Don’t let a fancy name fool you; jeweled rice simply means a plain rice that you’ve added colorful ingredients to like green pistachios, red pomegranate seeds, black dried currants, herbs, or anything else that sounds good. We utilize a few of these additives to create a beautiful and healthy rice and shrimp dish for easy weeknight cooking. Bon Appetit, and Get Cheffy!
For the Rice:
- 2 cups Long Grain Rice, rinsed thoroughly in a fine mesh strainer to remove as much surface starch as possible.
- 1 16oz can Coconut Milk
- We use Aroy-D brand
- 2 1/2cups water
- 1/4 cup lime juice (about two limes)
- 2 teaspoons lime zest (about two limes)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 bunch scallion greens
- 1 cup cilantro chopped roughly
- 1/2 cup dried currants, raisins, or other dried fruits
- 3 Carrots peeled, ends trimmed and grated on the largest holes of a box grater
- ~1 teaspoon salt
For the Shrimp:
- 1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- Begin by bringing your coconut milk, lime juice, garlic, soy, honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and two and one-half cups water to a boil in a large Dutch oven over highest heat. Enamel cast iron Dutch ovens are the best tool to cook rice and pasta in because, once a cold/raw item (like rice) is added to boiling water, it’ll drop the overall temperature of the liquid immediately; best cooking results are achieved when that liquid comes back to its boil quickly. Cast iron will do just that. As your liquid comes to the boil, taste it for seasoning. Remember that this is the cooking liquid that your rice will soak up, so it can be strongly seasoned; add more salt, soy, honey, lime juice, etc. as needed while it comes to a boil. Once your liquid is at a boil, add your rinsed rice, stir, to prevent sticking, and bring back to a boil. Once your liquid comes back to a boil again, drop the temperature down to a low simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add your shrimp, 1 teaspoon of table salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and toss to thoroughly coat your shrimp. Once coated, begin to layer your shrimp in your largest non-stick pan, snugly fitting, but not overlapping, your shrimp; you want each shrimp to lay flat, so it’s in full contact with the pan. Move your pan to a burner, and place the burner on its highest heat. Cook, uncovered, over highest heat for about 4 minutes. After 4 minutes flip each shrimp, and allow to cook for another ~1-2 minutes on their other side. Depending on the size of your shrimp, they may need more or less time on their first side. Once your shrimp are cooked, turn your heat off, and set them aside.
- After 10 minutes of simmering your rice over low heat, check it for doneness by tasting a few grains. 10 minutes will probably not be enough time to fully cook your rice through, so cover, and continue cooking over a simmer, checking every ~3 minutes until the texture of the rice is cooked through. Once your rice is cooked, but still Al dente, turn off your heat, and add your grated carrot, and dried currants. Gently stir to combine, and recover your rice, with the heat still off, for about ~5 minutes to let your vegetables and rice steam together. After 5 minutes, gently stir in your cilantro, scallion greens, lime zest, and shrimp. Serve with Sriracha, sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, or any other garnish.
GET CHEFFY TIP!- As mentioned, this jeweled rice can have anything you like added to it. Pomegranate seeds and pistachios are common in Persian jeweled rice, so mix and match what you like, and what you think will look and taste best (the “jeweled rice police” will not come and arrest you if you add something unusual). When you add your item to your dish can be critical, however; notice that we added our raw carrot and dried currants to the rice as soon as the rice was done cooking, and allowed our carrots and dried currants 5 minutes in the heat to steam. We added our more delicate additions (like our cilantro and scallion greens), afterwards and did not allow them to steam in the rice. Consider this staggered approach when you add your items.
Get Cheffy 