I love savory rice and picky-picky husband loves sweet rice. As a matter of fact, his all time favorite rice is plain white rice with butter and sugar on it, go figure!!
Today's rice is one that we BOTH enjoy. It goes very well with almost anything, but we especially like it with pork chops or baked ham.
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup raw white rice
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 large cooking apple (cored, peeled and diced)
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup golden raisins
½ cup chopped toasted pecans
.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the RAW rice. Cook/stir the rice until it turns sort of opaque white. This will help keep the rice grains separate while it cooks.
Add the chicken broth and everything else in the recipe, except the pecans. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat way down so that it is at a low simmer. Put a tight fitting lid on the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes (don't peek).
Remove the pan from the heat, gently stir in the toasted pecans and put the lid back on for 5 minutes (but with no heat).
That's it!! The dark brown sugar and fruit lend a mildly sweet flavor to the rice and the ground cumin gives it a full flavor. This rice makes an excellent buffet dish since it also tastes great at room temperature. I hope you will try it.
NOTE: I've also used canned peaches (when I was out of apples) and it tasted great.
NOTE: Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth if you are vegetarian