Of rice and rice cookers...

[Aanvil]

Great website dwest. Drool!!!!

1,400 bucks!

I've seen those things just hanging from walls dripping grease everywhere.

I'll eat my "real" jamon in Madrid thank you.... and I do too.

http://www.museodeljamon.es/

I can find it now in Los Angeles and its just as pricey.

Honestly I don't have much problem with the cheapy Serrano and that you can find everwhere.



Oh for rice cookers its easy enough just to cook it in a pot or a big pan but I have a big Zojirushi cooker.

My wife is Japanese and she swears by the baby elephant.

[SteveShaw]

Basmati rice (the ordinary white stuff: all brown rice is, in my opinion, fit only for ageing ex-hippies and earth mothers) is my favourite and I use it for curries and chili con carne and for throwing handfuls of the cooked article into hearty chicken broth (made with real stock from boiling up the carcase), which makes it even heartier. Cooking Basmati is simplicity itself. Don't bother to measure anything (not even the rice: just cook too much and eat the excess for breakfast, fried in butter with a couple of eggs thrown in ). Boil a lot of water in the kettle and turn on the cooker ring. Put rice into a good-sized pan and rinse with cold water. No need to be too fussy about draining. Put pan on ring and add excess boiling water and a goodish dose of salt (you're going to throw a lot of it away, but hey, how cheap is salt). As soon as the water comes back to the boil, start to time the rice. It wants exactly twelve minutes. You need to stir it around once or twice near the beginning (gently) to keep the grains from sticking to the pan and to each other. Drain in a sieve for a couple of minutes while you give the final stir to your chili or curry. It will be perfect. Easy on the salt, mind, 'til you find your way.

[dwest]

Basmati rice (the ordinary white stuff: all brown rice is, in my opinion, fit only for ageing ex-hippies and earth mothers) wink:

White basmati rice is for little old ladies and little old men in the home whose proctologist tells them to eat a bland diet. I give it to my dog who has inflamatory bowel disease. Whole grain rice tastes the way rice should taste, white rice is the glue that holds sushi together. If I wanted paper mache I'd use flour, water and the morning news.

[SteveShaw]

Basmati rice (the ordinary white stuff: all brown rice is, in my opinion, fit only for ageing ex-hippies and earth mothers) wink:

White basmati rice is for little old ladies and little old men in the home whose proctologist tells them to eat a bland diet. I give it to my dog who has inflamatory bowel disease. Whole grain rice tastes the way rice should taste, white rice is the glue that holds sushi together. If I wanted paper mache I'd use flour, water and the morning news.

Hey, whaddya doin' adding a wink to me quote!

Clearly, you do not understand rice (the harsher verdict) or, alternatively, you cannot obtain genuine Basmati your end (the kindlier conclusion) - there are scandals surrounding the purity of Basmati. Brown rice is purely for people worried about their bowel health. No true gourmand would contemplate eating this horse-food willingly. Good Basmati (white) has an elusively-delicate aroma and flavour which is far removed from the humid, worthy boiled-bran whiff of the brown rice kitchen. There is nothing bland about it, old boy. Age appears to have withered the finer attributes of your palate. You'll be telling me next that there's nothing finer than jellied eels and mash. Just eat good grub and get yer bloody fibre from somewhere else. Is life too short or what!

[dwest]

Clearly, you do not understand rice (the harsher verdict) or, alternatively, you cannot obtain genuine Basmati your end (the kindlier conclusion) - there are scandals surrounding the purity of Basmati. Brown rice is purely for people worried about their bowel health. No true gourmand would contemplate eating this horse-food willingly. Good Basmati (white) has an elusively-delicate aroma and flavour which is far removed from the humid, worthy boiled-bran whiff of the brown rice kitchen. There is nothing bland about it, old boy. Age appears to have withered the finer attributes of your palate. You'll be telling me next that there's nothing finer than jellied eels and mash. Just eat good grub and get yer bloody fibre from somewhere else. Is life too short or what!

I do like my eels, smoked. I'm eating Brown Basmati as I write, the aroma you describe is even better in the Brown Basmati. I suppose you eat white bread too? The kind that is soft and mushy, sticks to the roof of your mouth. Leave a slice on the counter and nothing will touch it, not even bacteria.

[SteveShaw]

Clearly, you do not understand rice (the harsher verdict) or, alternatively, you cannot obtain genuine Basmati your end (the kindlier conclusion) - there are scandals surrounding the purity of Basmati. Brown rice is purely for people worried about their bowel health. No true gourmand would contemplate eating this horse-food willingly. Good Basmati (white) has an elusively-delicate aroma and flavour which is far removed from the humid, worthy boiled-bran whiff of the brown rice kitchen. There is nothing bland about it, old boy. Age appears to have withered the finer attributes of your palate. You'll be telling me next that there's nothing finer than jellied eels and mash. Just eat good grub and get yer bloody fibre from somewhere else. Is life too short or what!

I do like my eels, smoked. I'm eating Brown Basmati as I write, the aroma you describe is even better in the Brown Basmati. I suppose you eat white bread too? The kind that is soft and mushy, sticks to the roof of your mouth. Leave a slice on the counter and nothing will touch it, not even bacteria.

