Nice rice

I'm doing curry and rice again. We eat a lot of curry possibly because it was the first thing Barney learnt to cook when he left home. Any way the curry is stewing away to itself gently and the rice is doing it's thing so I have time to blog, briefly.
Now I am going to tell you how I cook rice. It's one of my few reliable accomplishments and it's really quite nice. Well actually it's delicious.
Ingredients:
32 fluid oz stock
1lb basmati rice
2 oz butter or ghee
(these are the absolutely essential ingredients and the liquid and rice must be in these proportions...you can scale up a bit or down to half but it doesn't work well if you increase the quantities a lot. You probably could use oil but I think the wateriness of the butter is important. And I suppose the onions add a bit of moisture)
1 onion, sliced
6 cloves, 3 cardamons and 1 inch of cinnamon (or lots more if you like but unless you like encountering whole cloves and cardamons in your dinner it's a good idea to remember how many you've used . I have experimented with lemongrass, garlic and ginger....up to you. I don't recommend pieces of lemon peel though)
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder (or some saffron, soaked 30 mins beforehand in hot water and included in the 16 fluid oz water).
Salt to taste if the stock is not salty already.

Melt the butter in a saucepan (which has a tight fitting lid) and gently fry the spices for a minute or two and then add the onion and cook till transparent..or browned...however you like them.
Add the rice and stir and fry until well coated in butter (the original recipe said to wash the rice but I never do). Add the stock (mine is usually hot and made with a stock cube so there's a lot of fizzling and spitting of bright yellow turmeric coloured water...watch out for your favourite shirt). As soon as it begins to simmer, turn it down to the lowest possible heat, cover tightly and LEAVE UNOPENED for 15 to 20 minutes. (I guess 20 minutes if you started with cold liquid) Don't be tempted to uncover and check or stir! It'll be fine as long as the heat is very low. OK? got that? good. go and blog or something.
After 15 minutes, you can look! the rice will be all neat and flat and cooked and the spices and onions all sitting on the top. Remove spices with a fork, fluff the rice gently with the fork lifting from the bottom of the pan. Ready to eat but it will keep warm in a low oven for quite a while if necessary.
I am forever in debt to Charmaine and Reuben Solomon for this recipe after years of assorted puddings and grit!

Extra pictures today as we're off to Lancaster tomorrow to visit Eldest and to see the Britannia Coconut Dancers. Barney is deeply enamoured of them. I will post pictures when we get back and you will see why I think they are funny. It might even be worth trying to upload a small film of them.
Eldest has all kinds of computer stuff and internet so I may be able to post while I'm away or I may simply be too distracted.

Dog's eye view. Also what I can see when I'm crawling around the dining room floor trying to find something I know I put just there. Just a minute ago.

Have a great weekend everyone, enjoy the Easter feasting and have fun.
Oh, I forgot, 1lb of rice serves 4 - 6...greedy or bird like. But it reheats ok ish. Fries up nicely. Freezes ok.