RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : Ruth Heiges Rice with Pepper, Onions and Pine Nuts - pareve, dairy
"Cooking in a Towel" That was the title of Nira Rousso's "Kitchen Secrets" column in this past Friday's Haaretz magazine. I was pretty dumbfounded when I read about the concept. When I mentioned it to a friend from Britain, she was nonplussed: "Of course. It's steaming. That's how you make pudding." (British-style pudding, of course.) I've thought about it since then and realize I have seen pots tied up with a towel, without realizing why it had been done. It occurs to me that this is probably a very useful concept for those who keep Shabbat to the extent of not cooking. You might not want to keep a meat dish overnight, but one readily could be prepared this way and served still-hot for the Friday-evening meal. Rousso writes that she keeps two beach towels in the kitchen expressly for this technique. "Of course, you can use a sheet or a table cloth just as well, but there is something special about the simplicity of a pot, bound and sealed in a towel, sitting in a modern kitchen of marble and chrome." She notes that an iron pot is ideal, but any stainless-steel pot with a well-fitting lid works well, also. "Rice dishes are the most suitable of all for towel-wrapping. The slow warming and the hermetic seal assure that every grain will expand with the steam trapped in the pot, and that even the simplest dish will taste better." Peppered Rice with Onion & Pine Nuts ------------------------------------ 3 Tablespoons butter or margarine 2 cups rice 2 chopped onions 3 Tablespoons pine nuts 3 Tablespoons parsley 1 Teaspoon turmeric 3 cups brown lentils, washed Salt and pepper in generous amounts, especially the pepper 4 cups boiling water 1. Heat the butter or margarine in a heavy pot. Brown the onions and pine nuts. Add the rice and mix for 5 minutes. 2. Add the parsely, turmeric, lentils, pepper and salt. Pour on the boiling water. Mix and bring to a boil. 3. Cover, lower the flame, cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, then tightly wrap the pot in a towel. Let it stand for at least one hour; preferably more. This also can be made without the pine nuts. Without the turmeric and parsley, it's essentially a recipe for mejaderra The quantity can be varied by keeping the proportion of two parts water to one part rice.
