Egyptian rice with vermicelli- Ruz bil shareya

To make rice the Egyptian way is an art and its hard to find out how to create it perfectly.
Egyptians take their rice pretty serious and every young woman will have to learn how to make Egyptian rice before she get married. It took me quite a while to figure out how to do it.
I took some advices from my sister in law and mother in law in order to perfection it.

What you need:

1,5 cups Egyptian rice

¼ cup shareya / vermicelli

3 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon Butter

½ Teaspoon salt

1 cube vegetable broth ( that’s optional, some Egyptians use it and some don’t, traditionally its not used)

How to make Egyptian Rice:

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized bowl.
Insert the Shareya/vermicelli and let it fry for 1 minute. It should get a bit brown but not too dark!.

 

2. Now add the rice and mix it well with the shareya/vermicelli.
Leave it on the fire for 3-5 minutes. The fire should be medium heat.

3. Meanwhile boil 3 cups of water. You can use a water boiler or do it on the stove if you don’t have a water boiler. Important is that the water is boiling hot when adding it to the rice!

4. Add the salt to the rice.
Now add the 3 cups of water andthe butter to the rice. Be careful as the water might splash up a little.
Stir a few time ( add the broth now, if desired).

5. Cover the bowl and turn the stove on to low fire.
Leave it for about 20 - 25 minutes. Don’t uncover it or remove the cover.
After 20 - 25 minutes turn off the heat and leave the cover on the bowl.
Leave the rice covered for another 10 -20 minutes than its ready to serve.

The secret is to add boiling water to the rice, if you use cold water the rice will get sticky. Same will happen if you stir the rice while cooking. Its important to only stir the rice a few time after adding the water and after that to leave it to itself!

Of course you can make the rice without shareya too. You wont have to change anything to make it without the shareya.

It might be a little difficult to get Egyptian Rice if you don’t live in Egypt , but you might find it online.

If there’s no way to find it than you can use round grain rice from your local store, but it wont taste exactly the same like the Egyptian one.