by Nell Green
It is my habit in the morning to prep for the noon meal before I begin my day. I am very excited about trying out this recipe from the Plated Stories cookbook: Barberry Rice with Chicken.
You might make note of two particular ingredients—dried barberries and saffron. I love cooking with saffron and keep it in my kitchen. Be careful though; it does stain! Barberries are delicious, but depending on where you live may be hard to come by. I have seen cranberries as a substitute, but they are not like barberries exactly.
We love Persian food and I can't wait to see how this turns out!
Veggies for the sauce
I have prepped the veggies in the preparing to make the sauce. Don't forget to compost if you can!
Soaking the rice
I am headed off for a meeting, but while I’m gone I’m letting my rice soak and prepare for steaming. The saffron is also soaking.
Admittedly, the instructions in the recipe are not really clear about how to steam rice. I wash my rice until the water is just about clear and then let it soak for a couple of hours in warm water, and it will be ready for steaming.
Rice is on!
After letting the rice soak for a long while this morning, I now have it in the pot to steam. I used potatoes on the bottom, which is one of the suggestions in the recipe. It's my favorite way to prepare Persian rice. The recipe also suggests using paper towels to seal the pot and steam the rice. Today, I am using Threads by Nomad unpaper towels but I have also used a dish cloth in the past.
Now for the chicken.
Oh, my the aroma! The chicken is on and I'm about to start the sauce.
Time to eat!
You can purchase our Plated Stories cookbook here and make this incredible dish for you and your family! If you do, tag us in your photos and let us know how it turns out!