White carries weight in Tibet. It stands for purity and good fortune, which is why people give each other white khata scarves on meeting and on parting, and it is why dresil, a white sweet rice, is the first food made and offered on the morning of Losar. Rice is cooked, folded through butter and sugar, and studded with raisins, dates and nuts. The ingredient that makes it properly itself is droma, a small dark tuber that grows on Tibetan grassland and tastes something like sweet potato, so common in the dish that people often just call it droma dresil. It also arrives at weddings and Buddhist holidays through the year, and it is eaten with butter tea. Outside Tibet almost nobody can get droma, and Tibetans in exile make dresil without it, which does not make their version any less the dish.
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g basmati rice
- 450 ml water
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 60 g raisins
- 40 g cashew nuts
- 30 g flaked almonds
- 6 dates (stoned and chopped)
- 1 small sweet potato (diced small (optional, in place of droma))
- a pinch of salt
METHOD
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then cook it in the water with the pinch of salt until tender and dry, about 12 minutes, and leave it covered off the heat for 5 minutes.
- If you are using sweet potato, boil the dice separately for 6 to 8 minutes until just tender, then drain well.
- Melt the butter gently in a small pan without letting it colour.
- Tip the hot rice into a wide bowl. Pour over the melted butter and scatter in the sugar.
- Fold through with a spoon until every grain is glossy, working gently so the rice does not break.
- Add the raisins, dates, cashews, almonds and the sweet potato if using, and fold once or twice more.
- Serve warm in small bowls, with butter tea or sweet milk tea.