Persian Deep Dish Pizza

OK. The following recipe is niether Persian, or deep dish pizza. But it is inspired by Persian Food and deep dish pizza. Persians have a way of making rice that it comes out of the oven with a nice buttery crust that is crunchy and a tender inside. I tried to copy that texture with this recipe, and make it a little similar to things that I grew up with.

Persian Rice with Eggplant, Onion and Tomato

Take 1 cup basmati rice and cook it with the juices of 1 32 ounce can of whole tomatoes (about 1 cup tomato juice) and 1 cup chicken broth. Add 1 T butter. When rice is done, press it into the bottom of a WELL BUTTERED 6 inch spring form pan, pressing the rice up the sides, almost like a deep dish pizza, creating a well in the center.

Meanwhile take 1 small eggplant and slice it. Fry the slices in olive oil until brown on each side. Slice 1/4 onion into thin slices. Place onions on top of rice in the springform pan. Top with eggplant. Finally take the tomatoes from the can and crush them by hand onto the top of the whole mess. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 for 1 1/2 hours. When it comes out of the oven let it cool for 7 minutes. Invert the whole mess onto a plate and remove the springform pan, leaving the nicely browned crust with the goodies inside. True Nirhvana. Serve with Kebabs or something of the like. Take the recipe and convert it to memory and lord it over everyone you know.