Bud's Special Rice for Special Company

This Middle Eastern-flavored rice was a delicious accompaniment to Bud's " Distract the Neighbors " Grilled Chicken. From the book The Language of Baklava (page 29) by Diana Abu-Jaber. I made only a few very minor changes as indicated below. For the test recipe, the recipe was cut in half. I'm not positive, but I think this is a Jordanian recipe.

• Ready In: 42 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4  cups water
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 2  cups long grain white rice
• 4 -6  tablespoons butter (I replaced 1 tablespoon of butter with good quality olive oil)
• 1⁄2 cup pine nuts
• 1  small  whole cinnamon sticks or 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
•  fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Rinse the rice under cold water in a fine mesh sieve. Set aside to drain. I always do this step first thing in the morning or as early in the day as possible.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil.
3. Add the rinsed rice and boil uncovered on high heat for 2 minutes.
4. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. The water should have absorbed after twenty minutes. Turn the heat off, keep the pan on the burner and let stand for 10 minutes. Note: I left the rice to stand a total of 20 minutes while I prepared the rest of the meal.
5. Melt the butter (or butter/olive oil) in a frying pan. Sautè the pine nuts and *ground cinnamon (or cinnamon stick) until the pine nuts are light golden. Watch this step carefully because pine nuts burn easily (and they cost a pretty penny here so I am extra careful!). *If you choose ground cinnamon, only sautè 3/4 teaspoon of it and save the remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon for sprinkling on top of the rice just before serving.
6. Transfer the rice to a serving dish or platter, drizzle the toasted pine nuts/butter mixture over the rice and garnish with the cinnamon stick or a dusting of ground cinnamon. Sprinkle with freshly grated black pepper.
7. Prep time includes setting the rice aside to stand after cooking.