Thrice as nice: rice recipes from around the world | Yotam Ottolenghi | Food


You’ve found the perfect water-to-rice ratio for making pilaf; your technique is faultless, your execution spot-on. But now you’re staring down at a bag of short-grain brown rice, not basmati, and the game has changed: from soaking, to salting, to cooking.

Rice is an ingredient with multiple personality types: just when you think you’ve figured it out, you’re met with another variety, another size, shape or colour. Not to mention its purpose: as the main event, a textural addition, a binding agent or to bulk out a meal.

Don’t let this discourage you. With a little bit of patience (and perhaps a few shortcuts), you’ll find that there is more than a grain of truth to how versatile (and straightforward) rice really is.

Black rice with fennel and butternut squash (pictured above)

This vegan platter is great served at room temperature, so you can get ahead and prepare the rice, roasted vegetables and dressing up to a few hours in advance, assembling everything to serve.

Prep 15 min
Cook 55 min
Serves 4 as a side or part of a spread
125g black rice

Salt and black pepper
½ small butternut squash (500g), peeled, seeds discarded and cut into 1cm thick half-moons
2 fennel bulbs (600g), trimmed and cut into 1cm slices
2 red chillies, 1 left whole and 1 thinly sliced (deseeded if you don’t like heat)
1½ tsp fennel seeds, crushed
75ml olive oil
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 small garlic bulb, top trimmed to expose the cloves
2 banana shallots (100g), skin on, tops trimmed to expose the flesh
1 tbsp lemon juice
5g dill, finely chopped
5g chives, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425Fgas 7. Put the rice in a medium saucepan with plenty of water, put on a medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for 35 minutes, then add a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Continue to cook for five minutes, until cooked but with a slight bite, then drain very well and transfer to a large bowl.

As the rice cooks, put the butternut squash, fennel, the whole chilli and fennel seeds in a large, 40 x 30cm tray lined with baking paper, and add two tablespoons of oil, two and a half tablespoons of maple syrup, a teaspoon of salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Mix well, then spread out as much as possible. Drizzle a little oil over the garlic bulb and shallots, wrap individually in foil and put in the corners of the tray. Roast for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are golden brown.

Transfer half the fennel and squash to the rice bowl, reserving the rest to top the rice with.

Once cool enough to handle, discard the foil and squeeze the shallots and garlic into the small bowl of a food processor, discarding the papery skins. Add a tablespoon of oil, the remaining half-tablespoon of maple syrup, half the lemon juice and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and blitz to a smooth paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the paste to the rice and veg mixture and gently combine, then transfer to a large serving plate.

Top with the remaining roasted vegetables. Mix the herbs with the sliced chilli, the remaining lemon juice, the remaining two tablespoons of oil and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Stir together, spoon over the vegetables and serve.

Kimchi and gruyere rice fritters

I use a shop-bought, cooked brown basmati and wild rice mix here, but you can just as easily use leftover home-cooked rice (white, brown or whatever you have on hand). Make sure you start frying very soon after the batter has been mixed, because it doesn’t sit very well. Try to get good-quality kimchi for this; it really makes all the difference.





Yotam Ottolenghi’s kimchi and gruyère rice fritters.



Yotam Ottolenghi’s kimchi and gruyère rice fritters.

Prep 25 min
Cook 1 hr 5 min
Chill 30 min
Makes 12 fritters, serving four as a snack

3 tbsp olive oil
½ onion (75g), peeled and finely chopped
Salt
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
200ml whole milk
1 x 250g packet cooked brown basmati and wild rice mix (or any other combination of cooked rice)
2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
500g good-quality classic kimchi (I like The Cultured Collective brand)
80g green beans, trimmed and finely chopped
1½ tbsp coriander, finely chopped
80g gruyere, cut into 1½cm cubes
2 tbsp mixed black and white sesame seeds, toasted, plus 1½ tsp, toasted, to serve
90g plain flour
About 800ml sunflower oil, for frying
2 lemons; juiced to get 2 tbsp, the rest cut into wedges, to serve

Add the olive oil, onion and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt to a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat and fry for six minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden. Add the garlic and continue to fry for 30 seconds to a minute, until fragrant.

