Pilaf Rice with Chickpeas... and the winner is...

Thank you to all of you who took part in my little giveaway. I copied your names (53) on a list in order of appearance and put them through a list randomizer.

So the winner is Mairi!

Congratulations Mairi, please get in touch to let me know your address (I will also contact you, just to make sure!)

Sue at Couscous and Consciousness and Sasa from Sasasunakku, you came second and third, send me your addresses too, I will send you a little consolation token :-).

List Randomizer

There were 53 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Mairi
2. Couscous
3. Sasasunakku
4. Astrofiammante
5. Colleen
6. Fantasie
7. Merendasinoira
8. Pommer cannelles
9. Manu
10. Barbara
11. Red Nomad OZ
12. Sunflowers8
13. Barton
14. Barbara GF
15. Swati
16. Sweet Snow Flakes
17. Madama Bavareisa
18. Lucy
19. Jennifurla
20. Ananda
21. Agnese
22. Cinzietta
23. Nigel Olsen
24. EliFla
25. Marydap
26. Bhumika
27. Victor
28. Rosemary
29. Francesca
30. Natalia
31. Jodi
32. Pam
33. Eleonora (B&M)
34. Lusks
35. Elena
36. Tami
37. Turista di mestiere
38. Laura
39. Holly Springett
40. Ambra
41. Koralee
42. Michelle
43. Eleonora (Peggy)
44. Civette
45. Ilaria
46. Mary
47. Claudia
48. Saretta
49. Zoe
50. La Gaia Celiaca
51. HeyHarket8
52. Duck
53. Adelina

Timestamp: 2011-01-31 00:39:38 UTC

To all others, it was great to read your messages, and to meet new people, keep in touch and I will do another giveaway next month too! And now for the recipe:

Pilaf rice with Chickpeas

I am still very ‘timid’ when it comes to Indian spices: I am always scared to burn them, or to use too much, or too little. In particular I am so used to have cloves and cinnamon in sweet dishes that I never know how much to use in savoury dishes.

For this pilaf I just filled up a tbsp of spices, as you can see there are plenty of cumin seeds, but just a little cinnamon and a few cloves, plus a few cardamom pods), still, just the right amount for me to flavour a pilaf for four.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp mixed whole spices (cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 generous pinch of salt

300 g basmati rice

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 Wash the rice and soak for 30 minutes.

2 Heat 1 tbsp of oil, sizzle the whole spices and garlic.

3 Add turmeric and salt.

4 Add rice, chickpeas and water (just enough water to cook the rice by absorption)

5 Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©