1264. Baked Rice with Tomato and Garlic Confit

This, without exaggeration, is the best rice I have had in a long time. It's a bit strange that it is baked, but we are no strangers to baked rice here at MCW (hello, mandi). The flavor profile is just beyond. A whole bunch of cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves are confit-ed in another whole bunch of fresh coriander stems and olive oil, before the rice gets added and baked for a while longer.
The sitting time after the rice is baked is absolutely essential as, by some form of legal magic, the steaming finishes the rice off perfectly, and I mean perfectly.

Ingredients:

800 g cherry tomatoes
12 large garlic cloves or 25 small, peeled and cut in half if large
4 large green onion cut into 3 cm pieces
1 1/4 cups coriander stems cut into 4 cm lengths
1 tsp dry thyme
4 small cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup 100 ml olive oil
salt and fresh cracked pepper
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
2 1/2 cupsboiling water
coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F
Arrange the tomatoes, garlic, green onion, coriander stems, thyme and cinnamon sticks in a large high sided casserole or baking dish (about 20 x 30 cm).
Pour in the olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.
Place in the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour, till softened.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the rice all over the vegetables, but do NOT stir them together. Set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 450F
Sprinkle 3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper over the rice.
Carefully pour the boiling water evenly over everything. Seal the dish tightly with aluminium.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
Remove and set aside for 10 minutes. Do not remove the foil. The residual steam will finish the rice off perfectly.
Remove the foil, sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves, stirring them gently into the rice.

صحة و عافية