(1) SOAK RICE
While the chicken was slowly soaking up the ingredients, Hayley washed the rice and left it aside to soak for 30 minutes. After that, she strained it as above.
(2) FRY ONIONS
I was given the responsibility of frying the onions. Yeah, the easiest of the task was handed to me, and I had to bungle it. Hamidah said I was going in and out of the kitchen to check the video, that I kinda left the onions to brown too long. So later when You see the dark brown onions when the lid is removed from the pot, just pretend they are uh, 5 shades lighter. :D
(3) BOIL WATER
Meanwhile, Hamidah boiled half a pot of water. Added some cumin seeds. When the water was boiling, she added the strained rice (that has been soaked for 30 mins) into the boiling water. Added sea salt and oil. Tasted to make sure the water was a LIT - TLE bit saltish. Supposed to boil until the rice was HALF-cooked. So, once the rice started dancing in the pot, it was ready to be removed. At this point, the rice was not cooked yet, but we should have just removed it immediately. We didn't.
Our mistake was to dilly-dally a few minutes longer as we debated whether to remove - NOW?
NOW?
NOW?
Next time, we'll just remove at the first NOW. So, strained immediately and let it stand.
(As a result of the Now Now Now, the rice was a little bit on the softer texture although it was finger lickin' good...)
