#31. Crusted Golden Rice Bake

This is another recipe from the Williams Sonoma book Easy Vegetarian, which says it is based on an Iranian dish. I'm really on the fence here. On one hand, I loved the natural sweetness, the flavor and the scent that filled the house as I cooked this, all of which evoked a Persian fairy tale world. On the other hand, the recipe calls for quite a lot of butter, and the "crunchy" (gummy/sticky/unchewable) texture was somewhat annoying. It also took a LONG time to prepare the rice this way--soaking the rice three hours, cooking it five minutes and immediately cooling it, cooking everything that goes into the rice, mixing the two together, baking it at 350 for 45 minutes with foil, baking it fifteen minutes more without the foil, and, finally, turning the whole business over onto a plate to make a big, golden cake. All to end up with an overcooked mess that sticks in your teeth.

I'm going to simply list the ingredients and recommend either cooking them all in with the rice or cooking the rice first, then cooking up the onions, garlic and spices, adding the almonds and apricots, and then mixing it all into the hot rice.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup basmati rice (before cooking)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup dried apricots (6 oz.), chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted in a dry skillet (Don't overtoast if you will be cooking them later. This was my roommate's biggest complaint about the dish and the reason she didn't finish even a small portion. That said, toasted sliced almonds are a new favorite snack of mine.)
1 tsp turmeric (I was afraid I might be spending $4.69 just for color, but I've since read that turmeric has flavor and health benefits as well.)
1 tsp cardamom
1 tablespoon garam masala (I love this stuff. It's a mixture of Indian spices that is well worth buying.)
1 stick butter (See! So much butter! I used less, but ended up adding more every time I reheated leftovers.)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (Years ago, I would have thought this was a yuppie thing, but the more I cook, the more I find it IS worthwhile to buy good salt and the kind of pepper that comes in a grinder (or goes in one).)

Here's how the dish turned out using the quasi-Iranian method outlined in the book:

(You're supposed to turn it over onto a big plate, and I did, but it came out off-center with a big smear of golden grease next to it, so it wasn't much to look at.)

This is the brand of rice I used. I found a bunch of this stuff on clearance at a nearby grocery store, and couldn't believe my luck. (The arborio and jasmine varieties in this brand are even better.):

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