Thursday, December 30, 2004

Pilaf

Tonight I tried the Frugal Gourmet's version of "Rice and Noodle Pilaf." Not the noodle version, because I wound up using orzo rather than bits of Chinese egg noodles. Still, and I hate to say it, it didn't thrill me as much as a skilletful of Rice-a-Roni. That's got to be treason. Very disappointing. Then again, maybe a garnishing of the right seasonings might make a big difference. The dish worked fine, it just wasn't very exciting. I omitted the salt (because I prefer not to add salt to anything I cook, if possible), so maybe that was part of it. But I also used the leftover porcini mushroom soaking water and, although it added a bit of an undertone, it didn't rev up the dish.

2 comments:

debbie koenig said...

Rice-a-Roni is all about salt! I used to love that stuff growing up--gotta get me some, soon.

Winslow said...

Hi debbie,

Well, yeah, I guess you're right. I probably should read the ingredients on a Rice-a-Roni box the next time I'm at the supermarket. It would probably be very educational.

Another thing that disappointed me about my homemade pilaf compared to Rice-a-Roni was that I had to use a pot and a skillet to prepare it. You can cook the Rice-a-Roni all in a skillet rather than having an extra pot of rice leavings to clean up.

I'm tempted to bewail the corrupting influence of packaged prepared food, but it's probably more constructive to take this as a challenge to invent the best homemade pilaf ever. :)