FoodHappy

While I was taking photos for last week’s post, my brother-in-law, Rob, shot some video. A photographer/videographer/educator by day (and most nights and weekends too), Rob’s gearing up for a new project where he’ll combine off-the-cuff audio with video to tell a story. And though I’m infinitely more comfortable behind the camera, staring down a batch of wholly unintimidating biscuits, I volunteered to serve as Rob’s test subject as he practices in preparation for the project. The resulting video lets you look at me staring down those biscuits, and gives you a quick, two-minute peek into my usual process as I take photos for a FoodHappy post. 

Be kind in your thoughts as I make mistakes in the recipe and mumble my way, sometimes flusteredly, through Rob’s questions. I’m new to video! But mostly, just enjoy Rob’s awesome handiwork.  

If you want to see more of Rob’s work, and learn how to get some sweet photography and videography skills of your own, you can find him over here. 

In ten days’ time, I’ll be leaving for Prince Edward Island. And though I’ve got plenty of work to keep my mind preoccupied before I pack my bags, the part of my brain that controls my conscious thoughts seems to have departed prematurely. So while my feet are taking me down the grey streets characteristic of the post-snow Edmonton spring, my thoughts are already on green hills, steely seas and red dirt roads. And biscuits. 

PEI has been a regular destination for me since 2009, when my parents first started readying themselves for island retirement. And whenever I’ve gone to visit my family, food has been a central part of the experience. Some of the most memorable of those food experiences were those that were new. For example, my first trip into a musty, mosquito-dense forest to hunt for golden chanterelle mushrooms is, for better or worse, not something I’ll be quick to forget. 

But the most satisfying of those food experiences are those that are familiar. Which brings me to the biscuits. The inspiration for today’s post comes from my aunt Lorraine’s cheese biscuits, the recipe for which I shared with you when I was in PEI back in 2011. Alongside a great cup of black coffee, they’re a regular fixture at her and my uncle’s place, where we drop in when we’re driving to and from the province’s capital. In the world of biscuits, where hot baking disappears into happy mouths quickly, these have a particularly short life span.   

The recipe needs no alteration: the biscuits are tender, flakey and perfectly salted. But I was in the mood for something sweet and experimental. So I re-envisioned the biscuit as a pseudo-healthy pseudo-shortcake, adding honey and nutmeg, scaling back the salt, and topping the whole thing off with lemony blueberries.  

Not wanting to leave my newly dairy-sensitive sibling out, I made two batches: one using shortening and milk, as called for by the original recipe, and one using sensitivity-friendly coconut oil and coconut milk. Though neither batch rose as high as the cheese variety (likely due to the inclusion of the more dense whole wheat flour), the texture of the two were comparable and delicious. The coconut variety, I think, lent a nice sweetness to the biscuit, though my two taste testers who tried the coconut version first couldn’t tell there was any coconut in them at all. Mysterious!   

As with all biscuits, these are best hot. So, unless you’re in the market to eat ten-or-so biscuits solo, you should make them when you’ve got company. You could, of course, try to scale the recipe down. But to me, that’s not the point of something like a biscuit. As with so many of the foods that make PEI special, these are the sort of thing you make to bring family and friends together. And when the company’s good, the food tastes even better. 

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Whole Wheat Biscuits with Honey, Nutmeg and Coconut
Adapted from my aunt Lorraine’s cheese biscuit recipe
Makes 10-12 tasty biscuits

Note: I’m digging the coconut version of the biscuits, so I’ve written the recipe with the coconutty ingredients as the default, and the more standard substitution options in parentheses. If you want to make the biscuits vegan, try swapping the honey for an equivalent amount of maple syrup. To make a speedy blueberry sauce, combine 2 cups of frozen blueberries in a saucepan with a tablespoon each of lemon juice and maple syrup. Bubble over medium heat until the blueberries are soft, then spoon over warm biscuits. Makes enough to generously top 6 biscuits. 

