Recipe - Chilau

500 g Rice, basmati
4 tablespoon Salt
4 tablespoon Butter

Wash the rice well in a colander then put it in a bowl with 2 tablespoon salt and
lukewarm water to cover. Stir and let it soak overnight if you can, or at
least for 1 hour. The longer the better.

Fill a large saucepan with plenty of water, add 2 tablespoon salt and bring to the
boil. Sprinkle the drained rice in gradually and let it boil vigourly for
about 4 to 8 minutes. The time depends upon the batch of rice but is ready
when if you bit on a grain of rice you consider it to be slightly
underdone, slightly harder than you would like to eat it. Drain quickly and
rinse in lukewarm water.

Put 2 tablespoon butter and let it melt in the bottom of a pan, add all the rice
and stir. Cover with 2 more tablespoon of butter. Stretch a clean cloth over the
top of the pan, put the lid on the top and lift the corners of the cloth up
over it.

Leave the rice to steam for 20 to 30 minutes over a very low flame. It
should be cooked and separate. The crisp, brown, golden crust that forms at
the bottom is considered a delicacy to be offered firs to guest. It is
called 'dig'. Remove it with a spatula and serve separately.

From: A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini