Karl’s French Rice Pilaf

Adapted from French: The Secret of Classic Cooking Made Easy

All of this week’s recipes are from a French cook book that Jan bought me. She decided that I should make some recipes from it for the French girl while she was here. I decided that I needed a starch dish for the carbohydrate eaters in the group.

Karl’s French Rice Pilaf

American rice pilafs usually include some form of pasta. In France it simply means that you brown the rice in butter before cooking. To say this recipe was adapted from the book is being generous, it is more of a case of “inspired by.”

The first change I made is to replace the white rice with brown for Jan. I prefer using brown Thai Jasmine. I also need to reduce the amount of butter I use for her.

I am only using the white parts of the leeks in my Saffron Mussel Soup. The problem always remains; what do I do with the green parts? I decided to add them to my pilaf.

Karl’s French Rice Pilaf

Ingredients

2 Tbs. butter
1 cup Thai Jasmine brown rice
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
3 leeks, green parts only, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1¾ cup low sodium chicken broth
3 sprigs lemon thyme
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp. black pepper
Pinch Kosher salt

1 Tbs. parsley, chopped fine

Karl’s French Rice Pilaf

1. Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium high heat and sauté the rice until it is starting to pick up some color.

2. Add the onions and leeks and continue to cook until softened and starting to pick up some color.

3. Add the garlic and continue cooking one minute more, until fragrant.

4. Add the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, pepper and salt.

5. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat.

6. Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.

7. Fluff the rice, remove the bay leaf and thyme stems.

8. Put it in a serving bowl and garnish with the parsley.