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg (preferably freshly grated – it’s extra aromatic!)
¼ cup coconut oil, at room temperature (or use ¼ cup vegetable shortening)
¾ cup cold coconut milk, thinned with water to the consistency of regular milk (or use ¾ cup cold milk or other milk substitute)
1½ tbsp liquid honey 

Directions 
1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Optionally line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. With a pastry blender (or a fork), cut the coconut oil/shortening into the flour mixture until the mixture is coarse and crumbly (the fatty bits should be about the size of peas). Whisk together the coconut milk and honey. Slowly add the liquid to the dry mixture, stirring with a fork, until the dough is moist and pulling away from the side of the bowl.  

3. Dump the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead just until it comes together (no more than 20 times!), shaping in into a rectangle ¾- to 1-inch high. Cut into rounds with a biscuit/cookie cutter or small glass dipped in flour, placing the biscuit rounds on the baking sheet. Gently reform remaining dough and repeat until you’ve used up all your dough. Bake biscuits for 14-16 minutes or until bottoms and tops are lightly brown. Eat as soon as you can!   

Lately, I’ve been making my bloggable meals at my sister and brother-in-law’s place. And between the three of us, through a combination of choice and necessity, we sport nearly every dietary restriction in the book. Meat’s out for me. Dairy and chocolate are out for one of them. And across the board, refined sugars and grains are kept to a minimum (as in: when we don’t want waffles) and eggs are sourced from hens whose diets rival our own. Add to that our personal preferences, and things just get silly. 

Restrictions, as you can see from scrolling through the recipes I’ve shared over the past few weeks, don’t have to keep you from eating well. But when you’ve significantly reduced the number of ingredients at your disposal, you’ve got to use them creatively or be satisfied eating the same few things again and again. And though I’m forever happy consuming pancakes, my sister and brother-in-law are a little more keen on variety. So we smash dates, grate carrots and repurpose bananas to make for sweet treats that are just as satisfying as the ice cream we used to make when dairy was still in play. 

Today’s recipe is cut from the same delicious cloth, where ingredients are re-envisioned to make for a tasty meal that works for all of us. My goal was to come up with a pasta sauce that offered the richness of a dish made with cream or cheese (now restricted) and that didn’t rely on tomato (a preference). The solution: Roasted sweet potato, blended to bring out its rich texture, and spiced with additions like chile and garlic to keep the sauce firmly planted in the realm of savoury. Kale and white beans were added for tastiness and health, and salty feta was kept optional. 

The ingredients can be easily tweaked to work for those of you who have more extensive restriction lists than ours. But the results, I hope, will satisfy even those of you whose only limitation is the amount of space in your belly.

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Pasta with Sweet Potato Sauce
Makes 4-6 generous servings

Ingredients
6 cups of peeled, 1-inch cubed sweet potato
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
400 grams of whole wheat spaghetti
8-10 packed cups of kale, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tsp hot chill flakes
2-3 tsp salt
2 cups of cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup of salty feta

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degress Fahrenheit. Toss sweet potatoes and garlic in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Dump veggies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender through. 

2. Cook pasta in a giant pot of boiling, salted water. Five minutes before the pasta’s tender, dump in the kale. Once the pasta’s tender, drain, retaining 2 cups of the pasta water.

3. While the pasta’s cooking, dropped the baked veggies in the bowl of a food processor with the 2 tbsp olive oil, chill flakes and salt and blend until smooth. With the processor running, slowly pour in as much of the 2 cups of pasta water as is necessary to make the consistency resemble your favourite pasta sauce.

4. Pour the sauce and white beans in the pot with the drained pasta and kale and toss until the pasta’s coated with the sauce. Divide the pasta up between bowls, top each bowl with a bit of feta, and serve. 

