South African Yellow Rice

This is a dish taken to southern Africa by people from then Dutch controlled Indonesia and Malaysia, who were taken there as slaves in the 1600s and 1700s. In Afrikaans it is called "geelrys;" that is, "yellow rice" ("geel" is the relative of English "yellow"). Note: Afrikaans is the language that developed over time in southern Africa from Dutch settlers/colonists, and it was long seen as simply a Dutch dialect; although in the 1920s, Afrikaans was declared an official language of what was then called the Union of South Africa. 

 

This is used as a side dish. Be sure to cook the raisins right along with the rice and other ingredients, as the liquid will plump up the raisins and they will help flavor and sweeten the rice a bit.  

Ingredients (6 to 8 servings):

 

1 cup basmati rice

2 1/2 cups chicken broth 

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup dark raisins

2 tablespoons butter

 

Rinse the rice. Add all ingredients to a heavy bottomed sauce pan over high heat. Stir well to mix. When the water starts to boil, immediately lower the heat to low or very low, cover the pan and cook until the liquid is all absorbed. Fluff the rice before serving.

WORD HISTORY:

Cross-This word and its relatives are all of uncertain origin; but thereafter, "cross and relatives" are derived from Latin. The problem is, how and where Latin got the word. There is an interesting theory that would link "cross" and its Latin-derived relatives to English "ridge." Anyway, "cross" is closely related to "crusade," "crucify" and "crucial," words borrowed by English from French, to "crux" and "excruciate" (most commonly in the adjectival form "excruciating" in more modern times), words borrowed directly from Latin. "Cross" goes back to Latin "crux," which meant, "a wooden device of a vertical pole with one or more horizontal beams connected and used for punishing or executing criminals." Forms of the word were borrowed into Celtic, and it's thought that Old Norse, a Germanic language from the North Germanic branch, borrowed its form, "kross," from Old Irish "cros." Old English seemingly borrowed the word from Norse as "cros" in the mid 900s, with the meaning, "device used to execute Jesus Christ;" thus also, "sacred symbol of Christianity." The figurative use for "burden" is from circa 1200. The adjective use is from circa 1525, often as a shortening of "across," itself from "cross," but other meanings developed after that time; for instance, the use in "cross purposes;" that is, "opposite purposes." The verb dates from about 1200, used then to mean, "to make the sign of the cross for religious purposes," but with additions over time to mean "to cancel" ("cross through"), "to betray, to disrupt" ("cross up") and others. Many of the forms in the modern Germanic languages also came from Old Norse (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "kors," with the 'o' and 'r' changing places, and Icelandic "kross"), Low German has "Krüüz," German has "Kreuz," West Frisian has "krús" and Dutch has "kruis," all seemingly directly from Latin "crux," brought by religious groups sent to "Christianize" various Germanic tribes in central Europe.