Curry Recipes Online
British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Starters & Side Dishes => Starters & Side Dishes => Rice (Plain, Pilau, Special, etc) => Topic started by: pete on July 29, 2005, 09:20 AM
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I was talking to a chef about cooking restaurant rice
I've seen them produce the rice in two ways, before.
From a large metal container, which was kept warm under the cooker
And also scooped out from another container and microwaved in the takeaway container
Restaurant rice is always perfect
Seperate, coloured, tasty and soft.
I have had a few rice disasters over the years
Anyhow, this chef told me they don't cook it all by just one method.
It is cooked on gas ring and then cooked on in the oven.
The rice also has to be thoroughly washed.
He worked out a recipe to cook it at home
I tried it and bingo!
This makes a carton of rice:-
1 pot that can go in the oven as well as on a gas ring
2 oz basmatti rice
1 teaspoon vegetable ghee
1/4 teaspoon cummin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 inch cinammon stick
2 crushed green cardomons
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic ginger puree
red, yellow and green colouring
Soak the rice for ten minutes, then rinse in a jug until the water runs clear.
Drain.
Heat the ghee on low til melted
Add the spices and fry a minute
Add salt & rice? and stir fry for a minute
Add cold water only to the level of the rice
If? you add too much it will go stodgy
Add garlic ginger puree
When boiling, turn down very low and cook with the lid on for only five minutes
After this give a gentle stir and place the covered pot into the oven on a low heat.
Take out after fifteen minutes and add the diluted colours, in lines across the rice.
Back in the oven for another ten minutes and it's ready.
It's the best rice I have ever done
It freezes really well
When microwaving back, add a teaspoon of water to it
That will keep it fluffy.
The aroma of the rice on the cooker ring is amazing.
I think it smells better than it tastes, and it tastes fantastic!
What I also like about this recipe, is the small quantities it works with.
If anything should go amiss, there is very little to throw away!
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Tried this last night with double the quantity and it was very good, I was worried there wouldnt be enough water but it was fine in the end.
Pete, what temp did you set the oven to?
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I preheated it on gas mark 5
I don't know what temperature that is, but it's half way on the dial
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Perfect Pilau
After a lot of experimentation, I reckon this simple recipe/technique gives excellent results.
Take 2 cups of basmati rice and rinse thouroughly for a couple of minutes in cold water. Now soak in plenty of warm ? hot water for 2-3 hrs (this is important as it helps the grains become more elongated*). Strain and rinse under cold water.
Boil the rice in plenty of salted water to which you have added a few crushed cardamoms, some pieces of cassia bark and a couple of cloves (occasionally I?ll add a few coriander and cumin seeds, a bay leaf or two).
Once cooked (slightly al-dente), strain through a sieve and return to the pan. Add a couple of knobs of butter ghee and a drop of green and red food colouring. Cover with a dry/clean tea towel and leave for thirty minutes. Don?t peek. The residual heat will finish steaming the rice so it becomes perfectly light and separate.
Finally, fluff with a fork.
Some flaked almonds make a tasty addition.
* Try soaking in warm-hot water. I'm sure you'll notice the difference.
Because it's been soaked for a long period it will cook much quicker than usual.
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Pete
Just wondering if you double the amount of rice, do you do you use double the amount of spices?. Hope you see the post soon mate co I want to try it tonight!!
cheers
\F
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Ive used this recipe a lot and when I double/quad the ingredients I always do same with the spices, I go easy on the garlic ginger puree though.
Also I substitute black cumin for the cumin (more aromatic)
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Cheers Mark
You'd think after 10 years on curry on Saturday night we'd get bored but it never loses the appeal! I'm even going to try and lay of the vino while I'm cooking it tonight so i stand some chance of remembering how good it is :)
\F
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Just checking on hte temperature of the oven as we don't have gas here. Gas mark 5 is ahout 190 deg.C - that seems pretty hot to me.
Any thoughts please?
Cheers
\F
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The setting is half power on my gas cooker ,if that's any help
I made some more of this recently, and have changed a few things
I don't dilute the coloured powder now
I just dab tinyl amounts of the powder, in a few places direct onto the rice
To make the rice a little less stodgy, I have started boiling it for two minutes, then draining it
I then use it, as the recipe instructs
I bought some rice from my loca,l and always check what spices are in it
There was one green cardamon pod, white cummin seeds, a couple of black cummin seeds too.
Very very nice!
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I have been cooking tri-coloured pilau rice this way for a long time. No need to dilute powder. You get a more definate colour if you don't.
