Healing rice

"I had forgotten the pleasures of cooking rice properly ... In the rush to get something on the table, it is all too easy to forget that there is something infinitely calming about cooking rice." Nigel Slater

And healing too.

On Friday I was not feeling too well - a mildly upset stomach - which is why there was no blog that day - and yesterday we had guests. I didn't eat much, tried to drink more water, and basically just lay around feeling somewhat drained, and needing to be not too far away from a toilet. I wasn't going to have any dinner either, and then remembered rice - and in particular this Tomato, potato and saffron rice, which is the first thing you see when you open Noor Murad's wonderful book Lugma. It's such a striking photograph - it adorns the cover of my yet to be finished cookbook for the grandkids - that I have been waiting for an opportunity to make it ever since I bought the book.

And Friday was the day. And people, it was just the right thing. If you look for advice on what to eat when suffering stomach upsets - it's all wholegrains, fruit and vegetable; plain - steer clear of dairy and so on. Rice was mentioned somewhere and I instantly thought of this dish.

Because it was an on the spot decision I had no green chillies and no rosewater, and my tomatoes were not plum tomatoes, but plain old truss tomatoes from the greenhouses. But I did do the right thing by the rice and soaked it for quite some time - at least 20 minutes to 2 hours she said. It was actually longer than two hours, so I hope that wasn't too long. The chillies were replaced by the last quarter of red capsicum that I had lingering in the fridge, cut into thick strips, and the rosewater? Well it was only a very small amount and I don't like it all that much anyway so I left it out. Like Nigel I really enjoyed the process of making the rice the way you should - which, after it's initial brief boil in lots of water, was fundamentally steaming in the juices of the tomatoes, and the fried potatoes and onions. No more water was involved, and so I worried that enclosing my layers of gently spiced rice (bay leaf, cardamom pods and cloves), potatoes and onions on top of the tomatoes, tightly in a pot covered, first with a tea towel, and then the lid, and cooking on a medium-high - yes medium-high, not low - for 45 minutes would burn everything to a crisp. But readers it did not. I checked after half an hour but it was not quite cooked, and it looked OK so I carried on. And it worked. It was cooked perfectly - no burning at all although I did spill a goodly handful or two on to my worktop when I turned it out - you are supposed to upturn it all on to a plate. But never mind - I scooped it all up and pushed it all together. Readers it was delicious - a subtle flavour from the saffron, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf, a soothing softness from the rice and the potatoes, and a dash of perkiness from the onions which were slightly caramelised. And my stomach has recovered.

As the writer of Sounding my Barbaric Gulp says:

"a bowl of rice is the perfect antidote to almost any kind of overindulgence you can think of. Food to soothe and revive."

Before I leave this wonderful recipe I should also say that although the quantities in the recipes were quite exact, I suspect that you could at least increase the amount of potatoes and onions if you felt like it. Although then again, they just provided a tiny bit of extra bulk and a tiny bit of oomph as well.

Plain but not completely plain. Maybe if my stomach had been in a worse condition, then perfectly plain would have been the best thing - or maybe with a touch of butter even if you are supposed to avoid dairy, because:

"there's something to be said about a steaming bowl of plain white rice, a pat of butter nestled neatly on top, it's edges melting slowly into the grains, coating them in unctuous fat and flavour. In these moments, I often feel lke buttered rice could heal the world." Noor Murad

And let's remember that healing is an emotional thing as well as a physical one. And that slow cooking process was in itself healing.

So I looked to see if there were other similarly, healing and yet sustaining rice dishes. A plain but not too plain dish. I did not find a lot but here are a few.

The first is from Nigel's book Appetite - which I do not have - in which he presents a dish he calls A fragrant healing bowl of rice the 'official' recipe is not online, but can be found on the website Sounding my Barbaric Gulp, which provides a shot from the book, and also from WTF Do I Eat Tonight, whose photograph is on the right.

As you can see this is an even plainer dish, but apparently worth doing. The writer of WTF Do I Eat Tonight - Louise - says:

"Constraint, though, as I’m discovering, is a marvellous thing; it is forcing me to be inventive and try recipes that I’ve rarely bothered with because, well, they don’t require much and don’t seem that exciting. This one from Appetite might sound really dull whereas, in reality, it is just wonderful: comforting yet healthy, quick, cheap, perfect on its own but also good as a side dish."

And she also exhorts you to: "make extra; fried rice is a gift from the leftover and store cupboard gods."

There were just a couple of spoonfuls of Noor's rice left over - lunch tomorrow.

I searched the usual suspects for something similar but really only found online Lemony pilau with toasted pinenuts on the Please Pass the Recipe website, which is actually a slight adaptation of Greg Malouf's Long-grain rice with lemon and toasted almonds.

Before I gave up, however, I thought of the Indians, and turned to my The Food of India book - whose recipes are not online - but being the kind of book it is - an introduction to the cuisine of India - the three representatives that I found, can be found all over the net - Pulao; Yakhni pulao and Yoghurt rice - the yoghurt rice probably being the one that is best for the health;

It was indeed a joy to not only delight in the finished dish, and be restored to health, but also it was a really satisfying process to make rice in a more considered way than putting it in a rice cooker with the required amount of water and switching it on. Always a tiny bit gluey I think. I think the covering the rice with a tea towel before the lid is the real trick. I once made the perfect kedgeree in this manner, but now cannot remember whose recipe this was. Maybe I should have another trawl through the books to find it. Or maybe I should just use my steam oven!

It was also a reminder that just a very few ingredients can make something surprisingly delicious. Bear that in mind next time you are tempted, as I often am, to add just one more thing to heighten the impact.

Slow down, reflect, relax, enjoy.

YEARS GONE BY

December 15

2024 - So Christmas is coming "Humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape." is the rather nice quote from Terry Pratchett that opens this piece.

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Bubble and squeak

2021 - Iceberg lettuce

2020 - Missing

2019 - Affogato - now there's a simple but restoratively delicious thing

2018 - Maltesers

2017 - Sirloin steak - more to know than you might think

2016 - The first of the summer jam