Basmati rice is so versatile. Used widely in Asian cuisines, it is often jazzed up with spices, or cooked with a variety of meat and vegetables. Compared with other long grain rice, basmati rice has a lower glycemic index, releasing energy into our body at a slower, steadier rate, and therefore healthier. This Latin American-style rice dish, cooked simply with chicken or vegetable stock and a tin of black beans, delightfully fragranced with a cinnamon stick, takes less than half an hour to make. It goes famously well with my Mexican Pulled Pork, Cajun Chicken and Prawn Gumbo, grilled fish, roast chicken and many other things. The rice is best cooked in a heavy-based wide casserole pan (as pictured above right), which you can take to present at the table. Otherwise, use a large size lidded saucepan.
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
- 200g / 7oz basmati rice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 500ml / 17fl oz chicken or vegetable stock
- 400g / 14oz tinned black beans
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnishing (optional)
METHOD
- Drain and rinse black beans in a colander.
- Heat oil in a heavy-based wide casserole pan on medium-high. Add spring onions and cinnamon stick. Sauté for a minute until the spring onions are soften. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the rice and stir to coat it with oil. Add the black beans and the stock. Bring it to the boil, then reduce to medium heat. Let the rice bubble away gently until most of the liquid has been evaporated, leaving little craters on the surface of the rice. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
- Uncover the pan and check the rice. It is done when the rice is tender and the bottom of the pan is quite dry. Let the cooked rice rest in the pan, covered, for another 5 minutes.
- Fluff up the rice with a wooden spoon and mix it with the beans before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley.
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