The Most Simple and Delicious Rice Recipe

Rice with Russian Kotleti

Having a Ukrainian/Russian heritage and watching as a child as my grandma cooked and baked all of my favorite dishes, it was always important for me to learn how to cook. The irony of this is that my own mother is not much of a cook. Don't get me wrong, she can make meals, but she doesn't enjoy cooking. My philosophy is that if you don't put love into cooking you just get blah instead of bliss. So of course when I met my husband 10 + years ago who is Armenian/Ukrainian and found out that his mom was an amazing cook, I was hooked. Everything this woman made was delicious and incredible and evolved my love for cooking even more. I'm proud to say now that my own cooking concoctions are approved by her and she as well as the rest of my family love my meals. However, this rice, which is a staple in our family is her original recipe and really is the most simple and delicious rice. When you make this rice, you can just make it without onions or carrots or add just the carrots or simply just the onions. Make sure that you chop the onions finely to get the full effect of this "gentle" rice.

Ingrediants:

1 cup rice preferably Jasmine or any other long grain rice

1 1/2 cup water

1/2 stick butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 medium white onion diced finely (optional)

1/2 carrot finely grated (optional)

*LOVE* (not optional) :)

Directions:

When I begin preparing rice, I always make sure to turn on my electric tea kettle to have boiling water ready.

First, place 2 tablespoons butter into a pot suitable for cooking rice and heat on medium-high until completely melted. I prefer to use my 2 quart Emeril pot for making rice.

Next, add 1 cup rice and stir so that the rice gets coated with the butter thoroughly. Add boiling water (from the tea kettle) and wait for the water to start bubbling. Once the water starts bubbling, add salt, carrots (optional) onions (optional). Stir once more, lower heat to the minimum and cover pot with lid. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Finally, once the timer goes off, stir in the remainder 2 tablespoons of the butter and cook 1 more minute until butter is completely melted. Rice is ready to be plated and served with your favorite main dish.

Bon Apetit!