Pakistani Chilli Rice

 I wanted something exotic to go with my Yakhni Lamb so I experimented with this random recipe from You tube. It was demonstrated by a Pakistani Chef in Urdu, and it was easy enough to follow. Thank you Chef Afzaal Arshad for this super easy rice dish.

The key is to have good quality long grained rice and to soak it for 30 minutes prior to cooking.

You could make this with capsicum, but since my lamb dish was not hot, I chose to go with chillies.

Ingredients:

5 cups rice (I used long grained Basmati), washed, soaked in water for 30 minutes, drained

11 cups water ( 2 cups of water per cup of rice and 1 cup for the pot, like mum used to say)

6 green chillies, roughly chopped (use capsicums if you prefer)

6 green cardamom pods

10-12 cloves

100 grams butter

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 stock cube or 1 tablespoon stock powder (optional)

Method:

In a large pot, heat butter and add chillies, cardamoms, cloves and olive oil. 

Add 11 cups water, salt to taste and stock powder / cube if using. When the water boils rapidly, add the drained rice to it. Let the rice cook for about 20 minutes. When the water has almost evaporated, you will see pits forming on top of the rice. Reduce the flame to minimum and cover the lid.  Cook for a further 10 minutes.

Fluffy, buttery chilli rice is ready to be served with your favourite curry.