For something so simple – just rice that you biff into a pan, cover with water and ignore for a bit – pilaf goes by many names. Some call it pilaff with the sneaky double f. Some call it pilau. Still others call it ‘polo’ if you look in a cookbook old enough, or the delightful ‘plov’ if you look on Wikipedia. It’s not unlike a risotto, but while less ritzy, it’s a billion times easier, and the very thought of how easy it is can nudge me into actually cooking it for dinner rather than lying on the couch sleepily eating spoonfuls of peanut butter. Which isn’t a bad thing. What it is, is a self-fulfilling prophesy, since peanuts have some chemical in them that makes you sleepy. So like a snake eating its own tail, I shall…mix my metaphors.
Before you go wrongly thinking of me as some kind of queen of organisation, the pilaf was tucked under a packet paneer tikka masala and bought hot lemon pickle. But even on its own, it’s emphatically good stuff. Why was I even so tired that I could hardly handle harmless grains of rice? Nothing important, oh wait, WEBSTOCK. I’ve already told you all about the glumness that I get when fun times are over, but gosh was it ever hard to let go of this amazing experience. It left me unbelievably inspired, full of scribbled notes and ideas, more enamoured of my friends than ever while surprised by how many cool new people I managed to meet. And caffeinated enough to charge up a fancy-brand touchscreen tablet just by pointing at it with eyes narrowed.
Trying to describe Webstock to people who weren’t there but are a bit interested, is a bit like that scene in the Simpsons where Bart’s not allowed to go to the Itchy and Scratchy movie and Lisa comes home and says “It wasn’t that great” and Bart says “Be honest” and she says “it was the GREATEST MOVIE I’VE EVERY SEEN IN MY LIFE! And you wouldn’t believe the celebrities who did cameos: Dustin Hoffman, Michael Jackson – of course they didn’t use their real names, but you can tell it was them.”
But the organisers put on such an amazing show that comparing it to the Itchy and Scratchy Movie is the best compliment I can pay it right now. Especially because my brain was worked so hard that all I’ve got room for is the aforementioned pilaf. It’s inspired by a recipe in the beautiful Meat-free Mondays cookbook which I’ve recently acquired. Although Tim did point out that we should start a Meatful Mondays movement just for us, since we hardly ever eat meat anyway. And when I say inspired I really mean…lazily appropriated with great laziness. They used whole spices, mine were mostly ground. I threw in some bits of other vegetables I had. I didn’t wait for things to boil. You get the idea.
Easy Lazy Sunday Night Pilaf with Cinnamon, Turmeric and Vegetables
- 1 teaspoon each cumin seeds, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, turmeric. Or really, whatever you’ve got that you feel instinctively could work (garam masala, ground coriander, etc.)
- 1 tablespoon oil and 1 knob of butter. (In butter but not as in life, it can be as large as you please) or, leave the butter out to make this dairy-free.
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 cup frozen peas
- Any other bits of green vegetables, chopped up small – I used zucchini and three green beans that had sadly got left behind.
Heat the oil and butter together in a pan and add the spices, gently stirring over a low heat. Tip in the rice granules. While they’re totally uncooked, a generous amount of time over the heat does something delicious to their flavour. Tip in 2 1/4 cups of water, which should hiss up a bit on impact with the hot pan. Bring to the boil, then cover and lower the heat. Simmer gently for about ten minutes, add the vegetables and simmer a little longer. Add salt to taste, and serve. This makes enough for two people plus leftovers for one person.
Barely gratuitous at all, the more I look at it.
Speaking of gratuitous, the necessary diagonal teatowel. One day I’ll get the ratio of fold:fabric angle at an optimal, most-likely-to-be-shared-by-users angle! The lovely teatowel was given to me by my Mum and godmum Vivienne, by the way.
you're pretty much the bee's knees! Just had to tell you that in case you hadn't been told that in a while.
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Snap, I'm lining up a pilau recipe to post in the next few days! Good stuff aye. xx
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Ooh yeah, perfect busy time food!
Also Webstock does look AWESOME. I reference dana boyd in my thesis too!
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Oh yes, very good. I am in awe of the time you manage to find. Time is my enemy 😦
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You always add flavors that initially freak me out to see them together – but I trust you. Internet trust. It's big time.
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Oh that looks gooood. Just the kind of dish when I'm faced with cooking a meal for myself. I always want rice when it's just me. And I could have this for lunch the next day too. Nothing more comforting than a tasty bowl of rice, eaten with a spoon under blankets, in front of the tele.
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Webstock? Golly I have no idea who these people are and what their achievements mean, maybe I have been spending too much time in the wrong web communities (or just with 'older' people). 🙂 Nice rice, good to see that r in the spice.
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Could you maybe please just point at me and recharge me? That would be wonderful.
Also, I can't not imagine this pilaf with a big melting spoonful of peanut butter now. OMG SO GOOD IN MY BRAINMIND OF IMAGINING.
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Why thanks, lovely! X
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I saw yours! Flipping gorgeous 🙂
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It was, it was! And Boyd's talk was fantastic 🙂
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Trust me, I'm always running out of time, and then when I get a day off I never seem to get my act together! Need to work on this 🙂
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That is an AWESOME compliment 😀
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Yes! I'm more of a pasta lady, but I forget how amazingly comforting and wonderful rice is.
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No biggie – all you need to know is that they're all pretty amazing in their specific field 🙂 and I was pretty excited to be able to learn from them.
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*waves wand” BALLGOWN! Is this thing on?
(Galinda reference opportunity ftw! Thanks Hannah!)
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I so love pilaf and its many disguises, is also affectionately known as my raid the fridge rice to use up odds and ends!
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I LOVE GYPSY!!! Meant to be blogfriends! Also I love how easy this recipe sounds and good tip about putting the grains in with the butter to soak up the spices first.
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Yum! Pilaf is a sweet sunday night fix. I love gypsy too 🙂 and I was thinking recently… no videos lately?!
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Lame-o pirated internet. I can't get your photos to load, or the Webstock website to load so I can learn what it is. I will simply have to imagine. I can easily imagine your artistic presentation of seeds on a plate, or a towel laid askew, just so:)
I did manage to load some pictures of Wairarapa (I think), and wow, beautiful scenery!
I didn't know the 'drinking the kool-aid' thing, thanks for enlightening me on slang in my country that I should know about;)
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You know what makes me feel kind of awful? The fact that I have NEVER.MADE.PILAF. Or plov, which is definitely what I'm going to call it from now on. Love the spices in this! It sounds super delicious.
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I'm sure this tastes delicious, perfect last minute lazy dinner, love it! (I also never made pilaf…)
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