It’s been a busy few days here at Chez Happy and so, despite my best efforts, my latest post isn’t quite ready to go. So, while you wait for a new recipe and for me to develop better time management skills, I’ve dipped into the archives to remind you of some tasty favourites from times past. Since you’re probably just as busy as me, I’ve chosen three recipes that’ll let you recycle ingredients from a single grocery run. That, and they’re all de-licious (not to be confused with delicious, which is less delicious than de-licious).

No-knead bread

Of all the recipes I’ve made, this is the one that people talk about the most. And not, I think, because it’s so easy to make (which it is), but because it’s wildly delicious. (In a frightening testament to its tastiness, my two eating companions and I devoured the first loaf I made in a single sitting. And then we did it again.) All the credit for this amazing, kneadless creation goes to Mr. Jim Lahey, but I’m sure happy to be the messenger. The dough needs a day’s worth of resting time before it’s ready to bake, which means we all probably should have started making a batch yesterday. 

Nicoise, sorta

The only reason I haven’t made this salad recently is because I forgot it existed. Don’t be as silly as me – memorize it, bookmark it, print it out, tattoo it to your arm! Don’t let this recipe, in all its glorious fresh, warm, cheesy, potatoey goodness, pass you by!

Roasted tomato sandwiches

Save a few slices of no-knead bread and grab a few extra nicoise ingredients (cheese, tomatoes, arugula, oh my!), and you’ll be ready to make these tasty sandwiches. The combination of fresh arugula, salty cheese, crispy bread and sweet, roasted tomato is nearly unbeatable in a sandwich. Do it up! 

There we have it, friends: Three favourite recipes of posts past, guaranteed to tide you over with tastiness until I get my act together and share something new. Until then, happy eating!

After last month’s ode to the everyday cookie, full of oats and virtue, today’s recipe for a cream-filled, chocolate sandwich cookie modelled after a commercial Oreo seems like a betrayal. Abandoning the coconut oil and maple syrup of cookies past for butter, white sugar and confectioners’ sugar, feels like we’re taking a giant step backwards. But in a sense, that’s the point. 

In my mind, commercial cookies are an exercise in balancing convenience, taste and cost. Noble-ish goals, but cost and convenience often translate into ingredients that are cheap and resilient to the usually-damaging effects of time. The result? A product that tastes good, and for a long time at that, but that doesn’t have the authenticity, freshness and feel-good factor of a homemade cookie. 

So here’s where the step backwards comes in. Making Oreos from scratch obviously doesn’t offer the same convenience as picking up a box from the store (though these aren’t particularly tough or time consuming), and it probably costs an extra couple of dollars too. But in taking the old-school approach – making everything from scratch – you produce cookies that look like cookies. Barely-sweet chocolate varieties made from a sugar-sparkling, cocoa-rich dough, filled with a simple, homemade vanilla buttercream that offer up a tastier texture and nostalgia-inducing flavour relative to their factory-made cousins. Not necessarily healthful, but not unrecognizable as baking either. 

All of this is, I recognize, an exercise in rationalization. In the world of cookie options, these aren’t the most redeeming by a long shot. But if your goal is to improve upon the classic Oreo, or simply to indulge in deliciousness, these are for you. I’m sure the oat-y cookies will understand. 

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Homemade Oreos
Via smitten kitchen
Makes ~three dozen

Cookie Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg, preferably organic

Filling Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (you can get away with slightly less – just taste the filling as you slowly add the sugar!)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (use clear vanilla if you want the filling to be white, like commercial Oreos)

Directions

To  make the cookies:

Position oven wracks in the centre of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a food processor or stand mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined. Add the butter and pulse/stir until the butter is in small clumps. Add the egg and pulse/stir until the dough is uniform in colour and is clumping together. Throughout the process, stir down the sides of the bowl as necessary!

