Moroccan style rice with okra

I've lived in Cebu for about 3 months now and try as I might, it's really tough eating out alone. So i cook at home usually just for one. This particular rice is interesting because the okra is mucilaginous (Phew!) and releases a gooey slimey substance that lends itself to the rice and helps lock in the starches that rice tends to release while cooking so your grains dont stick together and you have a fluffy cooked rice where the grains dont stick but still retain that nice moist texture that makes rice the worlds most common staple. You can cook this in a frying pan, provided it has a tight fitting cover. If you dont have one, just use a small crock pot.

1 cup rice (unwashed but make sure you use clean rice, long grain preferred but any other will do except malagkit)
2 cups chicken stock
7 pcs okra (choose the smallest you can find)
1 tsp of raisins
1 tsp of uncooked, unsalted peanuts or almonds
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk of spring onion about a tablespoonful when chopped
olive oil for sauteeing
dash of turmeric (whats a dash? about half a teaspoonful)
half a dash of coriander
ground pepper to taste


start as always wtih your garlic and onions sauteed in olive oil until translucent. Lower the flame to medium and to this you add the okra and the rice. Sautee briefly to coat the rice and okra with the oil then to this add the turmeric and coriander. Most likely your coriander would be dry so you have to cook out the raw essence of coriander and allow the oils remaining to releaase themselves. It will start getting fragrant and at this point add the peanuts. As it starts to sizzle, add your stock gently but completely. You dont want the mixture to cool down too quickly. The mixture should start boiling within a minute from when you add the stock, you could also keep the stock hot if you like. As it boils, give the mixture a stir to distribute the okra evenly over the top. Lower the flame to its lowest possible and cover the pan.

Cooking rice is not an art but a science. For every measure of rice, 1.5 mesures of liquid. if you use broth use 1.75 measures. Once the rice and liquid mixture starts to boil, lower the flame to its lowest point and cover. In 15 minutes it will be done, so shut the flame and let the rice rest covered for another 5 minutes so that the starches in the rice will retreat back into the rice mixture and not stick to the sides of the cooking vessel.

After 5 minutes of rest, you must fluff or stir the rice. Now you can serve but otherwise, covered, it will stay warm for at least another 20 minutes.

Of course white!! More like a chardonnay or Albarino. Nothing too sweet.