Greek Rice

Every now and again I try a recipe that I think looks intriguing but that ends up not being that great. I'd had my eye on a stuffed squid recipe for some time. It ended up looking pretty, just as nice as the picture in the recipe book:


However, there was something about the texture of the squid (fairly rubbery) that was an unappealing contrast to the texture of the rice filling. When cooking squid, the rule is typically cook it really fast or really long; anything in between is a recipe for dining on rubber bands. Unfortunately, to obtain a safe internal temperature on the eggs in the stuffing, I think it ended up crossing the "tender" boundary... if you can ever really call squid tender.

What was a pleasant surprise was how delicious the filling was. There was more filling than was needed to fill the squid I had, so I decided to saute it up with some added scrambled egg. What a delightful combination of flavors! The contrast of the sweet currents, the tangy lemon, and the nutty edge from the pine nuts was fabulous... and beautiful! While I can't recommend the squid application, I can whole-heartedly recommend this rice dish.

You need pre-cooked rice for this dish. Either use left over rice or cook some ahead of time. You need 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice. I advise toasting the pine nuts first. Nuts just have so much better flavor when they're toasted.


Greek Rice
Yield: 4 side servings

2 TBS olive oil
2 scallions, diced
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup currents
2 TBS minced fresh parsley
2 tsp lemon zest
3 eggs, divided

Mix the scallions, rice, pine nuts, currents, parsley, and zest with one of the eggs that has been slightly beaten in a bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Scramble the two remaining eggs in the skillet. When the eggs are almost cooked through, add the remaining ingredients and saute, stirring regularly, until the rice is heated through.