French Fridays with Dorie - Cardamom Rice Pilaf

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
~Edward de Bono

The best rice pilaf (or pilau rice) I had ever eaten was at an Indian restaurant in Malvern. It was located down the road from my boarding school, tucked away at the base of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, UK. Or maybe it seemed like the best because of the memory tied to it and sometimes that's what the brain chooses to remember over everything else.

I was 16 or 17, doing A-levels (upper school, pre-Uni, senior year high school, etc) and a group of my friends and I frequented that restaurant, mostly at weekends. There weren't many places to hang out in those days and the restaurant was cosy, it was nearby and the food was freshly prepared and delicious. If you've ever been to boarding school and to Malvern, you'll know that 1. good, unprocessed food is hard to come by, and 2. the town, while quiet and scenic and is conducive to (cough) more 'focused' studies, is filled with easy-going retirees and their pampered dogs. No happening cafes, fast food joints or entertainment centers for miles for underaged, bored teenagers like us. That Indian restaurant was then THE place to be.

 Safflower, lime, dried apricots

In fact, we got to know the owner so well that on quieter nights, he would often let us into his kitchen to roll, customize and bake our own flatbreads or naans. That was where I'd learnt how hot a tandoor oven really got, and where, if you stuck your hand in (to insert the naan) for a few seconds more than necessary, you'd likely end up with all the skin on your hand and lower arm scorched off! Ahh..but we were fearless teenagers and that mere experience was exhilarating.

 Cardamom seeds, raspberries, lime zest

We often hung out there at the weekends, however the one time a small group of us decided to go on a weeknight - and stayed until well past the closing time - our boarding house matron, a judicious and portly lady, had come looking for us. When we saw her huffily peering through the restaurant windows, it was 1am-ish, and we knew we were in trouble. The inevitable pep talk with the principal occurred the following day, of course, and a number of us (not saying who) were suspended from school for a week not for breaking the 10pm curfew, but for being school prefects AND breaking the rules! So yes, that's how I remember the most delicious rice pilaf still.

This week's French Fridays recipe brought all the memories flooding back. Cardamom Rice Pilaf, and fortunately this time, I'm going to break the rules again although nothing too drastic that Dorie need get huffy about. I didn't have basmati rice in stock so I simply used what we normally eat in the house, which is Thai fragrant rice. Yes, the cardamoms were included and they made the rice smell and taste divine! I don't know about you, but I looove the strong, distinct smell of cardamom. Cardamom is the second most expensive spice in the world next to saffron, and its aroma brings to mind lemons and mint and eucalyptus with warm undertones of cloves and rosemary (phew, am I correct?). Truthfully, I could chew on the raw pods too but that's borderline preference and I know it's not for everyone.

Although you cannot really see it here, I stirred in a teaspoon of Turkish safflower to give the rice a faint, yellow tint. The chicken stock brought bucketfuls of comforting flavor to the dish, while thinly sliced lime zest (instead of lemon) and dried, soft apricots complemented the cardamom and stock perfectly. To finish off the dish, I garnished it with roasted whole almonds and squeezed a few raspberries through a sieve in an effort to dot the rice with some red color. Incidentally, where the juice was most concentrated, the raspberry provided an interesting and delicious accent.

Finally, just because I'm who I am, I served the rice pilaf in a bowl made out of 4 toasted filo sheets stacked up on one another. My idea was... as you are eating the rice, you can also munch on the crispy bowl along the way!

As usual, I can't wait for the other rice pilaf posts to be put up by my fellow bloggers at French Fridays with Dorie. Everybody will have their own take on the original recipe, I'm sure. We don't normally publish the recipes out of Dorie's book, Around My French Table, but if you're interested, here's where you can get a copy.

Hope you guys have the loveliest weekend!