Basmati and Nut Pilaf

Once upon a time there was a girl who liked to read food blogs. As she read Michelle’s Oswego Tea, she came across an interesting smoothie recipe – Banana Cardamom Smoothie.

“Cardamom? What’s cardamom?” She asked herself, never having heard, seen or tasted the unfamiliar ingredient.

Later she found out that it’s a popular spice. Spelled two ways – cardamom or cardamon – it comes in two forms (green or white fruit pods that contain tiny brown aromatic seeds, or decorticated seeds without the shell). She learned it’s widely used – from Danish pastries, Saudi Arabian, to North African, Asian, and Indian cooking, and in spice blends like garam masala, curry powder and berbere.

Michelle sent the girl a Basmati and Nut Pilaf recipe. “It’s what introduced me to cardamom,” she let the girl know.

“Rice with cardamom, cumin seed, ground coriander, and black mustard seeds? Oh wow! This should taste interesting,” the girl spoke to herself (She did that a lot.) while reading the ingredient list with interest. Normally a rice eater, she’d never made rice with the spices mentioned in the recipe.

The spices used

Eagerly, the girl set out to go buy the cardamom. She searched high and low in her neighborhood. The people she asked in the grocery stores didn’t know what she talked about or they said that didn’t have it.

So, the girl went out of her area and searched. No luck. She returned to a store in her neighborhood and asked a manager who pointed her to the spice section. In a little bottle, she found the cardamom pods. They’d been there all that time, right under her nose!

Cardamom pods

Although the remaining ingredients for the recipe weren’t hard to find, for one reason or another, it took the girl a little longer to get them. The list called for cashew nuts, but every time the girl would buy the nuts, she’d eat it all before it was time to prepare the meal. This happened twice. She couldn’t find black mustard seeds and used regular mustard seed and instead of sunflower oil used safflower oil.

With everything finally on hand, the girl prepared her meal. Michelle noted that the basmati didn’t require as much stock or water as the recipe recommended. Instead, her basmati took equal parts water to rice, so that’s what the girl used. However, the girl’s rice stayed dry and she ending up adding more water (in effect, returning to the recipe's ratio).

Everything turned out well. The flavor of the cardamom (sweet and somewhat lemony), along with the other spices lent a tasty essence to the rice. Delicious! The aroma, heavenly. She enjoyed her rice and sent Michele good thoughts.

Content with her Basmati and Nut Pilaf recipe, the girl lived happily ever after.

The End. To be continued.

Paz

Basmati and Nut Pilaf
1 ¼ cups basmati rice

1 onion chopped

1 garlic crushed

1 large carrot, grated

1-2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp black mustard seeds

4 cardamom pods

2 cups stock or water

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

cashews --a handful or two, or however many you like. Salted or unsalted whichever is your preference.

Wash rice. Fry the onion, garlic and carrot in oil. Add rice and spices and cook another 2 minutes or so. Pour in stock or water, add bay leaf and season. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf an cardamom pods. Add the nuts.