Shitake Mushroom Rice Pilaf

I love rice pilaf! Fluffy, wonderful rice, extremely tasteful and very easy to make! This is a side dish that can be added to a number of recipes. Interested?

Ingredients
1+ cup of chicken broth
1 cup of long grain rice
1/2 of an onion, chopped coarsely
1 TBS of butter
4 dehydrated shitake mushrooms, soaked in 1 1/4 cups of hot water

Get all of the ingredients out and work with the mushrooms first. I use the dehydrated shitake mushrooms as I use some of the water from soaking them in the recipe. Add the mushrooms and water to a heat proof bowl and let them soak until the mushrooms plump up completely, approximately 1/2 hour. While these are soaking, measure out the chicken broth, the rice and chop the onion. Place the butter into a fry pan.

When the mushrooms are plump, cut them into small pieces and cut out the center stem. Discard the stem, and reserve one cup of the water used for soaking the mushrooms, straining the fluid once.

The ingredients for the rice pilaf

Heat the fry pan with the butter. When the butter melts, add the onion.

Start with the onions...

Stir for a couple of minutes and then add the rice and mushroom bits.

Add the rice and the mushrooms

Stir until the rice achieves a lovely brown color.

Brown the rice

Then slowly add the broth and mushroom liquid.

Add the broth to the browned rice

Once this boils, turn the heat to low and cover. Set your timer for 18 minutes, and do not lift the cover while this cooks.

When done, fluff the rice and serve!

Serve up the rice pilaf!