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cowhorncreek

Recipes for Rice - Week 2 February 2013

This is from an internet friend. We love rice and have it at least once a week.

Basic Rice Pilaf

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 tsp of ground thyme

Melt the butter with the shallot in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Season with the salt and pepper and cook until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes (This is called sweating).

Add the rice and stir until coated with the butter. Coating it with the butter will prevent the rice from sticking. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook the rice until it turns slightly brown (about 5 minutes). Keep stirring to prevent burning.

Add the broth, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a simmer over low heat, cover, and cook until all the broth has been absorbed by the rice and the rice is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let set for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve.

Variations:
Cut up 2 or 3 sausages into 1/4 inch rounds and saute them before you sweat the shallots. They will provide some fat so you may want to cut back on the butter a little. Instead of sausage links, you could use broken up Italian, Andouille or even breakfast sausage. Ham would work.

Cut up 1/2 pound of white or dark chicken meat and saute before the shallots.

Add 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms with the shallots.


Substitute some of the chicken broth with tomato juice or sauce. Add 1/2 pound of shrimp to the pot the last 3 or 4 minutes of that cooking time. Add some cayenne and you have jambalaya.

Throw in a handful of frozen peas in the rice before putting the lid on.

You can change the spices around.. Use rosemary or sage instead of the thyme.

You can add even more liquid so that it is a little sloppier at the end.

Hint: Make enough of this that you can have two meals. This will heat up just fine in a pot or microwave.

This post was edited by walnutcreek on Sun, Feb 10, 13 at 17:38

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