits, truly optionally butter, and pop the cover back on. Let sit 15 minutes to plump.
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6
Toast the nuts in a hot oven about 5 -8 minutes. Remove them, reserving until the end. Leave the oven on for the casserole.
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7
Put the wild rice into a mixing bowl big enough to hold all the rice. Pour the cherries in, and lightly toss them, stirring the liquors and juices into the rice.
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8
At the end of 15 minutes, fluff the hot white rice with fruit, and pour it on top of the wild rice, mixing and folding them together.
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9
Reserve 1/2 c. of toasted nuts for the top of the casserole add the rest of the toasted nuts to the rice, folding them in.
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10
Put the rice into a pretty baking casserole, sprinkle with the nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves just enough for aromatics, cover with foil or the casserole cover and bake in the oven until hot. About 10 minutes.
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11
Add a few more splashes of Harvey's or Amaretto, or both, to the hot dish if you like. Top with reserved nuts.
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12
You can control the expense of this dish by selecting only one or two of the optional fruits, or none at all, and using a mixed nut selection instead of buying bags of nuts. If you leave out the alcohol, try more flavorings like almond extract or a squeeze of a fresh orange on top after it comes out of the oven. Squeeze the orange into the cherries to perk them up. I have used fresh squeezed, squeezed from an orange in the recipe. And put an orange all over and inside the turkey too. That is Silver Palate cookbook.
