Basmati recipes ~~~~~~ Iranian Style ** You can either soak the rice in water beforehand to remove startch for a few hours or overnight, OR you can cheat like I usually do and not soak it! LOL it just makes it a bit longer to cook. 1. Ok boil a whole lot of water (way more than the rice needs to absorb) in a big pot with some *salt* (or not in your case!) when it is at a rolling boil, add the drained or *dry* basmati rice. 2. Boil the rice until it is a little bit soft but not 100% cooked (al dente!) . over here, on an electric stove, in the southern us, with non soaked rice, it usually takes about 8-9 minutes, depending on how much rice I am making. Soaked rice cooks faster, and altitude plays a part, so check it. 3. Drain the rice in a collander (add *salt* lol). Heat some oil, or in my case GHEE or melt BUTTER in the bottom of the pot. (add *salt*) Now there are a few different things you can do now: A) peel and slice some potatoes about 1/8th inch thick, and put one layer of them on the bottom of the pan. Add the rice on top, and use your spatula to push in the rice from the sides of the pan (will look like a little foothill, mountain, or devil's tower) Use the handle of your spatula to poke a few holes down in the middle of the rice to help it steam well. Add more butter or oil on top, and (*salt*). B) do the same thing, except use pita bread instead of potatoes (*salt*) C) Just add the rice to the pan without anything on the bottom, especially if you like that nice crusty, golden "tadigh" on the bottom of your rice. (dont forget the *salt*) dont forget the mountain effect and poking the holes, etc... 4. Take a paper towel and lay it over the top of the pot. Place the lid on top of it snugly, and let the rice steam on LOWWWWWWW for about 15-20 minutes. Take the lid off, and off with the towel, and mix around the top and middle of the rice (not the bottom or you will get soggy potatoes/bread or no rice tadigh). Add (salt) and more oil or butter if needed, and what I sometimes do is dissolve some ground saffron (very small amount) in a small bit of warm water, and then pour it over the top. (YUM) 5. Steam for a while more, depending on how crusty u like the tadigh, or whether or not the potatoes have turned into this LOVELY crunchy golden stuff that everyone fights over. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Easy Peasy "Iraqi" Curry Rice this is too easy 1. Soak basmati rice in a whole lot of water for an hour or so. Drain. 2. In a pot, (I ALWAYS use non stick when I cook rice anyways) fry onions, garlic (if u like it) in oil until soft. Add your favorite curry mixture, the amount depends on how much rice youre making-- dont ask me, I just eyeball it and make it different every time, add some salt or salt substitute, and some of that broken fideo pasta u find in the mid east stores (like how Rice a Roni has). Fry a little bit more, until the pasta is sort of golden. 3. Add the drained rice and let it fry for like a minute, stirring to make sure each grain is coated and glistening. 4. Here's my sneaky trick-- I add the water-- I always know it is enough if I can stick my finger in the water, and it goes to my first knuckle by the time I touch the rice (first knuckle meaning the one closest to my fingernail!) Some other people will sort of "tip" the pot and see how far they have to tip it before they see the rice layer (Ive messed up that way before). Anyhow better not enough water than too much, you can always add more if its all dried up and still uncooked. 5. anyhow, cook the rice on a simmer covered by the lid of course. you'll know when it's done. *This is REAL good with roast chicken or Iraqi style bakeso r fried or grilled FISH-- did I post that recipe before? I cant remember ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Basmati Pilafs: Just an afternote-- Cook the rice the way in the iranian style recipe up to the point of DRAINING it. Then you cook what ingredients you want to put in with the rice (usually FRYING haha). Put some oil or butter on the bottom of the pan and spread HALF of the partly cooked basmati rice on the bottom of the pan (or u can do the potato thing and put half of the rice on top of THAT). Spread your mixture of whatever on top of that, and then put the remaining rice on top. Make a mountain, poke holes, towel, and steam. VERY good Stuff you can put in pilafs: (what Ive tried so far, theres endless combos of course) *fried ground beef spiced with turmeric, pepper, salt, and green beans *same as above, except replace green beans with grated or diced carrots which have all been fried together. *Fried onions (till theyre nice and browned but not burned), diced potatoes, pine nuts, curry powder, and shredded cooked chicken or beef or lamb (or not meat). * fried ground beef with turmeric and shredded cabbage (that recipe is on my homepage, ask for it if u want) * oh DROOL- u can make any kind of really thick yoghurt-based meat stew (with curry or something) and use that-- Id also do a nice garnish of fried onions, potatoes, pine nuts, and raisinssssss if u want more ideas for this ask, I can think of a few dozen more...