Rice Pilaf
Rice Pilaf is our favorite base for shish kabob and similar dishes or as a side. I should note we have no problem having this as a main dish with a small salad on the side too. laughing… The recipe is based on my Mom’s husband Phil’s recipe. He uses commercial gmo products, I do not.
Growing up in Fresno CA, Mom occasionally took us to a restaurant called Zelfred’s. They served pita burgers. The pita bread is the one I posted previously and use for my hamburger and hot dog buns, sans the sesame seeds. I love sesame seeds, I just forget to buy them and add them when making the buns. They made the bread into the full-sized rounds and sliced it into quarters. Your hamburger was also a wedge-shaped patty. The condiments were on the side to add what you preferred and pilaf was the side dish, not fries. You could request those instead, of course. I loved those burgers! The bread and pilaf, unsweetened ice tea and I was in heaven.
Rice Pilaf
8 oz capellini (angel hair) pasta
2 tbsp butter
2 cups rice (NOT the minute stuff!)
2 tsp sea salt*
1/2 tsp or to taste black pepper
1 qt. (4 cups) low-salt broth or stock, your choice
Break the capellini pasta into 1″ to 2″ pieces. Melt the butter in a 6 to 8 cup pot over medium heat or flame. Add the capellini. With a large fork, gently move and turn the pasta to brown it. This can take from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, depending on your heat source. See photo below to see how it should look, or you can brown it even more, your choice.
Stir in the rice and salt. Add the broth carefully. Oh yes, hot steam will occur immediately. I pour in half and stand back, then add the rest. Personally, I prefer beef bone broth. You could use water, I guess? Anyway… Stir & make sure there is not any rice or pasta above the broth line. Cover with a good lid.
Set the timer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the heat down to low or a #2 or #1 flame on the stove. Set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat & set the pot off the hot burner for 5 to 10 minutes.
Take off the lid and fluff. Enjoy!
*The salt sounds like a lot of salt. Trust me, you will end up salting it when eating if you add less. Something about the combo of rice and pasta means more salt to really bring out the flavors. I do not salt heavily anything we eat. blech. We do not like overly salted foods. Try 1 tsp at first if you feel differently, of course.
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