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Lâpa

Cooked far past the point where rice is done, because the collapse is the dish and not a fault.

Not vegetarian — contains chicken stock.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS COOKED FAR PAST THE POINT WHERE RICE IS DONE, because the collapse IS the dish. Every other rice on this site is about separate grains -- rinsed, fried, measured, not stirred. This one is the opposite in every respect: unrinsed short-grain rice in seven times its volume of stock, stirred, and simmered for fifty minutes until the grains have burst and released their starch and the whole pan has gone to a thick savoury porridge. At twenty minutes it is cooked rice in too much liquid and looks like a mistake; at fifty it is lâpa. The name describes the texture, so a cook who stops when the rice is tender has made something else.
  2. THE RICE IS NOT RINSED, WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE USUAL RULE. The surface starch that every other rice recipe washes away is the thickening agent here. Rinsed until the water runs clear, the pan never comes together and stays stock with soft rice in it.
  3. IT IS SHORT-GRAIN AND THAT IS NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. Short-grain rice is high in the starch that breaks down and thickens; long-grain basmati holds its shape and goes from firm to mushy without ever thickening the liquid. Pudding rice works well.
  4. IT IS STIRRED OFTEN AND THE BASE IS SCRAPED. Released starch settles and catches, and a scorched patch flavours the entire pan -- which in a dish this plain is unmissable. Every few minutes for the first half hour and more often towards the end as it thickens.
  5. THE LEMON GOES IN OFF THE HEAT AND IS WHAT MAKES IT EDIBLE. A whole lemon's juice into four portions. Fifty minutes of starch and stock is soft, bland and heavy, and the acid is the only thing with any edge; simmered in, it loses its brightness and keeps only a dull sourness.
  6. IT THICKENS FURTHER OFF THE HEAT AND IS LEFT LOOSER THAN WANTED. What looks right in the pan sets to a solid mass in the bowl within five minutes. It should drop in a thick ribbon from the ladle when it comes off, and leftovers are let down with more stock rather than reheated as they are.
  7. The rice NOT rinsed -- straight from the packet.
  8. The stock brought to the boil in a heavy pan with the salt.
  9. The rice tipped in and brought back to a simmer.
  10. Simmered 50 MINUTES over a low heat, STIRRED every few minutes and the base SCRAPED.
  11. WATCHED as the grains burst and the liquid thickens. At 20 minutes it will look wrong; that is expected.
  12. Cooked on until it is a thick savoury porridge with no distinct grains left.
  13. TESTED: a spoon should leave a trail that closes slowly, and it should still POUR in a thick ribbon.
  14. The butter stirred in until melted.
  15. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and the lemon juice stirred through.
  16. Tasted and salted, with plenty of black pepper.
  17. Ladled into warm bowls and the parsley or dried mint scattered over.
  18. Served at once. It sets solid within 5 minutes and is let down with more stock if it has.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Cyprus · All recipes