Okay, Roger, you asked for it:

200g rice (7 oz)
1.75x that volume in water or chicken stock
50g white or yellow onion in brunoise (1/2 of a medium)
50g medium carrot in brunoise (start with 1/2 carrot)
50g zucchini in brunoise (start with 1/2 zucchini unpeeled)
50g French green beans in brunoise (haricots verts)
20g butter (2 fat T)
1 bouquet garni*
salt, white pepper

[*A bouquet garni is a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme, a couple of parsley stalks, and a short piece of celery stalk wrapped in a section of leek leaves and tied with string into roughly the shape of a fat Havana. The chefs were all about Cuban cigars. We made at least one a day; they're in tons of classical recipes. The idea is to get the flavor of these herbs without sullying the pure look of the white rice. Honestly, the flavor's the same with the dried stuff tossed in loose.]

First, brunoise all of the vegetables. Generally speaking, this means cut them in 2-3mm dice (this is a 150% difference—sometimes chefs will specify petite brunoise or grande brunoise; pick your poison and stick to it). You need a sharp knife, to put it mildly.

Onion: From the sprout side, cut the end 97% off and use it to start peeling the onion. Leave the root intact. Slice the peeled onion in half and lay flat on the cutting board. Make regular cuts that go 90% of the way from sprout end to root end. Now, turn your knife horizontal, parallel to the cutting board, and make regular inward (again 90% from sprout to root) cuts. Then do the third axis.

Carrot: Peel the carrot. Square off all sides so it becomes a rectangular prism. Cut into manageable lengths, perhaps 5-7cm long. Slice off 3mm-thick slices. Turn into matchsticks, 3mm. Line these up and cut dice, 3mm.

Zucchini: Start with an unpeeled zucchini! Take peel off in 3mm thickness. Cut 3mm strips from this. Cut dice. The white core isn't useful to us here.

Green beans: Pick ends off green beans. Cook in boiling salted water until just before al dente. Remove, drain, cool. Split each in half by hand. I told you this was anal. Then cut these half-cylinders into 3mm pieces.

The process leaves a lot of waste, especially for carrot and zucchini. In a restaurant, the waste isn't quite wasted—it gets tossed into a constantly-simmering stock or other.

Preheat oven to 200°C (392°F). Melt butter over medium heat. Ideally you do this in a frying pan with a metal handle, but for normal people purposes we'll assume you can transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. Sweat the onion in this, a.k.a. cook until excess moisture is released and it becomes translucent. Add rice, stirring constantly until coated with butter/onion and translucent.

Add bouquet garni, salt, pepper (white for white sauces, black for brown/dark sauces), and liquid. Bring to boil.

Cover with a lid or parchment paper (tip: crumple in water, squeeze, butter one side, and fit square paper easily in round pan just touching surfance of rice) and pop it in at the oven.

Cook the vegetables in liberally salted, moderately-boiling water (a rolling boil will break these delicate pieces). Since they're so tiny, it's a fine, fine line between al dente and baby food. Helpful: (1) separate batches for each vegetable, (2) ice bath to stop cooking as you as you want it to stop.

How long does the rice cook in the oven? The chefs swore by 20, but they complained that my 20-minute rice was crunchy and loved the 26-minute rice. If all the liquid's been absorbed but the grains are still on the crunchy side, add more liquid. If in doubt, KEEP WAITING. When the rice is done, mix with the vegetables to let the latter reheat. Finish by melting more butter (what else?) into this to make it glisten.