CA's Perfect Pilau Rice - Every Time! (Illustrated!)

[Cory Ander]

Here's tonight's rice.

Looks good pforkes 

[millsoni]

I think this is a great method and always use it now.  I put yellow food colouring (here in Spain it is usually used for paella) in the water when boiling and I think I will start putting the salt in the pre-boiled water because I have forgotten it on a couple of occasions (and the sugar!).

As already observed, undercook a bit because the heat will continue to cook the rice once strained, which is also why spreading it out is necessary.

This photo is of pilau using this method, with a prawn jalfrezi (using Mark J's 10 onion base and CA's recipe), and OB's using an oven baking technique, although I am going to be trying Axe's recent recipe very soon.  It looks fantastic.

[Cory Ander]

Excellent photos Millsoni, that curry looks lovely! 

[Malc.]

The surplus can be frozen (I use the same plastic containers, with lids, that I use for curry base and curries) for future use.  Simply defrost and blitz in a microwave, on full, for 2 minutes.  The rice is even better (i.e. more free flowing grains) than before freezing.

That's a rather handy thing to know, i'll have to try this. I often make extra portions of anything that I cook to freeze and be available at short notice. Very handy indeed.

No idea about the stringy stuff but egg seems the most likely candidate. Local TA does Rashmi Kebabs with egg enveloping the kebab, that looks similar to your description. I have no idea how they do this but it must be a very hot pan and plenty of oil.

That prawn Jalfrezi has me salivating.

[Malc.]

I had a good go at this tonight and thoroughly enjoyed the finished dish. We added some button mushroom fried with onion and a little black cumin, garlic & ginger paste and IG Spice Mix.

Couple of things I noticed, the rice was cooked only after about 4-5 minutes in the pan. Having used ghee to fry, it remained in the grain after simmering. I also got some colour bleed from the colouring when mixing the finished dish. I halved the amounts but I forgot to halve the Cassia Bark and it was rather prominent.

I am sure it was in the process I applied but when all was said and done, both myself and the wife enjoyed it.

Thanks CA, any advice welcome.

[onepenny]

Hey, good recipie thanks  When i do plain rice people dont like it anymore lol, and im using tilda! One comment ive just noticed as i am writng the recipie down for someone (dont know if its been mentioned already) is that you say to place the rice in the fridge to cool, this is not very clear as you should always allow food to cool down before putting it in the fridge.

[Vindaloo-crazy]

Umm, dunno. My rice is always precooked, left to go cold and then frozen or fridged. Hope that helps. Make sure that the colouring of the rice is done before you let it cool

It's the same for Chinese too, you never cook with hot rice.

[976bar]

Those Bhajis look amazing!!

[Cory Ander]

One comment ive just noticed as i am writng the recipie down for someone (dont know if its been mentioned already) is that you say to place the rice in the fridge to cool, this is not very clear as you should always allow food to cool down before putting it in the fridge.

Isn't it best to cool it as quickly as possible? 

As I understand it, the only problem with putting hot food in the fridge is that it may heat up the fridge and, therefore, the other food in it (to the possible detriment of the other food in the fridge)....though I've never experienced any problems with doing it.

[Peripatetic Phil]

One comment ive just noticed as i am writng the recipie down for someone (dont know if its been mentioned already) is that you say to place the rice in the fridge to cool, this is not very clear as you should always allow food to cool down before putting it in the fridge.

Isn't it best to cool it as quickly as possible? 

I imagine that by "best" you mean from the perspective of food safety -- the more quickly the rice can cooled, the lower the risk that dormant spores will develop into bacteria which could then produce toxins [1].  So from that perspective, clearly "yes".  But by warming up other things in the 'fridge, you risk causing them to spoil prematurely, or to themselves start causing health problems, so unless you can dedicate a 'fridge to rapid food cooling, I would simply not bother.  We (my wife and I) routinely leave rice to cool at room temperature and chill it (if we chill it at all : my wife often does not bother) only once it is cold. And neither of us has ever had a bout of food poisoning that could be attributed to this.

** Phil.
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[1] http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning.aspx?categoryid=51&subcategoryid=215