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Pilaf is a meal that comes to our table very often to accompany main courses. It is very easy and quick to cook, delicious and satisfying yet you should know some hints to cook it properly.

What you need is:

• 1 glass of rice
• 1 tablespoonfull of butter
• 1 tablespoon of vermicelli
• 1 ½ glass of water
• 1 chicken broth tablet
• Salt

 Preparation:

• Put rice in hot water and wait for a few minutes. Strain the water and wash it once more with  cold water. Strain the water.
• Put the butter in a casserole which has a cover. Let it melt.
• Add vermicelli and lightly brown them in butter.
• Add rice, chicken broth tablet and salt . Stir over medium heat for a few minutes. This is to make boil all the water left on rice and make them dry again.
• Add the water.
• Stir once more , put the cover of the casserole on. Turn the heat from medium to high. Cook till it boils. After that turn the heat to a medium level.After a few minutes, stir the pilaf once more and turn the heat down to a low level.
• When rice absorbs all the water, turn off the heat. Open the cover, put one or two paper towel sheets over the casserole (not over pilaf, becareful please) and cover it again. Wait for at least 20 minutes before you serve it.

Make a change, make it more fun:

• Get a handful of dried raisins(sultana). Put them in hot water.
• When you are adding rice, chicken broth tablet and salt over the lightly browned vermicelli, add the raisins also. Cook the same way as I explained above.
• This definitely is not a Turkish method, we normally use currant. This is a creation of mine which tastes really good. Just give it a try! Enjoy!  

For other easy and tasty recipes check http://easytasty.blogspot.com/

Hints to making a proper pilaf:

• Washing rice with hot and cold water is to get rid of the thin dusty layer on rice, which might make it mashy.You shouldn’t open the cover of the casserole to many times while cooking pilaf and you shouldn’t stir it unnecessarily.
• The paper sheets are to absorb the steam coming out of rice while keeping pilaf still hot with the cover closed.
• When you are making pilaf, it is important that the cup you measure rice and water are the same. It doesn’t have to be 1 glass of rice, it can be 1 bowl of rice but the point is that you should add over it just 1 ½ of water with the same bowl you mesaured rice. Shortly the measure should always be 1:1 ½  with the same cup.