Buttery golden rice with fried onion and a bunch of flavorful spices such as turmeric, clove, cinnamon and star anise. You will adore my super easy pilau rice recipe!
Yum, I love this fragrant side dish so much: my golden pilau rice recipe!
It is a great rice side dish with the most gorgeous Oriental flavors. This pilau rice is the perfect match if you serve it in combination with a creamy chicken curry and juicy chicken or pork skewers.
Do you often cook rice at home?
Do you like rice?
Not such an odd question.
You would be surprised of the amount of people who actually hate rice.
I know of at least a handful of them. And when I ask why they don’t like to eat rice, I always hear the same complaints: it is just boring, bland, tasteless, the texture is wrong, it just looks like a scoop of white worms…
If only they knew how easy it is to pimp a rice dish up a bit by adding very little ingredients that turn your ordinary scoop of rice into a flavorful Oriental delight!
Easy Fragrant Pilau Rice Recipe (Eastern Fragrant Rice)
I always start to prepare my pilau rice with fried onion and garlic.
That is a flavor base for many recipes. The garlic here in the pilau rice recipe is crucial. That gently fried garlic in the rice will trigger your taste buds like never before.
Then there is the next step: what flavors and spices should you definitely add to make your pilau rice recipe stand out from the rest?
Spices
Grated ginger, one of my favorites.
That grated ginger will give your pilau rice that extra zesty touch without adding any lemons or limes. In goes a bunch of ground spices as well: ground turmeric, curcuma and cinnamon.
These three ground spices are essential in Eastern cuisine. Cardamom pods, cloves and star anise are optional but I highly recommend adding those spices as well.
It just makes that flavor balance complete.
And last but not least…
Butter
You might wonder now: why butter in Eastern dishes?
Of course!
Another essential element! I used unsalted butter for my pilau rice here. Well hold your horses here for a minute: you might be familiar with ghee.
Do you know what ghee is?
It is also clarified butter. It comes from India and is also used a lot in South Asian, Iranian and Arabic cuisine. Ghee is fatter than butter because the water and milk solids are removed.
What is Ghee
You could try to make a kind of ghee yourself at home.
Basically it is all about heating up butter to separate the liquid and milk solid portions from the fat.
Put a large chunk of butter in a saucepan. Let it melt gently over very low heat. Let the melted butter simmer gently for 45 minutes.
When is the ghee ready?
When you see a layer of browned butterfat on the bottom of the saucepan. The top layer of the ghee should be clear. Strain the ghee through a cheesecloth. Keep the clarified butter in a jar.
Homemade
I also prepared this pilau rice recipe in my KitchenAid Cook Processor. If you are looking for that one, then just scroll down to the second recipe below on this page.
Buttery golden rice with fried onion and flavorful spices like turmeric, clove, cinnamon and star anise: you will adore my super easy pilau rice recipe!
Enjoy!
Easy Fragrant Pilau Rice Recipe
Buttery golden rice with fried onion and flavorful spices such as turmeric, clove, cinnamon and star anise: you will adore my super easy pilau rice recipe!
- 6,5 oz basmati rice (180 g)
- 2 tbsp onion chopped
- 1 large garlic clove chopped
- 1- inch fresh ginger (2,5 cm), grated
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter or ghee
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp curcuma powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 ¼ cup vegetable stock (300 ml)
- 1 clove
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 star anise
- pepper
- salt
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Add half of the butter (or ghee) to a non-stick pan and place it over medium heat. Melt the butter and then add the ground turmeric, curcuma, cinnamon, clove and bay leaves. Season with a pinch of pepper and salt.
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Stir the spices and gently fry them for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the chopped onion, garlic and grated ginger to the pan.
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Stir well. Cook the onion and garlic for 2 more minutes. Then also add the basmati rice, cardamom pods and star anise.
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Stir fry the rice and spices for about 3 minutes. Then pour in the vegetable stock.
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Stir the rice. Turn the heat very high until the rice is boiling. Then immediately turn the heat very low again and cover the pan. Cook the rice for about 20 minutes or until tender. Stir regularly. Check the tenderness every now and then. In the end stir in the remaining butter or ghee.
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Check the seasoning of the pilau rice and add extra pepper or salt to taste. Remove the clove, cardamom pods and bay leaves. Scoop the pilau rice into bowls and serve hot.
Easy Fragrant Pilau Rice Recipe – KitchenAid Cook Processor
Do you prepare rice often?
I only cook rice when I’m preparing a Middle Eastern or Asian dinner. Or Italian risotto of course.
There is more to do than just boil rice.
