Orange Spiced Rice

I picked a couple of oranges on my way in from the garden the other day, and used the rinds in this wonderful rice dish inspired by a recipe in Chris and Carolyn Caldicott's beautiful book World Food Café. The pictures in this book are of the people and lands they visited in Asia and the middle East, Africa and Central and South America. And the recipes are all vegetarian, so it's quite inspiring.

I adapted a more complicated recipe into this simple rice cooker dish which had a bright flavor that went well with the leftover white bean and tomato stew. I used white basmati rice because it was late and I wanted to get dinner on the table. I'm pretty sure this would be good with brown rice, although more water would be needed.

That's an experiment for another day.

Orange Spiced Rice
2 oranges
2 tsp oil
1 onion
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white basmati rice
2 bay leaves

Scrub the oranges well, and peel off the thin outer layer of zest, leaving the white behind. I used a zester which removes the peel in long narrow strips. If you use a regular peeler, slice the pieces thin after peeling them. Save the oranges for another use.

Put the pieces of zest in a small pot with 2 cups water and 2 tsp oil. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm 1 tbsp oil and sauté the thinly-sliced onion, cloves, and the seeds from the cardamom pods until the onions start to brown. Season with 1/2 tsp salt.

Put the onion mixture in the rice cooker along with the orange zest and cooking water, the basmati rice, bay leaves, and an extra 1/2 cup of water. Run rice cooker as directed.

The ingredients will probably separate out during cooking, as you can see in the picture above. Stir it all back together and serve.

Serves 4-6