Using your hands, roll slightly rounded teaspoons of dough into balls, placing them two inches apart on the baking sheet. Flatten balls with the palm of your hand just slightly (they should be about 1/3 of an inch high). Bake for 7-9 minutes, until edges are firm and centres are cooked through. Let cool on the tray for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make filling and assemble cookies: 

Once the cookies have cooled completely, make your filling. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using a bowl and a handheld mixer), beat 1 cup of butter on low speed, gradually adding in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until fully incorporated. Increase the speed of the mixer to high and beat for 2-3 minutes, until the filling is light and fluffy.

Transfer filling to a pastry bag or reusable bag with the tip cut off. With the flat side of the cookies facing up, pipe about 1 tsp of filling into the centre of half of the cookies. Top each iced cookie with a second cookie of equal size (you’ll save yourself some messy trial and error if you pair up the cookies before you start piping the icing), pressing slightly to squish the filling out to the edges of the sandwich. 

Tune in on Wednesday!

Around this time last year, I bought a cup of pistachio gelato. This was no ordinary cup of gelato. According to its Sicilian creator, this very cup would, and I quote, “unleash the whole truth on the authentic pistachio”. I tried it, but as a non-Italian, non-gelato-making, pistachio novice, I was unable to verify whether it lived up to its reputation. Being well versed in deliciousness, however, I can verify that it was tasty. And so, I trust, I came into contact with the real deal, the authentic pistachio.

Today’s sangria comes with a similar story. My friend Catalina, source of the recipe, told me that it was the real thing. Not knowing what the real thing was, I asked. She told me this: Since moving to her adopted country of Canada, she’s only ever encountered syrupy sangria, filled with soft fruits like strawberries that go mushy under the wine. Then, while on a detour from an educational adventure in France to visit her family in Spain, she came across this recipe, barely bubbling and full of citrus and stonefruit. On tasting it, she was reminded of the refreshing, barely sweet sangria of her native Colombia. The real sangria. Enamoured, she agreed to the bar keeper’s terms of never revealing the recipe for financial gain, and the recipe was hers.

Though I’ve made and sampled sangria a fair few times, I’d never considered the truth of the drink and had never claimed to have found the real thing. But the imported Spanish recipe that Catalina kindly agreed to share with us is easily the most refreshing sangria I’ve encountered. And when the culinary stars align to bring you a recipe verified by intercontinental sampling experience, you adjust your benchmark: when I think sangria, I’ll be thinking of this.

Fortunately, the execution of the recipe is nowhere near as complicated as the story of origin. Sturdy fruits are combined in a pitcher with lemon soda, gin, vermouth, cinnamon bark and red wine. The blend is left to sit until the flavours meld and, as Catalina says, the fruit is drunk (you’ll know, upon tasting the fruit, whether they’re inebriated).

The original recipe is meant to be made with peaches in addition to the apples and citrus, and consumed under the Spanish sun with stacks of golden, fried and honeyed eggplant rounds. While you wait for peaches to come into season and for your home country to turn into Spain, citrus and apples will do just fine. And feel free to substitute citrus juice for the soda – Catalina tells me it’s OK and, like I said, she’s the expert.
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Catalina’s Real Sangria
Via the lovely Catalina
Makes ~ 2 litres

Ingredients
3 pieces of fruit, sliced thin (I used an apple, an orange and a lemon, but stonefruit works too)
4 sticks of whole cinnamon
1 oz gin
1 oz vermouth
1 litre of lemon soda or citrus juice (or some combination of the two)
1 litre of red wine*
Sugar to taste (optional, and I opted out without consequence!

Directions

In a large (2+ litre) pitcher, combine all of the ingredients, stirring to blend. Let sangria sit in the fridge for 4+ hours, until the flavours have melded and the fruit has absorbed a good dose of alcohol. Serve chilled!

*For tips on choosing a sangria-friendly red or white, and for general tips on making sangria, check out this article. I’ll be giving this recipe a shot with white wine soon and will report back, but feel free to blaze the trail and let me know how it goes!

First up, let me assure you that this isn’t a late addition to the April Fools’ Day festivities. I’m not trying to lead you down the path of disaster; you really should give this recipe a go!

