Friday, May 27, 2011

cardamom rice pilaf - French Fridays w/ Dorie


As often happens with recipes from Around my French Table, this dish will become part of my everyday repertoire. It was easy to make and tasted great. I love basmati rice, but never dress it up. This rice really was good enough to stand on its own. I had picked up lovely wintered over carrots and beets at Langwater the other day and looked in the book to find another recipe I've made before - butter glazed spiced carrots, which used the same ingredients as the rice, so cooking them at the same time was quite simple.

The beets were originally going to be "honey lime beet salad", but turned into "honey lemon dijon beet salad" after I found out I didn't have any limes. Didn't matter, it was still very yummy. The beets and carrots were very sweet and flavorful. As suggested by Dorie, I put the beets over some of the arugula from our CSA order.

Very nice, light, meal to start the holiday weekend. I loved all the flavors together, as did Alan. Shara was in quite a mood, but first impression was a thumbs up for the rice and beets, down for the carrots. 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Laurie, I'm glad you enjoyed the rice pilaf. I found the strong cardamom taste surprisingly pleasant, as many did in the cooking group. Your glazed carrots plus beet-arugula salad looked like the perfect accompaniment to this dish! Might try making those next time :-).

laurcl said...

I love cardamom - it's so versatile. I can't get over how beautiful your presentation is. The colors are fabulous.

tricia s. said...

This was my 2nd try with cardomom and first very successful outing. Something went awry when I tried the glazed carrots and need to revisit that. Nana and I each had great results with this rice dish and going into it neither of us had been very excited. Isnt't that the best part of FF's ? I would not have tried this one otherwise and now it is a lovely option for a quick side dish for dinner.

laurcl said...

Tricia, I completely agree. I've never made my way through any cookbook before - just one dish here and one there. FF does force me to use the recipes and I actually made a recipe (other than a baked good) twice? That almost never happens!

Cher Rockwell said...

Pairing up the rice with the carrots absolutely makes sense! I agree with Tricia - the great thing about FFwD is that it gets you to try things a little out of the normal routine.

Betsy said...

It's nice to find an easy recipe to add the repertoire. I've already made this rice twice. I love beets, so I'll have to check out the beet salad recipe. Looks like you are also Massachusetts (as am I), so I can appreciate your excitement as the spring veggies becomes available. It was a LONG winter.

laurcl said...

Yes, winters are long in ma, but, disregarding any tornados, yummy spring veggies are here and I'm ready! Betsy, what part of ma are you? Hope you faired the storm well.