Exquisite Travel Adventures Worldwide LTD

The French have a gift for making the ordinary feel inevitable. Riz au Beurre — rice with butter — is perhaps their most honest contribution to world cuisine. There is no sauce, no reduction, no technique to master. There is rice. There is butter. There is a certain je ne sais quoi that is, upon reflection, just the butter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 2 cups water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons good quality unsalted butter

Method

Bring the water to a boil with the salt. Add the rice, stir once, and reduce to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 18 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Add the butter and stir gently until it melts completely into the rice. Serve warm.

Use good butter. This is France. It matters.