
As a young CIA student, my day one job was to prepare rice pilaf in Skills One with Chef Aldo Bagna... I've always been 'math challenged' & totally messed up the ratio-my pilaf was a disaster. Fortunately I'm an overachiever & had volunteered to prepare lentils, I brought my delicious lentils up for a final grade of A & ditched the pilaf. I've been a pilaf fan ever since.
Rice cooking
I learned to prepare rice from Puerto Rican chef Alfredo Ayala at a CIA Worlds of Flavor conference. He discarded all of my carefully prepared mise en place-poured a bag of rice on the counter and showed me how to pick out the bad grains... he told me he had eaten this rice dish every day of his life (about 65 years or so at that time); showed me to lightly toast whole cloves of garlic, toast the rice and prepare a delicious pilaf with water!
Cilantro Rice
Prep Time: 2o min
Cooking Time: 18 min
Yield: 4 portions
Ingredients
2 oz. Olive oil
3 ea Garlic, whole cloves (peeled)
1 Cup. Long grain Rice
t.t. Kosher Salt & Crushed Black pepper
1 3/4 Cups Water, hot
4 Tbsp Herbs, freshly chopped (cilantro)
How to Prepare Rice


Step 1
Heat olive oil in a sauce pot, when hot add the garlic and lightly cook until golden brown... add the rice and toast it (parch it) to gelatinize the starches and add a little flavor. This will take about 4 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
Step 2
Add the hot water, stirring with a wooden spoon to mix with the rice. Bring the water to a simmer & cover-simmer slowly on top of the stove or place into a preheated oven at 350 F.
Cook until tender, about 18 minutes.

Step 3
Fluff the cooked rice with a fork and fold in the cilantro.
Season to taste.