I most certainly do not eat white bread. Though I will say this, and say it just the once, then wish I never had. The chip butty in all its glory must consist of chips done in beef dripping and the worst white bread you can lay your hands on liberally plastered with salty butter. No other bread works. Don't ask me why because I don't know.

[Lucas]

I suppose you eat white bread too? The kind that is soft and mushy, sticks to the roof of your mouth. Leave a slice on the counter and nothing will touch it, not even bacteria.

That's not 'white' bread, that's industrial bread. Try something that has been made by a baker (yes, they do exist in some parts of the world!) and hasn't passed through a production line and you'll know what I mean.

[SteveShaw]

I suppose you eat white bread too? The kind that is soft and mushy, sticks to the roof of your mouth. Leave a slice on the counter and nothing will touch it, not even bacteria.

That's not 'white' bread, that's industrial bread. Try something that has been made by a baker (yes, they do exist in some parts of the world!) and hasn't passed through a production line and you'll know what I mean.

Come to think of it, a well-made crusty French bloomer eaten with some gum-achingly strong English cheddar, proper butter and pickle if you like, washed down with real ale (Doom Bar springs to mind), outdoors on a balmy summer's evening, is an experience hard to beat.

[Steamwalker]

In reading about rice cookers, I've found some folks saying you should not wash the rice first, and others say you should. I've tried it both ways, and now am firmly with the "should wash" folks, as it improves the taste pretty dramatically. I wash the rice in the cooker; I add about twice as much water as I would actually add to cook it, swirl the rice around with my fingers till the water turns milky, and then pour the water off. Repeat until the water stays pretty clear, which is usually three or four times.

My mom is Filipino and rice is a daily thing for us and that is the way I learned to prepare white rice.

On a related note, I will leave you some lines from the action-classic, A Better Tomorrow 2, when a customer complained about the protaganist's rice:

You don't like my rice?
There's nothing wrong with my rice.
My rice is good, it tastes good.
What's wrong with it?
It's beautiful to me.
You want to try some? No? Do You?
Rice is nothing for you...
... but for us, rice is like mother and father
Don't screw with my family!
(draws gun)
Oh, I am very hurt about it.
I feel so sorry for my rice.
If you have any dignity, apologize to my rice now!

[I.D.10-t]

Use to hate brown rice, living in the Midwest my mother would make it because it was healthier. It would take two years to go through a bag. About a decade ago I tried it again. Before that time I had never had non-rancid brown rice (high turnover and refrigeration is important for brown).

Currently we have brown and white sushi rice, long grain white and brown, white basmati, Thia sticky rice and a jar of mixed grains that we mix into some of our rice. Of course, being a Minnesotan, we also have Wild "rice". We have a small kitchen, so extra appliances are out of the question and have had to learn to cook the rice without any special equipment (long standing issue with all kitchen appliances, it took forever to convince the misses that we didn't need an omelet pan). Left over sushi rice gets packed into patties and broiled until brown and frozen for a green tea/rice soup (just add seaweed and soy sauce).

For preparation, some rice really needs the rinsing, the white sushi rice in particular needs it and it takes several changes of water before the water comes off clear. We often pre-soak the brown and the Thia rice. Often when we are cooking rice, the heat is turned off and the residual heat cooks the rice for the last 10 minutes. One thing that has changed over time, is that we tend to use less water than recommended, closer to 1:1.

[dwest]

Left over sushi rice gets packed into patties and broiled until brown and frozen for a green tea/rice soup (just add seaweed and soy sauce).

Fried stuffed left over risotto, if I only could, wow! Broiling might work, umm?

[Infernaltootler]

I was taught rice cooking by an Indian cook and she said wash the rice, let it soak in cold water for a while, then drain and put in a pan which has a tight fitting lid with 1.5 cups water to one cup rice. Bring it to the boil and then take it off the heat. It doesn't need to be boiled, the tight lid keeps in the moisture in and it's totally absorbed.

Works for me. Simples.

[s1m0n]

Wash rice if you bought it in a sack or (largish) bag. Don't wash rice you buy in a box or small package. The latter have likely gone through some sort of industrial processing, which included washing. The former hasn't, and there will be everything from dust to gravel to rat sh!t included in your sack.

[Berti66]

we eat pandan (jasmine) rice and also brown rice.
the pandan is something I can eat bowls of, also our "fancy"rice, and we like our curries too.
don't wash.
the pandan I cook with 1,5 volume water to 1 volume rice.....bring water to boiling point, add rice and put on lid.
when it boils again, I turn the flame on low and let go for about 10 minutes, turn off, let stand few minutes and serve.
never stir (but I do buy the rice in the supermarket/ health food store, depending)

for brown rice I use about 2 volumes water to rice, don't stir but once it's boiling, I have it on a lowish flame.
done in 30 minutes approx.
not as fancy but lots of flavor too.

oh and I never use salt in any rice.
when making risotto (not often nowadays) I use arborio type, mostly carnaroli as vialone nano is hard to get here.
I love risotto but my daughter unfortunately doesn't.

berti

[avanutria]

We soak our rice for a few hours and then wash it. It's wonderful that way. The soaking loosens the starches which are the parts you're trying to wash away to get fluffy rice.