Rice Pilav

     Here is a classic Middle Eastern rice dish which involves neither butter nor soy sauce.

     

     5 cups boiling water, chicken broth or beef broth (See Broth in 

          the Glossary)

     (optional) 6 green onions, trimmed, washed and sliced
     ¼ cup pine nuts (See Pine Nuts in the Glossary)
     ¼ cup vegetable oil (See Oil in the Glossary)

     1 tsp. salt (See Salt in the Glossary)

     2-1/2 cups rice (See Rice  in the Glossary) 

     Bring the water or broth to a boil.  Set aside. In a small pan, saute the green onions on medium heat with the salt and half of the vegetable oil, stirring constantly, until they soften and turn translucent.  Set aside. Saute the pine nuts on medium high heat in a medium pan with the remaining oil just until they turn golden brown. Add the rice and saute the mixture for a few seconds, stirring constantly. (Or, for a toastier flavor, saute a couple minutes, stirring constantly, until the rice just begins to brown. Be careful not to scorch the pine nuts.)  Add the boiling liquid and the onions. Cover and simmer until done, probably 20-25 minutes.

Variation: Replace the pine nuts with 1/4 cup small pieces of rice pasta and reduce the amount of rice to 2-1/4 cups. To obtain small pieces of rice pasta, break some rice spaghetti up enough to get it into a food-processor and run the food-processor until the spaghetti is cut down to the desired size.  This is a shockingly noisy business, but it works quite well.