(As an aside, I did want to get in on the April Fools’ action, but I was short on inspiration and unwilling to follow the internet’s suggestion to either disguise meat as cake or disguise cake as meat. Which, I think, works out for the best: you get a recipe for speedy, good-for-you ice cream that only seems too good to be true and I don’t have to glaze a cake to resemble a shiny cut of beef.)

Now, back to the one-ingredient ice cream, made from the humble, spotty banana. As evidenced by the popularity of the ludicrous-looking frozen banana on a stick, the sweet creaminess of the banana is at its best when frozen. And this ice cream, I’d argue, beats the stick-form of the treat any day. A speedy run through the food processor capitalizes upon the creaminess of the fruit, lending it the texture that allows it to be called “ice cream” without question. And because of that blending process, you’re given the opportunity to both add whatever else you want, and dish up as much as you want.

Though this is about as easy as it gets when it comes to dessert, there are a couple things you can do to make sure your ice cream delivers. First, avoid unripe bananas, or you’ll end up with ice cream that’s a bit bitter and gelatinous. Bananas that are fully yellow with a few spots are best. Second, process your bananas as soon as you take them out of the freezer (or as soon as your food processor can handle it). Let the bananas thaw, and you’ll lose the ice creamy texture, ending up with goop instead.

I’ve heard persimmons and mangoes produce similar textures, while additions like honey, frozen pineapple, coconut milk, cocoa or peanut butter would add interesting new flavour dimensions. So experiment; the world is your ice cream maker! Which, I suppose, isn’t strictly true, but it’s no April Fools’ joke either. Happy blending!
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Banana Ice Cream
From TheKitchn, via Aaron
Makes four small servings

Ingredients
Four ripe bananas, peeled

Directions
Line a baking sheet or large plate with parchment paper. Slice banans into half-inch rounds and arrange in a single layer on the parchment-lined plate or baking sheet. Freeze for 1.5 hours or until firm all the way through. Remove from the freezer and blend immediately in a food processor until smooth. Add in anything else you’re planning on tossing in (peanut butter, honey, etc.) and blend again until smooth. That’s it!

I’m short on time today, so I’m going to have to skip the usual meandering preamble and get straight down to it: Guys, you’ve got to try these cookies. Because, when I really think about it (and, being me, I’ve really thought about it), they’re more than just cookies. They’re tiny, delicious cookie-shaped symbols of everything an everyday cookie should be. 

First off, they’re smack-you-in-the-face delicious. As in, you wouldn’t expect them to be so good — they’re pale, lumpy and full of carrots — but the taste and texture entirely betray the appearance. Straight from the oven, the exterior is crisp and delicately coconutty, giving way to a tender interior that offers up the flavours of coconut, ginger, carrot and maple syrup all in one go. And the pecans, perfectly toasted in the baking process, provide a satisfying and buttery contrast to the spicy, soft centre. Taken all together, one cookie can easily turn into two, then four. Consider yourself warned. 

Second, and rather importantly given that you’ve just eaten four cookies, they’re made from good stuff. Think whole grains and fresh veggies; a natural sweetener that kicks the nutritional derriere of white sugar; and coconut oil which, in its unhydrogenated virgin form, may have fewer nutritional shortcomings than many common solid fats (not to mention that it’s apparently good for everything under the sun, from reviving your locks after a dry winter to repelling sand fleas). Quality building blocks, most of which are probably already kicking around in your kitchen. 

Thirdly, they’re small — a far cry from the saucer-sized cookies we’re accustomed to. But that, I think, is how an everyday cookie — the kind you make for friends or when a piece of fruit won’t kill a sweetness craving — should be. Just big enough to sate a craving, but small enough that a second helping won’t make you feel like you’re overdoing it.

