Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Good Life

In order to have a good life one must have rice.
First you have to heat a skillet on the stove to medium with a bit of olive oil. Then you sprinkle in some fresh rosemary, snapping off the stems with your thumbnail so that your fingers smell like pine and the wild outdoors all day.
When the rosemary sizzles in the olive oil you know it's time to put in the chopped onion, and when that's all brown, the garlic goes in. And when all of that's all brown and sizzly, it hops out of the pan and sits in a bowl, waiting patiently for its turn again.
Into the hot pan goes a small puddle of chicken broth with more olive oil, sprinkled with the sunshine and lemon taste of coriander, grains of onion and garlic. That's when the rice comes in, stirred into the hot, oily pan until it sizzles and gets brown and crunchy on the bottom. The onions and garlic get stirred back in and it cooks a little more, until it is ready for a deep green bowl and your tongue.

1 comment:

Pliny The Dreamer said...

mmm. Makes me want to cook. Or read a food book. Or maybe both. Too bad there's enough holiday leftovers in the fridge to fuel a coup in a small, struggling, third-world country. Maybe I'll at least make some popcorn on the stove in a big dark pot. Ok, saliva dripping...