A lovely way to enjoy your bowl of rice. Dried cranberries, toasted pistachio nuts and golden raisins are stirred with rice in bone broth tinted with turmeric. A little lemon juice is squeezed over the pilaf just before serving.
I always use Basmati when I cook pilaf. Aged Basmati is especially good. It absorbs plenty of liquid without going soggy. And because long-grain rice is not as starchy as short-grain and medium-grain rice, even after soaking up a lot of liquid, the grains don’t stick together.
Is Basmati a must? No. Any long-grain rice will do.
Does pilaf have to be cooked in broth? Won’t plain water do? Well, pilaf, by definition, is rice cooked in stock or broth. If you cook your rice in water, you’ll have a rice dish but it won’t be pilaf.
Fruit and Nut Pilaf
Recipe byIngredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 shallots peeled and finely chopped
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup pistachio nuts toasted
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 2 cups Basmati rice
- 4 cups bone broth
- salt to taste
- 2 generous pinches turmeric powder
- 2 pinches pepper
- cilantro to garnish
- 2 lemons
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan.
- Saute the chopped shallots until softened and translucent.
- Toss in the dried cranberries, toasted pistachio and golden raisins and cook until everything is coated with oil.
- Add the rice. Cook, stirring, until every grain is glistening with oil.
- Transfer to the contents of the pan to the rice cooker.
- Pour in the bone broth, stir and taste. Add as much salt as needed for a well-rounded flavor.
- Stir in the pepper and turmeric.
- Cook the pilaf in the rice cooker until all the broth has been soaked up by the rice.
- Leave the cooked pilaf for five minutes then fluff with a fork.
- Ladle the cranberry and pistachio pilaf into bowls.
- Squeeze a little lemon juice over the rice.
- Arrange lemon wedges on the side and sprinkle with torn cilantro.
- Serve at once.