"Good evening dear. Would you like to eat a meal cooked with this red powder sent from Hungary by a chap I've only ever met on the internet?"
I didn't introduce the meal like that in actual fact, and if I did I might have been sent out for pizza. Hmmm, there's an idea. Anyway, here's my recipe for what I call Chalkahlom pilau.
- 2 cups of rice
- 2 cups of vegetable stock (or water plus a stock cube)
- 1 can of kidney beans in water
- 4 rashers of smoked bacon, finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of paprika (preferably from someone you've never met on the internet)
- Put the rice in a rice cooker and add the two cups of stock, or add the two cups of water and crumble in the stock cube. (If you use a pot rather than a rice cooker then you might need to adjust quantities.)
- While the rice is heating up, fry the onion in a frying pan or wok on high heat for several minutes, then add the bacon.
- While the bacon is frying, open the can of kidney beans and add its contents (including water) to the rice cooker.
- Return to stirring the frying onion and bacon and keep it on high heat until it just starts to brown and caramelise, then turn to lowest heat.
- Wait until the rice has absorbed almost all the water then sprinkle the teaspoon of paprika over the rice and add the fried onion and bacon.
- Once the rice cooker is done, serve, and keep the emergency services on speed dial in case that chap in Hungary isn't as nice as he seems.