Previously, I had posted a recipe for a basic rice pilaf I cooked up out of my head. It had been a while since I had made this, and after my last few batches of wild rice turned out rather disappointing, I decided to head back to the pilaf.
This time I decided to not be quite as precise in measuring out my ingredients (I’m usually not when I cook out of my head), partly because I was experimenting and mostly because it was 7 at night and I was hungry. Here’s (roughly) what went into the pilaf tonight:
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, minced
1-3 tablespoons olive oil (regular vegetable or canola oil would probably work just fine, too)
1 cup of brown rice
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon cracked wild rice
Chicken soup base, to taste
1 small can of mushrooms, drained
1/8-1/4 cup of pine nuts, toasted lightly
Begin by mincing the garlic and onion. I attempted to hurry things along a bit by heating the oil with the garlic while mincing the onion (use medium heat to avoid getting the oil too hot too fast). Add the onion and give it a good stir for a few minutes, until the onion is wilted, soft, and golden colored. Add the rice and stir briskly for about 15 seconds to get it properly mixed with the onion, oil, and garlic. Add the water and increase the heat to high. Add the cracked wild rice, chicken soup base, and drained mushrooms. When the rice reaches a boiling point, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 45-50 minutes (it takes longer to cook with the oil and the mushrooms).
While the rice is cooking, toast the pine nuts. Toasting pine nuts is an exercise in patience; they’re best toasted over medium heat, and it’s important to stir them constantly, especially after a few minutes in the pan. Once they’re lightly toasted, set them aside.
When the amount of liquid in your pilaf is just below the top of the rice, remove it from the heat and allow it to sit for about a minute. Add the pine nuts and mix well. Serve immediately. Yields approximately 3-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. I find this goes pretty well with most chicken and fish.
A quick comment on pine nuts: don’t get these at the grocery store if you can at all help it. A tiny little thing of pine nuts, maybe about double what you could use in this recipe, could easily go for $5-$10 at most supermarkets. Check out your neighborhood Sam’s Club (ours has them somewhat intermittently) or Costco, or your local natural foods market. Any of those would probably suit you better than the $5 glass jars of pine nuts in the grocery store.
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