Now that you have made up batches of Curry Gravy, and Curry Paste,
you may as well master some proper pilau rice to go with it, as it
would be a shame to serve up all your hard work on a pile of starchy American long grain now, wouldn't it?
There must be a million recipes
for pilau rice, so mine is in no way definitive, but a lot of them tend
to use butter or ghee, which health-wise, is just adding insult to
injury when it comes to making curry. Personally, I think the main
players in a rice dish should be delicately fragrant spices and of
course, the rice.
In which case, I would only ever use basmati rice.
Because of its long, thin grains, you can cook it to a perfect al dente
tenderness without it having to become sticky or stodgy. Having
discarded butter or ghee, a little olive oil is enough to draw flavour
from the spices and coat the rice to provide nice, separate grains once
the rice is cooked.
For cooking, I recommend the absorbtion
method, which might seem tricky, but is actually very easy if you
follow 3 simple rules: always use double water to rice, leave the lid
on throughout cooking and keep an eye on it!
Ingredients (serves 4)
250g basmati rice
500mls cold water
1 small cinnamon stick
1 black cardamon pod
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Directions
Heat olive oil in a lidded saucepan. Add all whole spices and allow to infuse for a minute.
Add rice and stir to coat in oil. Pour over water.
Place
on lid, and on a high heat, allow to come to the boil. As soon as the
water boils, reduce to the lowest heat and leave for 8mins without
stirring.
Remove lid, and check to see if water has absorbed.
If water is gone, there should be small holes in the surface of the
rice, and when you scrape with a fork, no water will appear at the
bottom of the pan. If you still see water, replace lid and check in 2-3
mins.
Fluff up with a fork and serve.
Image via Channel 4 Food