In short, they’re the kind of cookies that show you care about the person you’re baking for — yourself or otherwise — not just because of how they turn out, but because of what you put in. They’re a long way from the archetypal chocolate- and butter-loaded discs that stand in for the “homemade cookie”. But maybe, with enough batches of cookies like these ones, we can get the definition changed. 
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Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from 101cookbooks.com
Makes just shy of 3 dozen

Ingredients
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of rolled oats (the 10-minute kind)
1 tsp baking powder
scant 1/2 tsp fine salt
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup maple syrup, at room temperature
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, heated just until melted
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Stir in the chopped pecans and grated carrots until they’re evenly distributed through the flour mixture. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, coconut oil and ginger. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir just until everything’s moistened.

Drop level tablespoons of batter on the prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch or so between cookies. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until tops are beginning to brown and bottoms are golden. Cool on a wire rack just until warm enough to handle. 

Today’s post is brought to you by a long string of happy accidents. I say happy because, for all of the mistakes that were made this weekend as the dish came together, it turned out delicious nonetheless. Which means that if you manage to hold it together better than I did when you make this — and it’s not hard; I just wasn’t on the ball last week — you’re on the way to achieving ultra deliciousness. Not a bad deal, I say.

So the reason for the endless stream of accidents? Last week was hectic. By the time the weekend rolled around, when I was set to head to my sister and brother-in-law’s (home of the yellow tulips and chalkboard ‘A’s) to make a bloggable lunch, I was short on sleep. And when that’s the case, the day goes something like this: cameras are forgotten at home, rice is forgotten at the grocery store; rice is then retrieved from a different grocery store, which takes an unusually long time as I debate whether to buy the suspiciously inexpensive bag of rice decorated with an illustration of a very masculine-looking woman, and I show up late.

From there, onions and garlic are chopped rather than sliced, a timer may or may not be set (naturally, I can’t remember), water is added in the wrong quantity, the critical step of letting the rice sit for 10 minutes is altogether disregarded, and everyone ends up biting down on a rogue clove. Unsurprisingly, the usual ingredient and instruction shots go by the wayside. 

As you’d expect given all the mishaps, the end results weren’t perfect: the rice should have been firmer and the aromatic veggies more visible. But, like I said earlier, the recipe still managed to deliver a warming, fragrant dish that we ate with gusto. Impressive. And, given that it should be easy enough to make the recipe properly — in essence, it’s a one-pot rice dish — I can see it becoming the kind of thing you can turn to time and again when you’re in need of a simple, satisfying meal. I dare say: perfect for when life gets hectic.
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Speedy, Spicy Tomato Biryani
Adapted from food52.com
Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as a side (and doubles easily)

Ingredients
1 cup of uncooked white basmati rice
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp whole cloves
6 cardamom pods (green or white will do)
2 3-inch cinnamon sticks
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2-3 green chiles, cut into thin strips (removing the seeds and membrane is optional; leaving them in will up the spice)
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, with their juices
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro leaves

Directions

1. In a pot or a strainer, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Drop the rice into a medium bowl, cover with cold water, and let soak at room temperature for 20-30 minutes (longer is better, but 20 minutes will do).

2. Heat the butter in medium, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-high until hot but not smoking. Add in the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and cook until fragrant and sizzling, 15-30 seconds.

3. Add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, until the edges begin to brown, 5-7 minutes.

4. Add the ginger, garlic and chiles and cook until garlic is soft but not brown, about 1 minute.

5. Stir in the tomatoes, salt and turmeric and simmer, uncovered, until tomatoes are soft, 5-7 minutes.

6. Drain the rice and gently stir the grains into the saucepan. Stir in the 1.5 cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Cook without stirring over medium-high until the liquid has evaporated from the surface of the dish and craters are forming in the rice, 5-8 minutes. Once craters have formed, stir the rice, bringing the rice at the bottom of the pot to the surface. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 8 minutes more. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let sit, with the lid on, for 10 minutes.

7. Remove the lid, fluff the rice with a fork, and remove the whole spices. Serve up the rice, topped with cilantro.