Chalaw

Chalaw is not a side in the American sense. It is the plate everything else lands on. The rice is rinsed of its starch, soaked, then steamed until it is fluffy and dry enough to take sauce without turning heavy. No broth, no carrot, no raisin — that is qabuli. This is the quiet rice that sits next to kofta, qorma, and anything with a gravy. Most tables need more of it than they think.

Ingredients

• Basmati ricewhite, long-grain
• Water
• Salt
• Oila little, to keep grains separate