Rice: White Away!

You can do this. I know you can! We’ll start with cooking long grain white because it takes the least amount of time and this way you will have no excuses (are you listening Gerald?).

As usual, get out your very best small to medium saucepan (not huge, the one in this photo is 6.5” across the top). We are going to start with something very simple, but don’t forget, making mistakes is the only way to knowledge (the harsh truth about learning anything), and we’re just talking rice! Rice may be the most ubiquitous foodstuff on the planet, but you can do this in the privacy of your own home and if you mess up, the worst possible outcome is having to give an extra scrub to your pan. Not terrible…. A trauma that is easy to recover from. Besides, that’s not going to happen! Trust me!

We’ll start with what I will call the Very Basic method. This is the way I first learned to cook rice, and if you don’t want to guess about quantity of water to rice, this is a good way to start.

Equipment
Small saucepan
Measuring cup and teaspoon

Ingredients
Long grain white rice
Salt

Method

• Measure one cup of rice and set aside
• Measure 2 cups of water into saucepan and place on heat
• When the water is boiling add the cup of rice and one teaspoon of salt
• Cover the pan tightly and reduce heat.
• Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
  
• At the end of this time the water should be absorbed and the rice tender.

This makes 4-6 servings. If you want more flavor, use chicken broth instead of water.

FYI: Leftover rice needs to be refrigerated. Left at room temperature for a few hours, it can grow harmful bacteria. Sushi rice is OK because it is coated with a rice vinegar/sugar mixture that retards this process. Likewise, acids such as other vinegars or lemon and lime juice do the trick.

Now go back into the archives for how to steam vegetables. You just cooked dinner!

Rice: The Hull-ish Truth

Such headlines! And why not, eating is the daily news! Having left off with the promise of explaining various varieties of rice, and in the quest for the most basic and fundamental, let’s start with some rice anatomy.

If you are still paying attention and would like a little drawing to go along with this, return to the wiki site: Rice. You will see a drawing of a grain of rice. Once harvested, rice, with only the outer layer (the chaff) removed, is brown rice. The very same rice, processed differently, with both the bran and germ removed, becomes white rice. Because the brown rice has the germ and bran intact, it is chewier and has more flavor and nutrients. White rice cooks more quickly than brown because the outer layers have been removed.

Wild rice (the long black stuff in this illustration) really isn’t rice at all. It’s actually the seed of an aquatic grass that is related to the rice plant. Kind of like the odd cousin that shows up at family events, wild rice is often seen in the company of (either in boxes or bins or even cooked-with) regular rice. Wild rice can be quite expensive and cooking it along with brown rice is a way of maintaining the acquaintance without breaking the bank.

“Varieties”, you ask? Beyond the brown/white thing, there are also long grain and short grain varieties. Indica, the long grain type, tends to produce separate grains when cooked. Japonica, the short grain type, produces rice with round grains that tend to stick together (Why do I keep thinking of family dynamics? Time to appreciate the differences!). Both are lovely in their own way, but because rice is often cooked to accompany another dish, it’s nice to know how each particular variety is going to get along with the rest of the edible attendees!

Enough information for one day? This stuff is supposed to be offered in ‘small bites’, so stay tuned (yet again) for more rice-y news.

Rice: Geek Report

I thought I’d start out the New Year with something very very basic. You’ve probably guessed what it is (the title of this entry being a very large tip-off). Rice. Like most fundamentals, rice is simple and complicated all at the same time. To get started I consulted my pal, Harold McGee (if someone actually knows him and he’s age appropriate, please send him this link). Harold writes that there are over 100,000 distinct varieties throughout the world. Daunting! That said, we have to start somewhere and let’s not get overwhelmed and risk missing out on an important kitchen staple. This will probably take a few entries given the territory to cover (as in the whole world). We’ll begin with the history (so that you can fully appreciate what’s in front of you), launch into the different types and then dive into a simple method for cooking as our final. Once this ‘course’ is completed, you will be able to put on a pot of rice, start the rest of the meal and magically everything will be ready before you know it. Really! Ready? With Harold’s help, I’m going to do the research and give you the equivalent of CliffsNotes for your culinary edification. This is not cheating! You might even want to do some extra-credit research for yourself once we get started!

Rice in History

According to Harold, short grain rice was probably domesticated around 7000 BCE in the Yangtze River Valley of south-central China. Longer grain rice originated a little later (but still way before anyone even thought of Rice Crispies) in Southeast Asia. Yet another distinct rice, with red bran (the second part of the outer layer), has been grown in the west of Africa for at least 1500 years. Pretty historic stuff! Just another illustration of how cooking and civilization have been working hand in hand forever- just like rice and steamed vegetables!

Traveling from Asia to Europe, rice made a stop in Persia (Iran), where it was cultivated there by Arabs who also figured out how to prepare it. By the 8th Century in Spain, Moors were growing rice and it had also traveled to Sicily. Next (remember these are ‘CliffsNotes’) come the Spanish and Portuguese who introduced it to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. The expertise of African slaves is considered responsible for commercial planting in South Carolina starting in 1685 (not to mention traditional rice and bean dishes). Most of the rice produced now in the United States comes from Arkansas, the lower Mississippi region, Texas and California. No containing a good thing!

Get this: rice is second only to maize (corn) in world production, but second to none in human consumption (critters prefer corn). According to Wiki, rice provides more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans!

Crying ‘Uncle’ yet?! Let me just wrap up this entry (I hope you have been taking notes), by saying that if rice has been around this long, it’s high time we cooked a pot for ourselves. Time also to get acquainted with at least a few of those 100,000 possibilities. Stayed tuned for- Rice: Varieties Unleashed!