Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Treasure chest of Jewelled Rice

This is a treasure chest of glistening jewels and healthfulness.

There are many recipes for Jewelled Rice, but they all have in common the ingredients of rice (!) and the jewel colours from dried fruits like cherries or cranberries, and saffron and pistachios.  This recipe is from Jamie Oliver, so while it's probably not that authentic, the flavours are spot on and it's really easy to make.

Speaking of being easy to make (and where there's simplicity - I'm there), I served the rice with a pomegranate and walnut chicken. It's another straightforward effort made even easier because it's on the page following the jewelled rice in jamie magazine.  What's another word for lazy? C'est moi!

Jewelled rice
serves 4

Ingredients
200g red, wild, brown or basmati rice, cooked
1x400g can of lentils
75g pistachios, chopped
100g dried cranberries or dried sour cherries, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Large bunch of mint, leaves picked and roughly chopped
2 tblsp fried onions
Extra-virgin olive oil

Method
1.  Place the lentils in a large bowl with the cooked rice, pistachios, cranberries and lemon juice, and season well with salt and pepper.
2.  Add the mint and a drizzle of olive oil, then toss to mix.
3.  Serve sprinkled with the fried onions

Pomegranate and walnut chicken
serves 4

Ingredients
4 chicken thighs, fillets or with bone in
3 tblsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tblsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
2 red onions, quartered
50g walnuts
Handful of rocket leaves

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 200C/400F.  Place the chicken in a roasting tray and pour over the molasses. Season well, then sprinkle with the cinnamon and olive oil.  Add the garlic, onion and walnuts and toss.  Cover with foil and roast for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and roast for a further 15 minutes until the chicken is golden, sticky and cooked through.
2. Scatter the rocket leaves over the chicken before serving.

recipes adapted from jamie magazine

Some of the colourful ingredients, including dried cranberries, pistachios, red onion and lemon (juice).

The chicken before and after cooking, moist with pomegranate molasses, garlic and walnuts.

The cinnamon spice in the chicken and jewelled rice bring a Middle Eastern flavour to the meal

The rice is served with fried onions on top.  I used brown rice and its nutty flavour goes well with the cranberries, mint and lemon

A colourful dish is so easy to eat!

21 comments:

  1. What, Jamie has his own MAGAZINE! I love that man. Do I live in a black hole?!?!? This whole dish looks incredibly delicious. Who care about authenticity when food tastes this good!

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  2. Oh wow! Love the whole look. And you know what, I made something like that cept it aint as jeweled as yours! Yours is so pretty.

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  3. Bedazzling and simply gor-jus! The chicken sounds like its right up my alley, plus a reason to dust off my bottle of pomegranate molasses

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  4. Jewel rice and so pretty!! How can we not like? It's gorgeous, Belle!

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  5. crazy ingredients for a rice dish! i've never had jewelled rice before so this is a first! looks like so many wonderful flavours in one bowl :)

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  6. This looks fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing :)

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  7. Yumm, that's really a treasure and the pictures are beautiful.

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  8. This is really lovely and I'm sure it is as tasty as it is delicious. I'm new to your blog and have spent some time browsing through your earlier entries. I really like the food and recipes you feature here and I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  9. So beautiful! Fit for a princess! =)
    Easy recipes rock, sometimes we can't just spend all out time slaving away in the kitchen (no matter how much we love food).

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  10. There may be many recipes, but there's only one you, and you made this one so it's my favourite :D

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  11. Hehe now that is very convenient placement with the two recipes together! It looms divine and very jewel like. Ideal for a nice brunch with jewel obsessed girlfriends!

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  12. I had never heard of this (and I've watched a LOT of Jamie Oliver!) Your photos are stunning as usual, they really make me want to dig in! :D

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  13. Don't think I've ever had jewelled rice before but I'm sure I'd like all the bits of flavour and texture as well, of course, the colours!

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  14. Ooh, you know what, Bel?! I'm going to make some jewelled rice tonight. I have different ingredients, but an appropriate sub for yours here. Hence I'm going to use your instructions. I'll come back and comment on how it is too this weekend. Beautiful!

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  15. your rice is so colourful Congrats!!
    Paris is beautiful today !!pierre

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  16. I've never even heard of jewelled rice before...but it sounds awesome! And it's an extremely photogenic dish :) The chicken looks delicious too- and you're not lazy.....it just happened to be on the next page ;)

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  17. Oh Bel I was just catching up on some of your posts (been decidedly slack lately but have them all waiting for me and am wading though them bit by bit) and this meal is just shouting out to me to cook it (even though winter feels like it's finally upon us here in Adelaide). Just lovely!

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  18. This looks absolutely amazing :D
    I can't believe I've never heard of jewelled rice before either!

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