"What, you don't like rice? How could a billion Chinese people be wrong?

So....today my Jamie @ Home box arrived. Exciting times! However, tempered slightly by a report from a friend that they had reservations on quality. With this in mind, I decided to be sure I was happy with what I had been sent, I'll be doing this by testing the goods!

This brings me to my first choice to blog about, it was actually a really easy decision (although sadly not bacon as I promised someone). I have a friend, I've known her since University. She's a lovely, gorgeous, creative mother of one. She also happens to be half-Burmese. I once went to visit her at her family's home in Surrey and her father, he's the Burmese one, cooked us a meal. I can not stress the impact his cooking had on my liking of Oriental food; I was already obsessed with Chinese food, you can ask anyone!

The thing that struck me most was that he cooked his rice in the oven in a pot. I was fascinated, having been bought up on pan on hob and the occasional starchy mess that this can result in I was astounded to see fluffy rice emerge from an oven.

He proceeded to tell me it was the proper way to cook rice and given that his meal was by far the best I've tasted in terms of Oriental cooking, I have to defer to his superior knowledge. So, when I saw the following it was obvious what I was going to try first!

Please excuse the celeriac at the back.......

This, if you didn't know, is a rice pot! Lunch was mine for the taking! I followed the instructions below and then added a sauce at the end which I'll run through with you.

It was quick and simple, I used a herb infused stock pot, but that part is purely your choice. And the result was quick yummy! Full disclosure time, it was slightly underdone, now, that could be because I didn't wait for the oven to reach full temp (and I've cleaned off the temp control numbers so I don't ever know what temp the oven is...yeah, I know, well done). I will report back again when I've had another try.  But the rice looked lovely and fluffy and I quite like it with a slight bite so....

To the sauce! I added a raw egg, spring onions, sweet chilli sauce, soya sauce, Chinese five spice and the juice of one lime. I just stirred it in at the end straight into the rice pot, no messing. Also, I've yet to wash it up, so I can't say if it's better or worse than a normal pan just yet.

Yum. As they say in the adverts...here's the science bit:

This is on my list to purchase for myself! Feel free to go to my site Shameless Plug if you fancy one yourself.

But in the meantime, I'd like to thank Sylvia's dad for introducing me to the concept and making me yummy food, and to Sylvia herself for being my lovely friend ;). More on the lovely Sylvia, Burma, Child Sponsorship and her creative endeavors at a later point!