The beauty of rice
This website is about caring for your family and creating affordable
meals. A 20 lb bag of quality rice, some oil, a bit of meat,
vegetables, soup base, spices and a bit of imagination can feed an entire
family for a few weeks.
Many people browsing this website are looking for the secret to preparing
the "perfect" rice. Just like in the Styrofoam take-out containers.
Dry and sticky. What's the secret? Uncle Buck hates to burst
your bubble, but it's nothing fancy, just a $20.00 rice cooker or lots of
patience.
Rice can't be hurried; if you want it dry and sticky all of the water
must be completely evaporated before serving. This is never going to
happen if you are in a hurry and turn it on "high" and stir until 1/4 of it
is stuck to the bottom of the pan and the rest is crunchy. Good rice
takes time, just understand this and start it first. White rice
will take about 20 minutes, brown about 50, wild rice an hour or more.
Suggestion: A rice cooker is probably the best kitchen "gadget" you
can buy since it effortlessly produces a fresh "side" dish in about 15
minutes. This gives you enough time for you to prepare the meat or
vegetable portion. They use little electricity; are easy to clean and
do not heat up your living space while cooking, unlike your oven for French
fries in the summer.
Uncle Buck does not like the dry take-out rice; he likes something with a
bit of flavor. Here's some ideas; just a beginning, really...General
idea's which you can modify to suit your needs. Sometimes a good
starting place is what is left over in the fridge...:
- Give your water some flavor. If cooking rice on the stovetop add 1
tablespoon chicken or beef stock to the water while boiling to add some
flavor and color.
- Tex-Mex or Greek-style Cook long grain rice on the stove white,
then mix in some butter, seasoned salt and garlic/parsley for
Greek-Style rice pilaf. Add chili spice and no parsley for Tex-Mex
rice.
- Bake your rice in the oven. Take 2 cups cooked rice, mix 1 egg, 1
cup milk, salt/pepper, 4 tablespoons butter; add cheese on the top,
perhaps breadcrumbs, parsley, bake at 350ยบ until brown. Nice
- Go wild. Cook long grain white rice on the stove and add 1/2 cup
Wild Rice. When cooked stir in some butter, chopped mushrooms, onions
and a tablespoon of beef broth for a "hunter-style" rice.
- Make it Yellow by adding Saffron (most often presented in this
manner with seafood)
- Chicken Balls Tempura batter, flour made with rice, is the only
choice when deep-frying many vegetables and egg rolls, chicken balls,
etc. Suggest frying in Peanut Oil for authentic taste.
- Risotto - make this Italian comfort food staple in your heavy frypan
using Arborio (Italian) rice, butter, chicken stock; cooking slowly
until each grain is infused; adding last cups of rice slowly so is not
mushy. Serve in another dish; garnishing with parsley and parmesan
cheese.
- Fry it First Fry uncooked rice in butter or peanut oil until brown;
THEN boil until soft.
- Restaurant-style fried rice: Cook long grain rice in the rice
cooker; let cool. Cook on high heat with seasoned peanut oil; chicken
or beef stock; diced onions/peppers/chili/diced pork/chicken/shrimp.
Add an egg for some protein to make a balanced meal.
- Taste of India To some hot rice add an egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon curry
powder, salt.
- Congee - Korean slow boiled rice porridge more here
- Perfumed Using a rice cooker? Try basmati or jasmine rice. Nice
and light Persian-style rice.
- Dessert Have some rice pudding for dessert. Note: most children
HATE cinnamon
- Have a sake (which is rice beer, not wine according to our mixology
professor).
As you may notice there are a few types of rice mentioned above.
Long grain, Italian. Basmati or jasmine. You may prefer brown rice.
Just as there are a million types of potatoes; red (great with seafood)
white (good all-purpose), Yukon Gold (good for baking), there are many types
of rice and certain recipes will call for certain types of rice. If
you are frying your rice there are various oils, often spicy, that you can
use to improve the flavor.
Congee - The Chinese porridge. If you are
adventurous and have new children in the house Uncle Buck suggests you
explore congee. This is a Chinese staple dish which makes an excellent
and affordable baby food. It's a rice "paste"; like condensed rice
pudding. You boil the rice slowly until it breaks down completely.
Then you add a bit more milk/moisture and some flavoring or meat.
There are simply too many types of congee to describe here; if you are
interested in this type of cuisine (and babies do love it...gooey
sludge...easy to eat; add some brown sugar...) Uncle Buck suggests you visit
a local Chinese restaurant for some ideas and to get the texture of this
particular "soup". There are specialty restaurants featuring just this
dish but it should be on the menu in most authentic Chinese restaurants.
Why is the rice always sticky in Chinese restaurants?
Traditional Chinese dinners are served communally, with "lazy-Suzan" style
platters arranged in the middle of the table with everyone serving
themselves. Each person has a bowl; not a plate; and they eat with
chopsticks. At this point you are happy that the rice is sticky;
eating with chopsticks. Do you really want to have to pick up every
grain individually? I don't think so. It's so much better when
it sticks together...
Add some protein to your diet
Uncle
Buck shakes his head sometimes at the pretty young girls who live on rice
and vegetables. They seldom eat meat, don't eat beans and don't like fish.
They take supplements, do lot's of exercise and otherwise seem healthy. But
where ARE they getting their protein?
Many are under the mistaken belief that rice and vegetables create a
"balanced" meal. But this recipe is missing a key ingredient -
protein. Uncle Buck suggests adding a fried egg to your fried rice.
No chickens would have been harmed by this (seriously...). And by
adding an egg you are restoring some balance to the meal; giving your body
the carbohydrates, vitamins AND protein it needs; all in one dish.
Don't like eggs? Add some unsalted peanuts or sunflower seeds to your
stir-fry to top up the protein.
There is a trick to properly adding an egg to fried rice.
Cooking is all about timing; and of everything in your kitchen; eggs cook
the fastest. What you want to do is not overcook the egg, or cover the rice
in egg-white. Heat your pan on "high", add oil,
onions/peppers/seasoning/meat/cooked and cooled rice and cook/mix/stirring
frequently. When the rice is within 2 minutes of being done place the
rice in the pan as shown below:
Then quickly mix and scramble your egg in the middle of the pan.
Once cooked completely fold in the rice from the outside and serve
immediately. This way the egg is not overcooked and the individual
rice grains are not covered in egg. You now have a completely balanced meal
of carbohydrates, vegetables AND protein for pennies a serving.
Preparing Chinese food means alot of chopping and special spices.
Once again; to produce restaurant-quality meals in your home it is often as
simple as purchasing the same sauces, often available in powdered form, that
the restaurants are using.
Simple Soya stir-fry sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 Cup water
4 or more tablespoons of Soya Sauce
2 or 4 tablespoons of sugar
Mix all ingredients in bowl. Cook vegetable stir-fry, may include
chicken, shrimp, etc. Add sauce and cook on high heat until boils.
Boil for 1 minute and let cool. If all is well within 2-3 minutes you
should have that nice, Soya glaze that your favorite Chinese restaurant puts
on their beef and broccoli, or whatever...