Almost praise detective above, making rice dish (5)
I believe the answer is:
pilau
'rice dish' is the definition.
(I know that pilau is a type of rice dish)
'almost praise detective above' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'praise' becomes 'laud' (lauding is a kind of praising).
'detective' becomes 'pi' (private investigator).
'above' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go above others).
'laud' with its final letter taken off is 'lau'.
'lau' put after 'pi' is 'PILAU'.
'making' is the link.
(Other definitions for pilau that I've seen before include "Eastern dish" , "Foreign dish" , "Type of rice" , "Spiced rice dish" , "Rice seasoned with spices and cooked with meat or vegetables" .)