Add the milk, lower the heat to medium and simmer gently for five minutes, until thickened and reduced slightly. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for five minutes, then stir in the rice, egg yolks and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until completely cool.

Meanwhile, set 160g of the kimchi aside, to serve. Squeeze the remaining kimchi through a sieve, collecting three tablespoons of the liquid in a small serving bowl (set this aside for later), and transferring the drained kimchi solids to a chopping board (you should have 320g). Roughly chop the kimchi, then add to the pan with the cooled rice mixture, along with the green beans, coriander, gruyere, sesame seeds and flour. Stir until fully combined.

Whip the egg whites, by hand or with an electric whisk, until you get stiff peaks, then gently fold through the rice mixture until combined.

Heat the sunflower oil in a large saucepan on a medium-high heat until it reaches about 180C/350F. Test the oil is hot enough by dropping in a tiny bit of batter; it should sizzle but not colour straight away. Fry the fritters in four batches (three at a time), to avoid lowering the temperature of the oil too much. Using a large serving spoon, carefully drop 95g of batter per fritter into the oil, and fry for four to five minutes, turning a few times, until golden-brown all over; turn the heat down if they’re browning too quickly. Transfer the fritters to a tray lined with kitchen paper, and continue in this way with the remaining batter.

Add the lemon juice to the bowl with the reserved kimchi liquid. Transfer the fritters to a large platter, sprinkling over the remaining sesame seeds and a light sprinkling of salt. Serve hot with the kimchi sauce, lemon wedges and the reserved kimchi alongside.

Dirty rice (the veggie version)

I have published a recipe for dirty rice before, and it included ground meat and offal, which give this southern dish, which I picked up in New Orleans, its usual stained look.

This non-traditional, but equally delicious vegetarian version (or vegan, if you leave out the butter) uses caramelised onions, black garlic and chestnuts to generate serious flavours and that signature “dirty” look.

Cajun spice blends vary in levels of heat and added salt, so you may need to adjust how much you add according to taste.





Yotam Ottolenghi’s dirty rice (the veggie version).



Yotam Ottolenghi’s dirty rice (the veggie version).

Prep 20 min
Cook 35 min
Serves 4 as a side

200g basmati rice
85ml olive oil
Salt
7 garlic cloves, peeled, 4 finely sliced and 3 crushed

50g unsalted butter (or an extra 50ml olive oil, to keep it vegan)
3 onions, peeled and finely chopped (350g)
180g ready-cooked and peeled chestnuts, finely chopped
25g black garlic (about 15 cloves), finely chopped
1½ tbsp Cajun spice blend (I use Bart’s)
150ml vegetable stock or water
10g parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice

Add the rice, two teaspoons of oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and 400ml boiling water to a medium saucepan, for which you have a lid, on a medium-high heat. Turn the heat to low, cover the pan and leave to cook for 12 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside, covered, for 10 minutes before fluffing up with a fork.

While the rice is cooking, heat three tablespoons of oil in a very small pan on a medium heat. Once hot, fry the sliced garlic, stirring to separate the slices, until pale golden – about two minutes. Watch that you don’t cook it further, or it may burn and turn bitter. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the garlic to a paper-lined plate, reserving the oil. Sprinkle the fried garlic with a little salt and set aside.

Add the butter, remaining two tablespoons of oil, onions and crushed garlic to a large, nonstick saute pan on a high heat. Fry for about 14 minutes, resisting the urge to stir too often, until the onions are a deep golden-brown. The onions should catch on the bottom of the pan every now and then, but shouldn’t burn, so turn the heat down if necessary.

Reduce the heat to medium-high, add the chestnuts, black garlic, Cajun spices and a half-teaspoon of salt, and continue to fry for seven minutes, stirring every now and then, until everything is a deep, dark-brown colour, but not burned.

Stir the rice into the mixture until fully combined, and increase the heat to high. Once the rice at the bottom of the pan begins to crisp up a little – two to three minutes – add the stock and cook, undisturbed, until it has evaporated – another two minutes or so. Remove from the heat, stir through the parsley, garlic slices, lemon juice and reserved garlic oil, and serve.


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