I have some Basmati rice coming, eager to try it.
Regarding your bean recipe, I can take some ideas from it but I found a Chef John recipe on yt for Creole red beans and rice. It's not loaded with spices but too much hot for me. But I got some Mayocoba beans to try and will use those, make the creamy version and top with some Basmati rice which I hope is fluffy and packed into a little ramekin then dumped on top. Actually my ramekins are either too small or too big. I'll have to figure something out.
Then Chef John topped it all with some finely chopped green onion tops I think. It looks soooooo good. And rice and beans never appealed to me but may become a staple in my diet.
Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I am shocked that the big grocery store doesn't have any smoked ham hocks so I will have to go to the butcher's or another store for one to go with Andouille sausage I will need for the Creole beans.
Happy 4th of July!
I cook basmati in a high-end Tiger 10 cup Japanese Rice cooker, always with superb results, but Sanyo makes a smaller rice cooker for ~$100 which is good. For basmati in the rice cooker, I use 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water. I add 1 Tbs of olive oil for each cup, and 1 Tps of salt. Sometimes, for a stronger flavor I use toasted sesame oil instead. I add a pinch of Cayenne pepper, and a large pinch of Saffron flower too. Saffron flower is not the saffron you buy for $10 a gram, but the entire flower which is maybe $2 an ounce. I find it in Hispanic grocery stores as Zaffron flower.
Another basmati recipe I enjoy (my own) uses Kalijira rice, which is a baby basmati with each grain only about 1/8" long. I fry the Kalijira until translucent, add a chopped Hungarian wax pepper or two, add water and salt, golden raisins, and chopped cashew nuts then cook as normal. It is really good.