Day 9: fragrant hypnosis

I don’t really cook much rice. I am that person who uses the ready-in-two-minute microwave pouches wherever possible. Any experience I’ve had cooking rice, often results in a gloopy mess, or, after what seems like hours of boiling - a combination of mulch and crunch. For this very reason, I therefore trust the 1940’s invention of the microwave here. I can be found to venture toward boil in the bag rice, which has a time limit, no room for error and often gives desired results - especially if I am making rice salads.

So, when in search for the next recipe to add to my Nigella cookalong, I came across this Saffron Scented Chicken Pilaf and it seemed only right to include in 365 Days of Nigella. On further research, I find that a defining factor of a pilaf is employing some technique that prevents the grains from sticking together, and considering I have never successfully cooked rice - without it sticking together - panic arose.

Nigella’s Saffron Scented Chicken Pilaf.

While the rice was cooking, and the chicken browning, I wont lie - there was some pacing. I was nervous that the rice was perhaps sticking and burning, or that when I lifted the lid - would find disappointing results. And then it happened. The cooking timer sounded. 14 minutes was up. I nervously lifted the lid and as the aromas hit my face in a gentle cloud of steam, I found myself standing in the muted silence of a Middle Eastern bazaar - in a hypnotic state, with the faint plucking of oud strings in the background. Rushing myself, disappointingly so, back to reality, I was welcomed with perfectly cooked fragrant rice, that wasn’t stuck together and was beautifully scented like nothing I’d eaten before.

It filled me with such joy that I stirred a continuous, borderline bumptious, smile through the pilaf as I tossed through the nuts and chicken, and the copious amounts of my new culinary friend - parsley. I didn’t have flaked almonds so I cut, lengthways, whole almonds in their skins which I think did the trick and looked dazzling with their tawny skins and cream centres.

Flavour musings

For those of you that know and love food, and find an emotional connection with it, you’ll know that it is very much possible to cry about it. Cries of joy and excitement, repulse and disappointment, pure nostalgia or, even just in response to the pure ecstasy of tasting something good. You will therefore know just what I mean when I say that when we tasted this - it brought a tear to our eyes. And this is the food that I love.

It is a fact that there is no musing here I could write that would match Nigella’s captivating introduction to the recipe. So, you’ll need to check it out for yourself below. But, I can tell you, this recipe brought us great joy, which continued through two evenings; where tonight I reheated in a little butter and oil, added some chopped spinach and re-anointed with even more almonds and pistachios. This inspiration has even hit the shores of Central Europe where my sister-in-law and her friend will be cooking Nigella’s Saffron Scented Chicken Pilaf for friends in Poland.