Afghan Recipes: Norinj Palau (Rice With Orange)

I love recipes with Orange in it. Over the years I've made quite a few things with Orange Flavoring. Mainly Orange chicken (my fave!). I did make a clementine cake once. And now...rice with orange.

This recipe is really complicated and quite a lot of steps. You make candied nuts/orange pieces, you make chicken stock, you make rice, and finally you make bake it up all together. 

The candied nuts and orange pieces were amazing. It was hard to resist eating them all on their own. Who knew making candied nuts was so easy? You get rid of the candy coating which is pretty disappointing but it still was good in the rice .I would definitely make the candied stuff again for ice-cream though. It would be amazing in some Cardamom or Vanilla Ice-cream. 

I did have a problem with making the syrup..I had to make a second batch because it all went into the nuts but it was an easy fix.

The chicken wasn't that great. It didn't have much flavor compared to the rice . I wouldn't make the chicken part of the dish again. Or at least not like that. But the homemade chicken stock is important to the flavor of the rice. 

The rice was amazing. Who would have thought you can put pistachios and silvered almonds in rice and it would be amazing? I also really loved the pieces of orange peel as well. They weren't bitter at all.  Just nice pops of sweet orange. 

The only thing I could't really figure out is where the cardamom was supposed to come in. They weren't in the instructions at all. I did use saffron...I found some in the back of the cabinet and was excited to finally put it to use! 

I also couldn't find rosewater so I used a bit of Rose wine. Which was quite a lot easier to find! 

It was a lot of work, but the rice was excellent and I would definitely make it again! 

http://www.afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/norinj-palau-rice-with-orange/

It didn't photograph that great but trust me the rice was delicious! 

Random: 

This song sounds like Life Jennings Hypothetically part one. Of course this song came first...it's a pretty trife song but I love it anyway and just thought I would share an old jam!