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Pete, I'm about to try this but I don't have Ghee. Have you tried oil or butter ? do either work ok ?
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Sorry the late reply
Butter is fine, in fact I have started using it myself
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Wow Perfect rice. will only do it this way from now on.
HotBot ;D
ps i used 150c in fan asisted Perfect results
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I use a recipe similar to Pete's, but without Ginger but with whole Fennel seeds. The latter makes it more aromatic. Cook the rice to al dente and then you finish off in the oven The best way is to remove the rice from the pan and fluff it up in a flat dish (we use catering trays). Then cover the rice with foil and put into a low oven (80 o C.
I know I have said this before, but the powdered colourings you can buy here are banned in most countries, even India. They are dangerous in the long term. Also I have along with one or two others, posted information elsewhere about the dangers of rice, it is one of the most lethal things we consume! It can kill. Sorry to be a bore, and yes we must avoid a Nanny state, but if the Indians are panicking so should we, there are more sources for cheap rice now and it can be very dangerous. The BIRs (and that includes me and the Western catering establishments) are only allowed (by law) to hold rice in warm mode for 4 hours and then it must be rapidly chilled and frozen or ditched.
Happy (safe ) cooking
CP
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I'm slightly confused (again).
Pete mentions that he now boils the rice for 2 minutes and then uses it as directed in the original recipe.
Does that mean that you
a) boil it for two mins, rinse it - until the water is clear- drain it, cook it ?
Or,
b) boil it for two mins, drain it, cook it - without the rinse ?
I did the former, and it came out a lot more stodgy than before :-\ It was more difficult to rinse (a bit sticky) and didn't seem to 'coat' as well when fried with the spices.
Did I do it wrong :( ?
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Hi CL,
I presume (but I may be wrong) that Pete means that he prepares the rice (as in his original recipe), but now boils it for 2 minutes (and then drains it) rather than reduce the heat and cook it (on low heat) for 5 minutes?
Once drained, I presume Pete then returns the rice to the pot, adds colour, and sticks it in the oven (as in his original recipe)?
Also check here for an alternative (simpler, foolproof and equally effective) method of cooking Pilau rice....http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1092.msg9533#msg9533 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1092.msg9533#msg9533)
Pictures of rice, prepared in this way, can be found here....http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1180.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1180.0)
Hope this helps :)
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Hi Cory, your method sounds good and almost foolproof. I would agree that you may lose some flavour in this process, but if you are serving ite with strong curries then it doesn't really matter and presentation takes priority. I also think that your approach removes a lot of the risks of it going wrong. So a good one mate for the Forum.
We (my wife is the rice & vegetable cook) wash the rice in a bowl of water 6 times (dare not use the tap as we are on a meter and we do lots :-\). It is very similar to your method.
We leave it to soak for about 2 to 6 hours (depends on the quality of the rice). Meanwhile we soak the whole spices Cardamom, Fennel, Cassia, Cloves, Allspice berries and sometimes white Cumin seeds.
Slice up a large onion, and discard the inner layers because they burn.
Drain and dry the rice and keep the water.
Drain the spices and add the water to the rice water.
Add a little Turmeric to the water.
We fry the outer areas of the Onions only, until they caramalise. We remove them and add the drained spices and fry on a high heat for a few seconds and then add the rice and stir in well untill the rice starts to go opaque. Add the rice water up to one fingers width above the rice. Add salt and stir in.
Bring rapidly to the boil and then lower to minimum and put a tea towel over the pan and then a lid on top of that. Cook until the rice is al dente, but do not remove the lid fo at least 15 minutes.
Meanwhile we heat up the oven to about 80 degrees C.
When the rice is ready we put it in a large rectangular catering tray and cover with foil. Then put it in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish off.
This is a genuine BIR method averaged out (spice wise) because the chefs who have provided us with this all use a slightly different whole spice Masala.
A note on AllSpice. Not many chefs/cooks today will use this spice, mainly because it is difficult to get whole berries, and ground is not much use. However, in the early days this spice was used regularly by Indian BIRS in the North of England. Try it because it gives a super aroma and flavour to the rice.
If anyone thinks it worthwhile I will post this on the recipe page, but I supect this method has been done to death already.
Happy Cooking
CP
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Post away ya Bugger ;D
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Are we back to matters Anal again? People will start talking ya know, and that could give a bad impression of the Dark Side, i.e. put them off joining. LOLOL
CP
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Over the weekend I had a go at Dylan's recipe having previously been a great follower of Pete's and have to say that the results were excellent. Since I didn't need to heat the oven I have to say that I preferred it and allthough I only soaked the rice in very hot water for 10 minutes the final dish was much better than I expected and until something better shows up I now think I will be using Dylan.s from now on. Isn't it just superb to have such fantastic choices to make because of this awesome site. Thanks again Panpot
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Over the weekend I had a go at Dylan's recipe having previously been a great follower of Pete's and have to say that the results were excellent. Since I didn't need to heat the oven I have to say that I preferred it and allthough I only soaked the rice in very hot water for 10 minutes the final dish was much better than I expected and until something better shows up I now think I will be using Dylan.s from now on. Isn't it just superb to have such fantastic choices to make because of this awesome site. Thanks again Panpot
Re Dylan's method, roughly how long before the rice becomes 'al-dente'? Can't be arsed checking it every 30 seconds! About 12mins or so??
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Hi AD,
Over-cooked rice is really kak, so I'd recommend checking as often as necessary to avoid it!
Basmati will be "al dente" after about 6 or 7 minutes of boiling.
I'd check it after 6 minutes, and every minute thereafter.
You won't need to do this, of course, if you are cooking the rice "by absorption" (as in this particular recipe).
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Very old post I know! But, SIMPLE, tried it, loved it!
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I preheated it on gas mark 5
I don't know what temperature that is, but it's half way on the dial
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can any of the forum recommend a pileau rice recipe that is full of aromatic flavours like the genuine BIR ones? I've tried many on the forum but not with much success and the ones where you simply boil the spices seem tasteless. I must be doing something wrong because when you chew a raw cardamon seed your mouth is full of flavour.
many thanks
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Hi TS,
I'm not sure I correctly understand you but, as in this recipe, you might try frying the spices in ghee (to release their flavour) before adding the rice and then the water.
You might also prefer to cook by absorption (rather than boiling in excess water and draining).
You might want to try drying the cooked rice in a warm oven for a while to allow the flavours to permeate.
I think this is how BIR generally do it? And it's how this recipe suggests?
Otherwise, you might want to try adding more of the aromatic spices you prefer (e.g cardamon pods...crush them lightly before using).
I also add some milk and sugar which I find gives it a more rounded and (obviously)sweeter flavour. I've stopped using ginger and garlic because it seems less harsh without it to me.
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thanks CA
i will definitely try the absorption method and dry in a oven afterwards as you suggest also i was thinking about trying black cumin and brown cardamon and perhaps saffron:whats your opinion on this
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Hi TS,
I suppose it depends what flavour you're after TS but, why not, give it a go! 8)
I don't add brown cardamoms (or cloves) because I find their flavour a bit too "musky" and overpowering in rice.
White cumin seeds have a more subtle flavour than black so I'd personally use white in preference. Either way, I wouldn't use too many, unless you really like the taste (and crunchiness!) of cumin seeds.
Saffron can add a delicate flavour (and colour and fragrance), though I don't use it often. I use food colouring (and/or turmeric) for colour (and flavour in the case of turmeric) instead.
I use green cardamon pods (split) and some combination of Asian or European bay leaves, cassia bark or cinnamon stick, star anise, white cumin seeds, brown mustard seeds, fennel, panch phoran, curry leaves, pandan leaves and coriander stalks.
As I said, it really depends upon you're preference and the flavour you're after. I don't think there are any rigid rules to be obeyed here.
I think the key is to ensure that you don't use too many spices and that you gently fry them (I use butter ghee), for a minute or so, before adding the rice (coating it in the ghee) and then adding the water/milk (milk makes a big difference I find). Cooking by absorption will ensure that you retain most flavour but is more difficult to control than when cooking in excess water and draining (I do the latter mostly...it's far easier and quicker..and flavour loss is minimal, in my opinion).
PS: When I say "dry in an oven", I really mean a "warming drawer" set at a relatively low temperature (80-90C). Too hot and the rice will dry out too much. Too cool and you risk bacteria growth! I tend to spread the rice into a thin layer (e.g. in a baking tray) and let it "dry" in the fridge. Then I freeze it and/or microwave it, for 2 minutes, on high, before use.
Hope this helps TS 8)
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Just tried this rice and it turned out very good the only thing i added was 1/2 a teaspoon turmeric to send it yellow it was a trick we used to make the rice go further as we mixed in alot of plain boiled rice and bingo 10 times the amount lol
Andy ;D
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Just one thing more i made 4 times the amount and added 1/2 a finely chopped onion.
Andy