My Mother's Rice

My mother was born in Russia but for her middle years till she got married she lived in Persia and was influenced by the cooking there. Some of her cooking has a strong Persian influence. Growing up one of our favorite side dishes was her rice with raisins. It's a very simple way to add some excitement to plain old white rice.
Make your rice as you would usually do. For this post all I had was Jasmine rice so that's what I used. After your rice is cooked, saute 1/2 cup of raisins and 1/3 cup of slivered almonds in a generous portion of butter (You can increase the amount of raisins and almonds according to taste or the amount of rice you are cooking). The rice will love the extra butter so don't worry if it looks like a lot. When the raisins get all nice and plump add the raisins and almonds to the rice with all the butter and stir it in. My mother sometimes puts this mixture in the oven at this point for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees before she serves it. I usually just serve it right away. Enjoy!