8 oz Basmati rice (225 g)
1/2 ts Saffron threads (2.5 ml);
-steeped in:
2 tb Water (30 ml); hot
1 tb Rosewater (15 ml)
3 Cardamom pods; seeds only,
-crushed
4 tb Runny honey (60 ml)
2 3/4 oz Butter (75 ml)
4 tb Olive oil (60 ml)
Salt and black pepper
Wash the rice in a sieve until the water is clear, then soak it for a
couple of hours. Bring a pan of water to a boil and tip in the drained
rice. Cook it for about 4 minutes, until the outside of the grain is
softening but the inside remains hard.
While the rice is cooking, mix the saffron with the rosewater and the
crushed cardamom.
Drain the rice, rinse it with warm water and tip it into a bowl.
Stir the honey through the warm rice while you heat the butter and
oil in a saucepan. When the fats are sizzling, add the honeyed rice
and let it cook for a couple minutes. Add the saffron, cardamom, and
rosewater mix, season with salt and pepper and stir everything
together.
Make 3 holes in the rice with the end of a wooden spoon. Wrap the pan
lid in a clean tea-towel, being sure to fold the edges underneath,
and cover the pan. Turn the heat right down. Let the rice cook for
about 15 minutes. Put the cooked rice in a serving dish and scrape
the crusty bits off the bottom of the pan. Either stir the crusty
bits through the rice or put them on top. Serve immediately.
From Bahrain, based on a recipe in Tess Mallos's The Complete Middle
East Cookbook
Recipe by Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry, 2002
