What Spices Are Used In Rice Pilaf

Rice pilaf sounds fancy, but it is a simple and savory dish to make as a side dish or a main meal.

Rice pilaf, or pulao, is a dish in which rice is cooked in broth and flavored with spices. It can be used as a side dish along with a main dish of meat or vegetables. Pilaf made with a hot curry also goes well with cold yogurt drinks. The spices that go into simpler pilaf dishes are readily available, though some of them might be expensive.

Saffron

Saffron is a very expensive spice. The problem with saffron is that it is the stigma, the female reproductive part, of the plant crocus sativus. The threads must be picked by hand and then dried, and the crocus only has three stigma. The cook only needs a pinch of saffron to flavor or color a meal, and to impart to it a wonderful aroma.

Cinnamon and Cardamom

Cinnamon is the bark of the tree cinnamomum zeylanicum, which grows wild in western India and Sri Lanka. Young trees are pruned to induce new shoots from which the bark is stripped, bundled and allowed to ferment. The outer layer of the bark is scraped off, the remainder rolled into quills and dried. Cinnamon can be added to a dish in its rolled quill form, then removed when cooking is done, or used more commonly as powder. Cardamom is also expensive and native to Indian and Sri Lanka. It's also found in Malaysia and Guatemala. The plant is a member of the ginger family. The best cardamom comes in pods that resemble tiny corn tamales. When they're opened, the tiny dark seeds give off a delicious, peppery sweet aroma. They are best ground in a mortar just before use.

Black Pepper and Cayenne Pepper

Black pepper is an ancient spice that's been grown and coveted for hundreds of years. The plant is a vine with spikes of small flowers followed by fruits called peppercorns. They turn from green to red and then black. Then they're sun or oven dried. Pepper is best ground and used immediately because black pepper powder runs a risk of tasting like dust. Cayenne, or red pepper, is crushed red chili pepper. It's not related to black pepper. Fresh, it brings heat to any meal it's used in.

Curry

Curry is a mix of spices that can include turmeric, coriander and cumin. It originated in the Indian subcontinent and spread all over the world. There are not only regions that have their own brand of curry, but families who have their own brand of curry. Turmeric is a plant that looks very much like ginger, with a spike of beautiful flowers. The rhizomes, fleshy underground roots, are where the bright orange yellow turmeric is collected. Cumin is originally from North Africa. The fruit has a very hot, smoky flavor and an odor that some people dislike. Coriander is from the eastern Mediterranean, and the dried leaves and seeds are used.

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