Very Red Rice

55 minutes

Serves 4

Vegetarian

This recipe is from Delia's Complete How to Cook.

This was a recipe created for Comic Relief, hence the title, and I always have a good giggle thinking back to the filming of those hilarious cookery demonstrations that were later screened on television.

It's also an excellent recipe – good with any barbecue dishes or with Oven-baked Pork Chops or Chicken in Maple Barbecue Sauce.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Watch how to cook long grain rice in our video here.

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Method

First heat the oil and butter in the pan over a medium heat.

Then turn it up to high and stir-fry the chopped pepper and onion until they are softened and slightly blackened at the edges – 6-7 minutes. After that, turn the heat right down, add the red rice to the pan and stir it around to get a good coating of oil. Now pour in 15 fl oz (425 ml) boiling water and the salt and stir again.

When it reaches simmering point, put the lid on and let it cook very gently for 40 minutes. After that, don't remove the lid, just turn the heat off and leave it for another 15 minutes to finish off. Watch Delia's method for cooking Perfect Rice in our Cookery School Video on this page.

Garnish the rice with the sliced spring onions and the watercress.