Basmati Rice with Raisins, Nuts & Peas
2 cups basmati rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 small onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cumin
black pepper
cinnamon
4 cups water
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped cashews
1/4 cup raisins
//Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until golden, about 8 minutes. Add cumin, peppercorns, and cinnamon; sauté until onions are brown, about 4 minutes.
//Add rice to spices and stir 2 minutes. Add 4 cups water, cream, salt. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover saucepan almost completely and cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add peas to rice. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with nuts and raisins.
KJJ: Adapted from a Bon Apetit recipe... there was virtually no need to include heavy whipping cream, which made this nice meal richer and heavier than it ever needed to be. This is the type of dish I have made from my own spontaneous recipes for years, but with more spices (again, more, more, more...) and never with cream. I chose to toast the nuts (almost burning them- stupid me, stupid, stupid, stupid...). One thing I did learn, and will repeat next time I make a similar dish, is to put the peas in at the last minute- avoiding the overcooked and pale wrinkled pea phenomena. Our movie selection was NO BLADE OF GRASS and some other super sleazy cinema sewer that JRW can tell you about.
JRW: It's funny how the fabric of existance is tied together. I found this book of vintage exploitaton movie posters at the library the other night, and came across this totally wicked poster while doing a quick glance through. The very next day, we had to get some vids to keep me occupied as I recuperated on the couch (y'know, MANO DE LA MUERTE and such) and KJJ was happy to notice this post-apocalyptic bummer in the new arrivals. And it really is a bummer. The world is falling apart, a nuke is detonated, and a grass/grain-killing virus quickly spreads through Asia and Africa, causing mass starvation. We see newsreel footage of starving children juxtaposed against images of juicy hams being sliced in a British pub, as an uppercrust calmy details the plan of getting out of the city, which he smartly predicts is going to probably start panicking soon. It does. Some news gets out that the Chinese government carpetbombed some of it's over-population, and that the British government is planning the same, which causes this total storm of panic, total mob style-overturning cars and attacking the bobbies. Ruffians. Our uppercrust starts to realize the gravity at hand (after a mob-scene reminiscent of 28 DAYS LATER), and scoops up some guns and a young couple, who are like, total bad vibes. The dude is a loose cannon, and his girlfriend has the hots for our uppercrust hero. The dude is also quick with a gun, and our uppercrust takes him as his lieutenant (oh yeah, he was in the army in some war), betraying this other dude who (besides dating uppercrust's 16 year-old daughter, who really wants to be deflowered) helped hatch this escape plan to begin with. This sets the pattern for the rest of the movie: BETRAYAL. Friends, lovers, brothers, strangers are killed,if they are in the way, as Uppercrust and his band of beleagured followers try to make their way out of the mess and into something that resembles civilization. The Brits really mastered the end-of-the-world scare film. Like THREADS, this completely harshed my vicodin-induced mellow, by ending on a realistically hopeless note. Man, the end of the world is gonna suck. BIG TIME.
PS-That awesome looking bike gang in that poster, appears for like 2 minutes, and although they look bad-ass, they get totally chumped, BASEBALL FURIES style. Why are the cool looking gangs always so lame?
Basmati Rice with Raisins, Nuts & Peas
2 cups basmati rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 small onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cumin
black pepper
cinnamon
4 cups water
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chopped cashews
1/4 cup raisins
//Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until golden, about 8 minutes. Add cumin, peppercorns, and cinnamon; sauté until onions are brown, about 4 minutes.
//Add rice to spices and stir 2 minutes. Add 4 cups water, cream, salt. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover saucepan almost completely and cook until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add peas to rice. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with nuts and raisins.
KJJ: Adapted from a Bon Apetit recipe... there was virtually no need to include heavy whipping cream, which made this nice meal richer and heavier than it ever needed to be. This is the type of dish I have made from my own spontaneous recipes for years, but with more spices (again, more, more, more...) and never with cream. I chose to toast the nuts (almost burning them- stupid me, stupid, stupid, stupid...). One thing I did learn, and will repeat next time I make a similar dish, is to put the peas in at the last minute- avoiding the overcooked and pale wrinkled pea phenomena. Our movie selection was NO BLADE OF GRASS and some other super sleazy cinema sewer that JRW can tell you about.
