Connie’s notes
One pot is all you need and a claypot is ideal. Saute shallots, garlic, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, curry powder and chili flakes, stir in rice, pour in coconut cream, add shiitake and sultanas, and leave until the rice has soaked up the liquid.
Think biryani but simpler. Less ingredients and easier cooking method. It’s a one-pot dish. For vegetarians, it’s a one-bowl meal. For us carnivores, it’s a side dish that goes well with grilled meat or poultry.
But what are sultanas? Like raisins, sultanas are dried grapes. To make raisins, grapes are dried and, in the process, they darken. To make sultanas, the grapes are dipped in oil before they are dried.
If you’re wondering if you may substitute raisins for the sultanas in the recipe, yes, you may. Raisins and sultanas are both sweet and they both absorb liquid well.
What about the mushrooms? Shiitake is used here (quite obvious from the photo above) but eryngii (king oyster), button or portobello mushrooms should be equally good. What I don’t recommend are delicate ones like enoki — they will shrink to almost invisible before the rice is cooked through.
If using shiitake, do they have to be fresh or dried? Either will work. The convenience of using fresh is undeniable. Dried mushrooms need to be rehydrated and that will make the prep time longer. The upside is that rehydrated shiitake has a deeper and more concentrated flavor. More umami. Since the rice needs to be soaked anyway, why not use that time to rehydrate dried shiitake?
As for the rice, basmati is used here because it isn’t so starchy and, hence, the grains stay separate after cooking instead of clamping together. That will likely happen if you use short-grain or medium-grain rice.
Note: The prep time indicated excludes the soaking time for the shiitake and rice.
Tip: If the rice is insufficiently cooked after the coconut cream has been soaked up, drizzle in a quarter cup of water, cover the claypot and cook for another five minutes. Check the rice grains again. If still not sufficiently cooked, add another quarter cup of water and cook for another five minutes.
Ingredients
- 6 dried shiitake rehydrated and sliced thinly
- 1 ½ cups long-grain rice soaked for 30 minutes in 1 ½ cups water and drained
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 shallots peeled, halved and thinly sliced
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 two-inch knob ginger peeled and sliced (or grated)
- 2 pairs kaffir lime leaves ribs discarded
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 tablespoon chili flakes (we’re partial to Korean chili flakes)
- 2 cups coconut cream
- fish sauce to taste (use salt for a vegan dish)
- ⅓ to ½ cup sultanas
- 1 lemon
- fresh mint leaves to garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in your (clay)pot.
- Saute the shallots, ginger, garlic and kaffir lime leaves just until softened.
- Stir the curry powder and chili flakes and continue cooking until nutty in aroma.
- Add the rice and stir.
- Pour in the coconut cream. Drizzle in two tablespoons fish sauce and stir.
- Spread the sliced shiitake and sultanas on top of the rice.
- Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover the claypot and cook until the rice has soaked up the coconut cream.
- Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the rice and stir to fluff up the grains.
- Taste. Add more fish sauce or lemon juice, or both, to get a good balance.
- Garnish with fresh mint leaves as they give such a refreshing sensation that contrasts well with the spicy curry and chili flakes.
Potatoes and green beans salad
