Pilau rice

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 1 onion
• 2 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 200 ml rice
• 4 300 ml water
• 5 1 chicken stock cube
• 6 20 g butter
• 7 salt
• 8 pepper
• Total weight: 731 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
11 min.	22 min.	33 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Préparez 1 onion. Preheat oven to 390°F (200°C). Prepare chicken stock by mixing 1 chicken stock cube and 300 ml water (hot).
2	Put 4 tablespoons olive oil in a large oven-proof pan over moderate heat. When oil is hot, add chopped onion, mix well, salt and pepper. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes without allowing to colour.
3	Tip in 200 ml rice all at once, and "pearl", which means: cook 2 or 3 minutes, stirring continuously...
4	...until rice become translucent, "pearled".
5	Then add chicken stock in one go...
6	...and mix thoroughly.
7	Cover (lid or aluminium foil) and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
8	After this time, remove from the oven, uncover and add 20 g butter in small pieces, while stirring to melt them.
9	Your pilau rice is ready, but it can be covered and kept hot for a while.

Remarks

Unfortunately, cooking rice like pasta (in boiling water then draining) is the worst method! Because like that most of the flavour disappears with the water, and that's a pity.
On the other hand in a rice-cooker or using the pilau method, the rice has only the volume of liquid that it will absorb, and so retains its flavour.
To succeed with pilau rice, there are 2 important points
1) You should never use more than one and a half time the volume of liquid than volume of rice.
2) cooking time should not exceed 20 minutes at 200°C (390°F), covered.
Sometimes, you might read in other recipes, that pilau rice can only be cooked in oven. That's not true. Yes, it's better in the oven because it's softer and cooks more evenly, but not obligatory. You can cook it on low heat, covered, without stirring.
You can also vary the taste by adding a bayleaf during cooking or a bouquet garni or other herbs of your choice. You can also change the chicken stock for vegetable or beef stock, or add some dry white wine. So, let your imagination guide you.

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