Denise says:
This is a delicious accompaniment to enjoy with meat stews, fish and chicken dishes. It has few ingredients which makes it suitable as a side dish for main courses with many flavours.
As this year is schmita year, try other oranges for this rice recipe instead of the infamous Jaffe variety. Valencia and Seville oranges produce great flavour and are available in your local supermarkets at this time. I have added a teaspoon of orange water blossom flower water. Orange flower water is distilled from bitter orange blossoms and is used to flavour drinks, salads, and desserts. It is particularly popular in Persian and Arabic cooking.
Orange blossom flower water may be difficult to find but is usually available at Middle Eastern or gourmet and specialty food shops. Although only a small amount is required it does have a long shelf life and does give basic ingredients a very much more exciting exotic taste!
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Serves: 6 people
Ingredients:
225g uncooked basmati rice,150ml orange juice
200ml vegetable stock
4 sticks celery chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons raisins
1 teaspoon of orange blossom water
1 onion – peeled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley – coarsely chopped
Zest of ½ orange
Salt and pepper – to taste
Garnish
1 orange – sliced
Method
1)Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.2)Add the celery, onion and sauté until slightly golden.
3)Stir in the parsley and vegetable stock, orange juice and zest. Bring to a boil.
4)Add the rice, orange blossom water, raisins and reduce to a low flame, cover and simmer until the rice is tender and the liquids are absorbed. This will take approximately 20 minutes.
5)Taste and adjust seasoning. Fluff up the rice just before serving.
To serve the stylish way: Garnish with slices of oranges
Tagged in: Dinner Party, Low Fat, Oranges, Parev, Purim, Rice, Sephardi, Shabbat, Vegetable Stock, Vegetarian, Yom Tov