My Cooking and My Garden: Middle Eastern Spices

Cooking Rice And Chicken Pieces

My family loves rice, I cook a lot of different rice dishes. In my traditional cooking, rice is always steamed, it is very ordinary, and it needs varieties of garnishes. Steamed rice can also be the foundation of another rice dish, such as nasi goreng or fried rice.

Now I am travelling to the Middle East for my kitchen, and I am cooking rice with their spices. This is my interpretation to cook delicious rice, the Middle Eastern Way. I will be using the basic common spices that are applied over there, and I am sure that everyone will have them ready in their pantry. For My Middle Eastern Rice, these are what you need: long grain rice, an onion, cinnamon, and some which are necessary for the garnish.

There are so many spices for Middle Eastern cooking such as turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, cardamon, pepper, coriander, chillies, saffron and unique spice mix and many more. I will be doing more Middle Eastern cooking soon.

Recipe
My Middle Eastern Rice

2 cups long grain rice
4 cups stock or water
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon salt
Garnishes:
- sliced apricot, almonds (optional) and sumac powder
Method
In a heavy-based pot, sauté the onion in oil until softened, add in the cinnamon, stir and mix
Then add in the rice, stir together, cook for 1 minute and keep on stirring
Stir in the stock or water, cook without cover
Bring to simmer, let it boil until all the water is absorbed
Add in the salt, stir until combined, cover the pot and cook over lower heat for 9-10 minutes
Remove from the heat, uncover the pan, add in 1 tablespoon butter or clarified butter, stir to mix.
Cover the pot until serving time. I cook the rice about 15 minutes before serving the meal.
To serve:
Fluff the rice, transfer to a platter, sprinkle with some sumac and garnish with sliced apricot and sliced almonds/whole almonds if you wish.
(delicate buttery rice with subtle fruity aroma)

For this rice, I cooked a chicken dish to garnish. A very mild spiced chicken with citrus and lemony flavour.

The Garnish

My Middle Eastern Chicken

Use any chicken pieces that you like.
7 fresh chicken legs
2 red onions, quartered
1 orange, cut in halves
1/2 teaspoon sumac powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Some white pepper or a dash of chilli powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 large fig, sliced thinly and 1tablespoon honey, warmed for garnish

Method
Heat the oven up to 190 degrees C
Wash the chicken legs, place them on a baking tray
Squeeze the orange over the chicken, get the juice as much as you can
Sprinkle with the salt, the spices powder and drizzle with the oil.
Put the onion in between the chicken pieces.
Bake in the preheated oven for 22 minutes
Turn the chicken pieces over and continue baking for 13 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 175 degrees C
Take the tray out from the oven, turn the chicken pieces over once more
Put it back in the oven and bake in the lower heat for another 25 minutes
By this stage, the juice in the baking tray may be almost dry, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons water
Keep the chicken for 10 minutes in the dish then transfer to a serving plate.
Garnish the chicken with fresh mints, sliced fig and drizzled with warmed honey.

Preparation and Cooking