Rice Cakes with Saffron and Greek Style Yogurt

This is one of those side dishes that goes best along side some delicious chicken or fish – the cakes are fairly rich, but since they incorporate yogurt, they’re not over the top and aren’t totally unhealthy either.  They’d even be really good for breakfast with eggs or even on their own as an appetizer or snack. The idea for this recipe comes from our wonderful neighborhood restaurant Oleana and chef Ana Sortun. The recipe is basically the same from her cookbook ‘Spice‘ with a few variations and additions.

Sortun’s recipe was inspired from the excellent crust texture that you get from baking rice pilaf. For any complete, well rounded plate of food that I make, I’m always looking for a crispy or crunchy element, It’s so important in my mind. It can be a crispy piece of skin on a piece of salmon or chicken, or a crust on a seared or grilled steak These cakes have one side of good crust, but the other side should be left soft.  I made them both ways – having two sides of crust and one and the latter was the better variation.

You can season these with any herb you want – I used lemon thyme, saffron and fresh oregano, but they would be divine with Madras curry powder or fresh basil or even some blanched dark greens like chard…you get the idea. The recipe is simple and delicious and totally adaptable. Here’s how it went down for us:

First thing you want to do is soak the rice in some water for about 30 minutes, then strain it through some more water.  You then want to cook the rice – bring around 4 cups of water to boil in a heavy bottomed pot and add the saffron and a little salt.  Pour the rice into the boiling water and stir it around a bit.  Lower the heat on the pot to a low simmer and cover the pot.  Let the rice cook for around 20 minutes, until basically all fo the water is gone and the rice is cooked through but not totally soft.  Fluff the rice and mix it together to get the saffron incorporated and let it cool for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 F.  Mix together the eggs and yogurt in a large bowl until smooth and combined.  Once the rice has cooled, add it into the yogurt/egg mixture and stir to combine evenly.  Next, add in the lemon zest, thyme and oregano and mix to incorporate.

In a large oven safe pan, start the butter and olive oil over medium heat.  Once the butter browns nicely, add in the rice mixture a small scoop at a time – you should get around 10-12 small cakes or 6-8 large ones in the pan if you can (you can do it in batches too).

Once the bottoms of the cakes start to brown, take the pan and put it into your pre-heated oven and bake until the tops of the cakes have sort of ’set up’ – around 10 minutes.  The bottoms of the cakes should be crusty and the tops still relatively soft.  Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to plates and serving with your protein and/or vegetable of choice.