Rice, Coming Off the Sidelines, Becomes a Centerpiece.

[elleng]

'I have a theory about why even experienced cooks are intimidated by plain rice. Cooking rice is mysterious in the same way as baking a cake. There are proportions you need to stick to religiously, a cooking process that you can’t see, and a rest period during which you can only cross your fingers and hope for the best. It’s all an act of faith where you trust heat, time and a particular ratio of liquid to rice and have no control over the outcome.

But once you nail down a basic rice formula — and you can — you regain control. For me, every new rice dish is a controlled experiment in which I play with variables like flavor and method, and adjust the formula accordingly.

In recent years, for example, my rice has often been migrating to the oven, and cooking in a baking dish rather than a pot. I do this when I want a large surface area, either underneath or on top of the rice, in which I can embed flavors in all sorts of interesting ways. On one occasion, I braised two heads of garlic and a dozen shallots in lots of olive oil before adding the rice and slowly baking it with curry leaves. Another time, I covered the large surface of the baked rice with thin “tiles” of feta, placed it under the grill and then finished off with a sweet and salty garnish of pomegranates, walnuts, olives and herbs.

My inclination to turn rice into a meal in itself, or at least a substantial part of the meal, rather than a side dish, has its origins in my roots in the Middle East. When I was growing up in Jerusalem, a weekend meal in either an Arab or Jewish household could be a pot of rice, slowly cooked with plenty of vegetables and possibly meat pieces strewn through. For a fancier occasion this formula would become a pilaf with saffron, nuts and dried fruit, elevating the plain rice to aristocratic heights.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/dining/rice-recipes-ottolenghi-vegetarian.html?

Spiced Maqluba With Tomatoes and Tahini Sauce
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019228-spiced-maqluba-with-tomatoes-and-tahini-sauce

Turmeric Rice With Tomatoes
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019229-turmeric-rice-with-tomatoes

[dawg day]

1. That's interesting-

Baking the rice... I saw a cook at a homeless shelter do that. She said it works just as well and can cook much more rice for a big group. She would cool it, cover the pan with plastic wrap, refrigerate it for the night, and then the next day, add meat and veg, put back in the oven, and create a casserole.

The rice was a bit crispier, and didn't get more "mooshy" when reheated.