Saffron Rice Pilaf

Submitted by WaterMelon

"I found this recipe in Singapore's Aircrew Alliance magazine. Sounds really yummy. It's really very easy using a rice cooker."

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 250 g basmati rice or 250 g long grain rice
• 20 g unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup raisins
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 star anise
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 large tomatoes, chopped
• 3 -5 saffron strands
• 1 dash of warm milk
• chicken stock or vegetable stock
• salt

directions

1. Rinse and drain the rice.
2. Melt butter in skillet over low heat.
3. Add onions and cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cardamom- saute until fragrant.
4. Add rice and mix well.
5. Transfer mixture into a rice cooker.
6. Add in raisins and tomatoes.
7. Add enough stock to come up to about half inch above the rice.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Cook rice thoroughly.
10. Add saffron to heated milk.
11. Drizzle the mixture over cooked rice.
12. Stir and let sit a few minutes for the rice to absorb the flavor and color.
13. Serve hot with curry.

Reviews

[Charishma_Ramchandani]

I made this for dinner tonight to serve with my Egg curry. My brother simply loved every spoon of this rice:) I made a few substitutions since I didnt have some of the ingredients on hand. Here's how I did it. I didn't use any star anise since I don't use that too often and was out of it. I used 1 1/2 cups of Basmati rice, 4 cups of Maggi vegetable broth with onions{which I made by adding 2 cubes of Maggi veg broth with onions to 4 cups of hot boiling water and allowing the cubes to dissolve completely}, 2 small onions, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 2 green cardamoms, 1/4 tsp. of turmeric powder as a substitute for saffron threads, 2 tbsps. of oil to stir-fry everything{onions and garam masala}, 1 tomato and 2 tsps. of cumin seeds{this was my own idea!}. I did not use any raisins or milk. I allowed the cumin seeds to splutter in the hot oil alongwith the cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamoms, and then tossed in the onion. After stir-frying the onion till it turned brownish, I added the turmeric powder and the tomato. I cooked this until the tomato softened, adding a little of the broth to the tomato mixture, so as to not let it stick to the bottom of the pot in which it was cooking;). Then, I added the drained rice and cooked it for 3 minutes on medium flame, mixing it with the tomato mixture. My house was smelling aromatic and awesome while I was cooking this rice. After this, I stirred in the prepared broth. No salt was required for this rice, as the broth already contains salt. I brought this mixture to a boil, then lowered flame to medium heat and cooked the rice until the broth had been absorbed by the rice. When this was done, I reduced heat to a simmer and covered the pot completely. Then, I cooked the done rice for 7 minutes before removing it from flame, mixing once thoroughly and serving it hot. It tasted super-wonderful and this will be a regular now on on my table! Thanks for the recipe!