Basic Home Ec. Pilaf....

Here are a few pilaf recipes I came across while searching through my recipe vintage boxes. I was hoping for a Valentine recipe, but didn’t find anything that caught my attention.  So I chose this comfort food instead.
Pilaf was the first recipe I copied onto an index card and filed in my personal recipe box. It was a favorite beginning recipe in those mandatory home economics, food preparation classes. My basic recipe has long been transformed and undergone a kitchen metamorphosis since those days. It continues to be one of our family favorites.
Notes: For my own version, I use butter, long grain white rice and the thicker coiled vermicelli. Generally 2 to 2 1/2 cups of liquid for each cup of rice works well.  You may want to try olive oil mixed in with the butter.

Pilaf Recipes
Carol’s recipe from 1980
2 cups rice
2 cans chicken broth and
1 cube butter        
2 bouillon cubes
2 coils vermicelli, broken salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter, add vermicelli and brown. Bring broth to a bubble. Put melted butter and browned vermicelli in a casserole; then add rice and hot both. Put lid on and bake 30 minutes (or until rice is done) in a 350 degree oven. This has lots of butter!

Katie’s recipe from 1977
3 Tablespoons of butter
2/3 cup water
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup broth (beef or chicken)
1 small can mushrooms
1 cup uncooked rice
Sauté onion, mushrooms and rice in butter. Cook until rice is slightly browned. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Lower fire and steam for 15 to 20 minutes or this can be put into a covered casserole dish. Put into a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes.
Fresh mushrooms work too. I couldn’t bring myself to use canned mushrooms.

Gracie’s Recipe from 1980
1 cup Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 coil of angel hair
3 cups of water
½ cube margarine
salt to taste: 2 teaspoons
Garlic powder, optional
Brown angel hair and margarine. Be sure it’s dark brown. Add rice, water, salt, bouillon and garlic powder. Bring to a boil. Simmer until water disappears. The only difficulty with this recipe was trying to open the box of rice without spilling it all over the kitchen.
Hints: Mushrooms and Shoe Laces. Never immerse mushrooms in water when cleaning. They will absorb too much liquid. For prime mushrooms, buy only those with closed caps. The gills should not be showing.
Mary Ellen’s Best of Helpful Hints, 1980 - To whiten laces, wash them in sour milk.
Happiness is Italian Cooking, 1967 - I found a recipe called Dog (War) Soup used during World War II. No, it doesn not call for a real dog. Do any of you have similar recipes?
- Ann Marie Bezayiff is a local food columnist and published author who lives in Strathmore. She can be reached at ambolor@ocsnet.net.