Authentic Armenian Pilaf

Ingredients

Instructions

Melt the butter in saucepan. Break up the coils of vermicelli and saute in the butter until golden brown. Add the rice and saute for a few minutes.

Reduce heat to low briefly (a minute or two ) to let it cool slightly, then pour in broth. Add salt. Turn up heat and bring to a boil. When it boils, stir it a couple times, cover and turn heat to low.

Allow to cook for 20 mintues. You should be able to see steam coming out of the pot while it is cooking. The liquid should be absorbed and the rice should be soft. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 105-20 minutes before serving. Do NOT LIFT THE LID during the resting period!!! This is one key secret to good pilaf. Armenian children learn this at an early age. Armenian chefs have been known to chase people out of the kitchen, like a guard dog after the mailman, for lifting the lid on their pilaf.

When the resting period is over, stir it once more with a fork to fluff it up and serve it hot!

Variations:
The most important thing is the rice-to-broth ratio. Everything else is variable. Here are some ideas:

Omit vermicelli and replace with another pasta like orzo or Israeli couscous for example, or replace with pine nuts, diced onions, fresh raw oysters (shucked and quartered) cooked garbanzo beans, currents or raisins, chopped poultry innards (liver heard and gizzard).

You can substitute almonds too, but remove them before you would toast them in the butter and remove from the pan before adding rice. Then when the rice is cooked garnish with the almonds.

The chicken broth could be replaced with beef, lamb or veggie stock, or reduce the broth by 1 cup and replace the additional cup with tomato juice, keeping the volume of liquid the same as the original recipe. Rice can be replaced with bulghur (cracked wheat). This is especially good when made with onion instead of vermicelli.

The possibilities are endless but the above are some of the traditinoal ones I've seen.