Rice with Dried Apricots, Raisins, Candied Fruit and Nuts

Name: Sweet Rice with Dried Apricots, Raisins and Nuts
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Rice, parboiled 1 cup (180 g); Water for boiling the rice; Dried apricots 0.5 cup (70 g); Raisins 0.5 cup (70 g); Candied fruit (papaya) 0.5 cup; Walnuts (shelled) 0.5 cup (50 g); Butter 50 g; Brown sugar 1-2 tsp (5–9 g); Saffron (marigold) a pinch; Vanilla to taste; Cinnamon to taste; Water, hot 2 tbsp

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1 hour

Rice with dried apricots is a great dish for a work lunch: cook it in the morning and pack it in a food thermos. For some reason people assume that sweet dishes are always dessert, the final course that leaves pleasant memories and flavors.

Yet many cuisines around the world have dishes where the taste of meat or fish is combined with sweetness. Many Chinese dishes, for example, are an unimaginable mix of sour and sweet, sweet and hot, and so on. I read somewhere that such combinations come from balancing the properties of foods in terms of Yin and Yang. That’s beyond us. But even without going into mysticism and philosophy, at home we often make our own version of kung pao: chicken with peanuts in a sauce of soy sauce and brown sugar.

Swedish meatballs, which Karlsson loves so much, are served with lingonberry jam. We make them that way too, and they are a delightful dish.

By the way, have you ever tried candy with hot pepper? It’s something else!

The best-known dish of the East is pilaf, usually made from rice or grain, with vegetables and meat. Take any book on pilaf and it will tell you in detail that pilaf is meat, carrots, onion and rice.

And it will mention only in passing that there are also vegetable, fruit and dessert pilafs. It will give a few recipes, but without much emphasis. It’s hard to say whether a sweetish pilaf of rice with fruit is a dessert. I wouldn’t say so, because you can eat a great deal of it, and without meat.

Dried fruit is fruit or berries that have been dried or cured. It’s a unique thing: it hardly spoils and keeps all its nutrients. Interestingly, dried fruit doesn’t need cold storage.

I remember that as a child my favorite dried fruits were raisins and dates. And now we cook sweet rice in the morning, pack it in a food thermos, and at lunch at work everyone envies us.

12 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

2 servings

For the rice
Rice, parboiled 1 cup
(180 g)
Water for boiling the rice
For the dried fruit
Dried apricots 0.5 cup
(70 g)
Raisins 0.5 cup
(70 g)
Candied fruit (papaya) 0.5 cup
Walnuts (shelled) 0.5 cup
(50 g)
Butter 50 g
Brown sugar 1-2 tsp
(5–9 g)
Saffron (marigold) a pinch
Vanilla to taste
Cinnamon to taste
Water, hot 2 tbsp

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the dried fruit and nuts

To make rice with dried apricots and nuts, you don’t need to soak the dried fruit as is usually done. During cooking the apricots, raisins and candied fruit get enough moisture.
Sort through the apricots, raisins and candied fruit so you don’t come across small stones, bits of pits or even twigs. Pull the remaining stems off the raisins especially carefully.
If the apricots have pits, remove them, although you can always buy pitted ones.
Rinse the dried fruit with water to remove dust, since it is dried and stored in the open air.
Remove the partitions and any bits of shell from the walnuts.
Toast the nuts in a dry, very hot pan. Or, a little easier, put the nuts on a plate and microwave them for 30-60 secs. They toast very well this way, by the way.

Boiling the rice

It’s better to take a low-sticky, fluffy rice, such as parboiled. Parboiled is usually sold as “steamed”.
Rinse the rice.
Boil the rice until done, usually no more than 20 minutes. If you know how to cook fluffy rice, do it the usual way. If that’s difficult, you can cheat: boil the rice in plenty of water, then drain it in a colander and let the water run off.
It’s fine if the rice is slightly undercooked, it will finish in the pan. It’s worse if it’s overcooked, because then it falls apart into mush.

Dried fruit in butter

Melt the butter in a large sauté pan.
As soon as the butter melts, add the walnuts to the pan and fry over medium heat for 3-4 mins.
Add the prepared dried fruit, all at once: raisins, apricots and candied fruit. Stirring, fry for another 4-5 minutes.
Add 1-2 tsp brown sugar (5–9 g), a pinch of saffron, and vanilla and cinnamon to taste. The rice should be fragrant, and the saffron gives it a yellowish color.
Regular sugar will do in principle, but not honey: honey is not supposed to be heat-treated. If you want honey, it’s better to add it at the end, to the finished rice.
Add 2 tbsp hot water, and once it boils cover the pan with a lid and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Rice with dried fruit

Add the boiled rice. Mix thoroughly.
Poke a few holes in the layer of rice, so the moisture escapes from the rice actively and it turns out fluffy.
Cover the pan with a lid and leave it over low heat for 10 minutes: the rice has to steam.
Divide the finished sweet rice among plates, or put it on a large platter, and serve.
Rice with dried apricots is very good eaten just as it is, as a main dish. Or you can brew a nice tea to go with it.