Thai Green Rice

Vegetarian

This, thankfully, is a Thai recipe that doesn't require all the speciality ingredients that are sometimes so elusive.

The list of ingredients seems rather long, but it is made in moments and has a lovely fragrant flavour.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Watch how to prepare garlic in our video. Just click the image to play.

This recipe is from Delia's Complete How to Cook. Serves 4

method
Ingredients

Method

Begin by dissolving the creamed coconut in 8 fl oz (225 ml) boiling water, then place it in a food processor with the garlic, chillies, ginger and coriander stalks, whizzing until everything is finely chopped.

Leave this aside while you heat the oil over a gentle heat in the frying pan, then add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, peppercorns and cashew nuts to the pan and sauté everything gently for about 1 minute. Next, add the onions and continue to cook over a medium heat until they become softened and pale gold in colour, which will take 8-10 minutes.

Next add the rice, then stir once and cook for another 2-3 minutes. After that, add the coconut mixture, give everything a stir, and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Now add the peas, salt and 15 fl oz (425 ml) hot water, bring it all up to a gentle simmer, then cover with the lid. Turn the heat to low and let everything cook very gently for 8 minutes; use a timer here, and don't lift the lid. Watch how to make Perfect Rice in our Cookery School Video on this page.

Then remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and cover the pan with a cloth for 10 minutes before serving. Finally, remove the pieces of cinnamon, sprinkle in the lime juice and the finely chopped coriander leaves, then fork the rice gently to separate the grains. Garnish with the reserved whole coriander leaves and serve with Thai Creamed Coconut Chicken, see recipe below.