I like a rice you bake in the oven, especially when it is baking hot in the kitchen. Mine gets very hot and steamy if there are lots of things on the hob and at the moment in the UK we are having a HEATWAVE. It’s lovely.
For the book group I had made the chicken a couple of days ahead so I took it out of the fridge to get to room temperature while I was getting the rice going, then put it on the bottom shelf of the oven to warm through as I did the rice and it was perfect!
It really was that yellow too! I used the saffron my lovely houseguests Jazmin and Tessa brought me back from their travels:
It’s the most elegant thing in my spice cupboard.
Note to self: Vincent’s Chicken Curry and Saffron Rice is ideal for keeping stress levels low when cooking for a crowd on a Friday after work.
Vincent Price’s Saffron Rice
½ teaspoon saffron, soaked in 1 cup water for about 2 hours
½ cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped (optional)
2 cups raw rice (I used long grain)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
In a heavy casserole melt the butter. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, or until onion is soft. Add rice and stir until rice is well coated with butter.
Add saffron and water it’s been soaking in, and bring to the boil. Cover tightly and bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove cover and stir to mix thoroughly.
Add 2 cups boiling water, cover and continue to bake for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat, fluff rice with 2 forks, and keep warm until ready to serve.
Perfect and very yellow. Thanks Vincent!
That sounds delicious and easy! I adore saffron rice– so much that I secretly consider it the star of the show no matter what it’s served with. I know one is supposed to pay attention to the flashier main course, but I just can’t if there’s saffron rice.
It’s the first time I’ve made Saffron Rice but definitely not the last. I do like baking rice. There is always the moment of panic that it will all be stuck solid and then you lift the lid and it is perfectly cooked! Genius!
One last thing to have to keep an eye on when there is a lot on the go…
Enjoyed this post very much, but wondered what month it was written? Your date says 5 Tuesday 2014 – is that August? June? July?
Hi Carrie – thanks for stopping by. I’ve just updated to a new version of wordpress and a few things have gone screwy. Thanks for pointing this out – I’ll see about fixing it. This post was written a couple of days ago in August – Jenny x