Try my fragrant pilau rice with lovely spices.
No cardamom around where you live? Replace it by fennel or cumin seeds.
No turmeric or curcuma around? Maybe you can add saffron instead: it will give that beautiful yellow glow to the rice and add an extra appetizing flavor.
Rice Side Dish
I prefer basmati rice over jasmine rice for these type of stir fried and boiled rice dishes.
If basmati rice is cooked properly, its grains aren’t sticking together. That is why I like to add oil or butter to my rice. I like that crumbly texture of a scoop of basmati rice.
But go ahead and add whatever type of rice you like to make this pilau rice recipe!
Buttery golden rice with fried onion and flavorful spices like turmeric, clove, cinnamon and star anise: you will adore my super easy pilau rice recipe!
Enjoy!
Easy Fragrant Pilau Rice Recipe
Buttery golden rice with fried onion and flavorful spices such as turmeric, clove, cinnamon and star anise: you will adore my super easy pilau rice recipe!
- 6,5 oz basmati rice (180 g)
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable stock (300 ml)
- 2 tbsp onion chopped
- 1 large garlic clove chopped
- 1- inch fresh ginger (2,5 cm), grated
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter or ghee
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp curcuma powder
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 clove
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 star anise
- pepper
- salt
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Add the chopped onion, the garlic, the grated ginger, the cardamom pods, the clove, the star anise, the bay leaves, the vegetable oil and half of the unsalted butter (or ghee) to the bowl of the Cook Processor fitted with the StirAssist.
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Close the bowl and select BOIL P2. Press Start to activate Step 1. Once the onion and garlic is fried, add the basmati rice, the turmeric, the curcuma and the cinnamon stick. Season with a good pinch of pepper and salt. Pour in the water.
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Close the bowl, adjust the time to 15 minutes (instead of 30 minutes) and press Start to activate Step 2. Change the speed to INT. Once the program is finished, press Cancel to exit the keep warm mode. Then add the rest of the butter (or ghee).
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Close the bowl, set the time at 1 minute and press Start. Set the speed at 2. After that the butter should have melted fully in the rice. Check the seasoning and add extra pepper or salt to taste if necessary. Scoop the rice into bowls and serve hot.
Easy Fragrant Coconut Rice
This next rice recipe is not a pilau rice recipe like the one above but a creative coconut version to light up that bowl of cooked or steamed rice!
Coconut flavor fan?
This is my favorite coconut rice recipe! I make it often when we are having a creamy Thai or Indian curry for dinner.
Look, it is a very simple rice recipe: you just have to remove some of the water or vegetable stock that you are using and replace it by coconut milk instead. Done. Needless to say that it makes the cooked rice very creamy.
Coconut Milk
I also added some toasted grated coconut to give the rice an extra texture and a deeper earthy flavor.
The crunch comes from the cashew nuts that I stir into the coconut rice right in the end.
A savory rice side dish!
Sweet coconut rice also exists. In Thailand it is a classic with mango, mung beans and coconut cream. Check my Thai mango sticky rice!
Enjoy!
Easy Fragrant Coconut Rice Recipe
This is a hearty coconut rice side dish for your next curry dinner!
- 6,5 oz basmati rice (180 g)
- ½ cup coconut milk (120 ml)
- 2 tbsp grated coconut
- ¾ cup water (180 ml), or vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- a handful cashew nuts
- 1 a handful garlic clove chopped
- 1 small red chili
- 4 bay leaves
- vegetable oil
- salt
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1) Pour the grated coconut in a small non-stick pan and place it over medium-low heat. Gently toast it for 2 minutes until golden. Stir the coconut constantly, don't burn it.
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2) Transfer the toasted coconut immediately to a cold plate and put it aside to cool until later. Pour a little vegetable oil in a large non-stick pan (one that has a lid) and place it over medium-high heat until hot. Then add the bay leaves, dried chili and chopped garlic.
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3) Cook the ingredients for 2 minutes. Then stir in the basmati rice.
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Stir fry the rice for about 2 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and water (or vegetable stock).
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4) Stir well and bring the rice to a rolling boil. Then turn the heat very low. Put a lid on the pan. Cook the rice for 15 minutes until tender. Check the tenderness regularly. Take the lid off the pan once the rice is tender and add the lemon juice and toasted coconut (keep a pinch aside for garnish if you like).
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5) Stir well. Check the seasoning and add extra salt to taste. Then add the cashew nuts.
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6) Take the pan off the heat and scoop the coconut rice into bowls. Sprinkle with extra toasted coconut and serve hot.