“Ultimate” is a bold statement, perhaps, but this rice dish really is a flavoursome winner. It’s yummy as an accompaniment to grilled fish or poultry, but it also works well with a fragrant butternut squash curry (recipe to follow, if you’d like).

Ultimate savoury rice

Ingredients

• 350g basmati rice
• A green pepper, finely diced
• 3 sticks of celery, finely diced
• 3 shallots, finely diced
• 2 tsp curry powder
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• Splash of oil
• 1½ pint of low-salt vegetable stock
• Optional extra heat: a finely chopped chilli of your preference

Method

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the vegetables and cook over a moderate heat until softened. This should take about 10 minutes or so.
3. Meanwhile, make up the stock (or heat it up in a separate pan if you’ve bought liquid stock).
4. Add the spices to the vegetables and stir for a couple of minutes.
5. Add a little of the hot stock, stir well, and then then tip in the rice, followed by the rest of the stock.
6. Season with salt and pepper to your taste, bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the rice is cooked to your desired “bite texture”. This should take around 15-20 minutes.

Siobhan Blunden-Currie is a head of department in a secondary school. She will be providing recipes every Friday for Tes