The bread baking thing has been fun. After getting some advice from my best baking expert, Linsey, I’m going to try an autolysed then kneaded whole-grain boule. The fact is, though, we don’t eat a lot of bread. We do eat a lotta lotta rice. I always keep short-grain Japanese rice (Hitomebore if I can get it), short-grain risotto rice (carnaroli, which doesn’t risk pastiness like arborio) and long-grain jasmine rice, which I find similar to basmati but a bit more versatile and easier to cook — i.e., you can fuck it up and it still comes out pretty well.
And since I had stock again, my thoughts turned to long-grain rice pilaf. In cooking school, we learned the basic recipe: sweat diced onion in butter, add rice and stir to coat with fat, add stock, bring to a boil, cover, simmer 17 minutes, rest.
This has long been my jumping-off point for the chicken and rice dish I use for feeding sloppy groups, like when a bunch of kids would stay for dinner. It goes like this:
Saute bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces in hot oil in a braiser, use some of the chicken fat in the pan to saute onions, whatever veg is around, and spice mixtures based around my own stupid American ideas of foreignness, a.k.a, “Do I feel like going Indian or Mexican tonight?”
I then fry the rice in this goodness, add the stock, being careful to deglaze the pan, put the chicken pieces back in and cover it to cook. When it comes out well, there is fluffy rice and tender chicken, particularly welcome in the white meat. When it doesn’t come out well, there is gummy rice and chicken good enough to forgive it.
I had a package of thighs that needed cooking, so I set to work. After sauteing them, I figured these nice pieces of dark meat should be finished on a rack in a roasting pan in the oven, where they’d come out plenty juicy and have crisp skin.
Then I looked at the nice, browned bits in the braiser and thought, “Do I feel like going Indian or Persian tonight? Maybe both.”
The skin was super crispy, but my lighting skills suck
Rice Pilaf
More than other starches, rice depends on the vessel it’s cooked in. I love using my braiser because it has a wide surface area (best for long-grain rice, which needs to separate) and a heavy lid that keeps the steam in. If you make rice pilaf in a saucepan, you’ll need to add a touch less liquid and would do well letting the rice come to the boil, covering it, and sticking the whole thing in a 375-degree oven to bake, provided you have an ovenproof handle.
About 2 tablespoons butter, oil or chicken drippings
1 small onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 large garlic clove, smashed but not cut up
1 heaping teaspoon mustard seeds
1 1/4 cups long-grain rice
2 cups chicken broth
4 green cardamom pods, smashed
1 pinch saffron, ground and dissolved in a little hot tap water
1 handful dried fruit (I had white mulberries, but would’ve done raisins)
1 handful nuts (I had roasted pistachios, could totally see toasted almonds)
salt and pepper
Cilantro or parsley to finish
Heat the vessel over a medium flame and saute the onion, carrot and garlic clove for 2-3 minutes with a little salt and pepper. Turn up heat, add the mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds pop, add the rice and stir until it glistens and looks like it might toast. Add the stock, scrape the bottom of the pan for any crusty bits. Add the cardamom, saffron water, fruit and nuts. Taste the broth. If you don’t detect salt, add some more. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 17 minutes. Turn off heat and let rest 10 minutes. Sprinkle on the greenery and get your yum on.