We go to the Battery just for dinner at C. Ellet’s Steakhouse. No matter what we order, the side dish is always their Carolina Gold Rice Pilaf. I would love to learn how to make it at home. — Jessica Alston, Sandy Springs
Chef Christopher Li says he created this dish for a menu that C. Ellet’s owner-chef Linton Hopkins was planning for Easter. He wrote, “It’s not common for a restaurant to invest in sourcing Carolina Gold rice, which has a unique floral flavor when cooked properly. But I really loved how simple and expressive of an ingredient this preparation turned out to be. With its onions gently sweated in butter, nutty toasted almonds, a little parsley for freshness and visual appeal, with plump individual morsels of a humble, but historical grain, I find myself snacking on it often.”
As a side dish, the restaurant serves about four cups of pilaf.
Carolina Gold is a heritage long-grain rice once grown on thousands of acres in the South. It all but disappeared from cultivation until the 1980s and is now available online through South Carolina sources such as Anson Mills, Carolina Plantation and Marsh Hen Mill.
From the menu of ... C. Ellet’s Steakhouse, 2605 Circle 75 Parkway, Atlanta. 678-996-5344, c-ellets.com.
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