Topic: Batch cooking pilau rice...

[natterjak]

When I cook pilau rice I use CurryHell's recipe, here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6070.0 but I batch cook a large quantity and freeze into takeaway tubs because I find it by far the most time efficient way of doing it.  So I thought I'd take a few snaps of today's batch as I cooked it, in case it's of interest...

This isn't really a recipe (hence not posted in the recipe section), more a rough guide and illustration of how I've scaled CH's recipe.

First get that oven on at fan 160 deg C and pop a large (5 litre plus) casserole dish in, with 75ml oil inside it.

Now measure 1 tsp cloves..


1 tsp fennel seed..


1 star anise


1 black cardamon


a few green cardamon...


about three quarters teaspoon white cumin and half teaspoon black cumin


1 teaspoon salt...


some small pieces cassia bark


asian bay leaves torn into pieces


tip these spices into the preheated casserole dish and oil and return to oven for 5 mins..


Meanwhile measure out 6 large mugfulls of basmati rice, about 1250g and get 2 litres of water on the hob to boil


pour rice into the casserole dish to join the oil and spices


pour the 2 litres of boiling water into the dish, mix then return to oven for 15 mins, after which it will emerge looking something like this...


add food colouring of your choice... I used red, pink, yellow, orange, green and fairywing transparent colourings.  I might've lied about one of those though...



turn oven off then return dish to oven for a few mins to set the colours.  Leave to cool for up to 2 hours then mix through to distribute the coloured grains...


Portion up into takeaway tubs ready for the freezer...


the above quantities (6 mugs rice, 2 litres water, etc) are what I call a batch, and today I cooked two batches to produce the yield shown in that last photo (23 portions).  These will freeze to give me a handy supply of rice I can grab from the freezer and microwave for 3 mins to produce perfectly acceptable pilau. One point to note, most people would probably add more salt than me, I prefer less so only use 1tsp for quite a lot of rice.

[curryhell]

Nice one Chris.  Very useful for anyone who like you prefers to have their pilau rice to hand rather than having to cook it fresh everytime.  Simple instructions, minimal fussing and more than acceptable results everytime ;D  Never tried it straight from the freezer.  I normally defrost it in the fridge first.  i 'll give this a ago as i like to have a couple of portions in reserve for emergencies .  Will be cooking it fresh today though along with the elaichi North Indian Special for supper after the pub - again ;D . I'll be picking up some tamarina as well just to see if there's any great difference between that and the East End Tamarind sauce.  I'll also be making up a job lot of CT's red masala sauce for future use along with my sheek kebab mix for portioning to be used in my keema rice

[Aussie Mick]

Thanks for the post and pictures NJ.

I will definitely be trying this method soon.

[Tommy Timebomb]

Certainly looks very appetising and I am just about to make this my project for the night.
The only thing i am lacking is the black cumin and in all fact I didn't even know it even existed?

More importantly is the fact that my only casserole dish type of thing is my halogen oven bowl which has no lid (The lid was the mechanical part that housed the bulb and failed) I see in CH's original write up that a lid was used.

Did you also use a lid and is it really that important?
If so I can always resort back to Chewys Shan Rice, but it would be nice to give this a go, it certainly looks the part from your excellent picks NJ.
Thanks for your time and effort.

[Tommy Timebomb]

Ah Ha!
Just had a major brainstorm, Now where did I put my tin foil?

[Dajoca]

Excellent post NJ.
Thanks for the illustrated steps.
It makes following a recipe far easier when I can see what it should look like at each step.

[Tommy Timebomb]

Well I've given it twenty minutes now as at the 15 mark there was still a surplus of water.
I used my makeshift lid so maybe this should have been done with no lid?
Just added the colour, red is all I have, so now is the two hour wait.

[Tommy Timebomb]

My final take on this is that it didn't work for me.
I don't know where I went wrong, I went for gas mark 4 of which I understand is 175c.
Infact I only have real success when P/C rice.
Never mind, a new casserole dish may be the way forward!

[natterjak]

Wow... Tommy...just, wow...  I have no idea

Yes you should use a lid, and 175 deg seems about equivalent to 160 deg in a fan oven. Only big difference maybe is your dish was glass and hence would insulate the contents from the oven's heat rather than allow the water to boil and cook the rice. Maybe that's why you had excess water.

From the photo it looks like the rice has all stuck together - what kind of rice was it? Decent basmati shouldn't do this. 

Sorry you had no successs but all I can say is I've been using this method with these proportions since CH first posted his recipe. I must have turned out a good 8 or so batches with consistent good results so it works for me. I would definately get yourself a decent stainless steel stockpot (amazon has loads to choose from) and try this again with good basmati like veetee brand, etc.

[Tommy Timebomb]

I used Badshah Basmati rice, this was also an experiment to see if this ex halogen oven bowl could be used as a casserole dish, I half expected it to crack.
Belive you me I am no cook by any means so it is great that I can accomplish a curry on here but for things that take a bit more finesse.
As for my cooker, it was given to me. The numbers are still on the dial but I have to guess how far to turn it as the stop mark has disappeared.
Of all the possibilities I do believe it was the above heat setting that I had wrong.
Never mind, without a doubt your rice looks fantastic in those pics and your step by step couldn't be any better.
Unfortunately it is just my amateur approach.