I don’t eat too much rice or pasta in Ramadan because it leaves me feeling too full before eating other things, but if I’m going to make rice, it’s a special dish. That’s why I love risotto, the Italian rice dish made with arborio rice.
It can seem intimidating to cook because it’s often cooked with cream and Parmesancheese, but hopefully I can show you the steps to make it perfect- light and fluffy and creamy and delicious- exactly how it should be. Once you master it this way, you’ll want to keep your pantry stocked with arborio for any last-minute meal side dish you crave that can be made into a wonderful risotto of your own style.
For this one made with cut asparagus (it cooks faster) and green peas, it really came out of my usual cooking style: either something classic from my family culinary recipe box or out of what I ended up finding in my refrigerator and thought would go well together.
In this case, it was a little bit of both.
What I had in my fridge was what reminded me of dishes I’ve made in the past based on either my mother’s or my aunts’ cooking styles- so it was a little bit of both here. Regardless of where and how it was derived, it’s just superb in taste.
You can also use some chicken stock or broth to add flavor and nutrients to the rice.
The key to cooking the arborio rice is to let it steam cook at the end, once it’s off the stove. I have played around with many ways of making it. If you want to skip the addition of Parmesan cheese, then you don’t have to even open the lid once it’s cooking; if you add the Parmesan then you’ll have to stir it in (towards the end) just to make sure it’s mixed in thoroughly.
It’s such a fantastic one-pot rice dish that if you’re interested in having just this for dinner or any other meal, I am pretty sure it could be quite satisfying and filling that way, too.
I’ve been making Basmati rice for a long time and feel like I’ve perfected it from the lesson of first making some serious mistakes.
The first time I made it is a time I look back on and now laugh a bit. I had never seen rice other than white grain or wheat bran rice, and even then I usually made pasta instead of rice.
Basmati was something new that I was exposed to from I found a plethora of it in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean grocery stores in the ethnic neighborhoods around Columbus, Ohio. It was the closest place to travel: 45 minutes outside of my college town of Athens, Ohio where I could find international foods and something I wanted to make because of my exposure to new friends at university who were making some of the most delicious dishes I’d ever tasted: Pakistani Biryani with chicken or goat meat; Gulf Style Kebsa were my two absolute favorites. So I wanted to learn to make them myself and fill my own kitchen with the lovely aroma that only Basmati does.
Just opening up a bag to the noticeably different aroma made me interested in making it.
The mistake I made was that the first time I cooked it, I never rinsed it. Apparently, bags like the one above were a little different than the plastic packets or bags of rice that I was used to that were already rinsed. The ones in the burlap bags made no such claims so after I learned what I should have done, it was back to soak, swoosh, rinse. Repeat. Soak, swoosh, rinse. Repeat. And so on…not a big deal but something I had to learn.
I also learned a tried and true method from friends that makes it come out perfect every time and it seems to be way more forgiving than any other rice I have ever cooked, so it’s another reason I almost always buy Basmati.
First, cover the suggested amount of rice in a bowl with cool water. It doesn’t matter the amount, just enough to cover and allow you to swoosh it around. This also helps to remove some of the starch once you rinse it.
Once you’re done swooshing it around (with clean hands, of course) you’ll be able to see any impurities come to the surface. This bowl seems to look pretty clean, although there’s a lot of starch in there as you can tell from the cloudy surface.
You can drain the water out, but repeat the process several times. You can rinse it by putting the rice in a colander with small holes so that the grains don’t fall through. I like the bowl method the best.
Now here’s where I don’t have photos to show so you’ll just take my word for it in terms of cooking.
I like to add onions to my ‘plain’ Basmatirice, but you can certainly skip this method. I use a medium-large deep bottom sauce pan, depending upon how large the amount you want to make. I sauté the onions in butter or ghee then add the rice that has been fully drained of any water. I sauté the rice for just a minute or so, just to blend it in with the butter or oil and the onions. It almost smells like popcorn when it’s cooking, it’s so aromatic.
I then add water just to cover the rice (exact measurements in the recipe below), although when I first learned how to make it I learned how to eyeball it by systematically putting one inch of water only above the rice.
Once the water covers the rice, heat and bring it to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to low and cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. If your lid isn’t tight, put foil between the lid and the pot or even a cotton cloth, but make sure any cloth does not come near any flames or heat. Cook for exactly 20 minutes.
The other important thing to remember is to never, ever, never peek into the pot to see if it’s done before the time is up. When you do that, you waste valuable steam which really does affect how the rice cooks and how fluffy it turns out.
The effect you want is a fluffy, well-cooked rice that separates nicely with a fork.
Although I always eat mine with a spoon.
What about you? Do you cook Basmatirice often? How do you do it? Have you ever tasted it at all?
I grew up eating arroz con gandules, that quintessential rice dish that every Puerto Rican family has their own version of making. Most of the time it was made con pollo, or with chicken, but it was also made vegetarian, too. My mom is an American-born Puerto Rican whose family was very traditional in their foodways so this dish was always at the table of family gatherings.
I remember my great aunt, Virgen (whose name was pronounced in the dialect as “Beehin”) used to make it every single timewe went to her house to visit. As soon as she heard we were on our way, she would whip it up quickly and serve it to us with a coke (and I had already usually just eaten a full meal of Sicilian meatballs and pasta at my Sicilian grandparents’ house just before visiting). (more…)
I recently posted a recipe for Moroccan Goat Stew which is fabulously delicious and can certainly be served over rice or even with just bread. When I was making it, however, I found myself craving a sweetened couscous. I thought about adding dried apricots to the couscous but I just didn’t have them on hand. I did have a handful of dates, though.
Pearl couscous is a wonderful salad couscous and quite different from what is normally found in restaurant dishes or alongside North African tagine dishes with meat. When cooked, t is more plump and chewy than it’s smaller semolina-derived counterpart. The word couscous is actually a Berber one that means well-rounded or rolled which is exactly what I think of what I take a look at it. It’s also quite popular in Sicilian cuisine, which must be why I love it so much…
This dish is light and perfect for a weeknight meal because it’s easy and quick to prepare and uses only two dishes- great for kitchen clean-up, although there is a bit of chopping to do so bring on the family and cook it together. To me, it’s almost like a salad in itself. (more…)
I love the smell of basmatirice. There isn’t any other rice quite like it. When you walk into the home of someone cooking it, you can usually look forward to something interesting, a one-pot dish paired with meat, like biryani made with chicken, dried plums, exotic spices and of course, fragrant basmatirice.
Now available at stores like Trader Joe’s is a brown basmatirice, a healthier version of the more commonly consumed white rice. It’s healthier because it has more fiber. White basmati, like other most other white rices, have been removed of their husk during processing, which strips it of many essential nutrients and the all-important fiber. Between white and brown basmati, I really don’t taste any huge difference in flavor. Essentially, you can just make your recipe the way you would normally. You may even need to eat less of the brown rice because it’s more filling due to the higher fiber content.
Brown basmati is just one of the two great ingredients used to make the recipe for Brown Basmati Rice with Saffron & Ghee.
I love the smell of