Rice / Brown Rice Recipes & Cooking Tips

[PinkPetalPolygon]

How do you fine folks take or make your rice?

Feel free to answer any of these questions. You don't "have to" answer all of them in order on purpose. ^_^;

what are some of your favorite kinds of rice?

what's your favorite way to prepare it?

what spices do you like to use if you make spiced rice?

is there a way you would prepare a "brown rice dish" for someone who didn't like brown rice / for someone who firmly prefers white rice?

(I am trying out mixing a tiny bit of brown rice in with white rice with *great* results btw!)

any other tips or suggestions about brown rice cooking? thanks!

[applestar]

I used to make brown rice in a heavy bottom pot or pressure cooker, but there was a period when I didn't have the time to stand over the stove, and I bought a zoshirushi fuzzy logic rice cooker. It's pretty old now but still works great and cooks rice to perfection, especially if you prefer Japanese style rice.

Mixing small amounts of brown rice to white rice and gradually increasing and eventually flipping the ratio is a good way to get people to accept and get used to eating brown rice. For all brown rice, I like to mix 1/5 to 1/4 brown sweet/glutinous/mocha rice to short-grain brown rice. My kids also like 1/5 to 1/4 whole barley mixed into short-grain brown rice. I always add a good pinch of seas alt to brown rice. It's supposed to help break down the bran and make it easier to digest. I sometimes skip the salt and put in approx 2 in x 2 in konbu/kelp.

[imafan26]

Rice is a staple here, so is a rice cooker. Brown rice takes a little more water and it spoils faster so you should not make too much of it. Rice keeps better frozen than in the refrigerator. Just add a little water to the frozen rice to rehydrate it and nuke it, and it is nice and fluffy again.

Most of us eat short grain rice and it is highly absorbent, so we don't cook it in broth, just plain water. It will absorb anything you put on it which is in sharp contrast to long grain (grass) seeds which remain white even after you put soy sauce on it and have grains that fall apart. Short grain rice is what you would call sticky rice.

Rice cookers are steamers so if you want a rice that is really fluffy you soak it longer and add about an ounce of sake or sherry to the water so it keeps longer.

new crop rice uses about 1/4 cup less water than old crop rice. Usually the bags are labeled new crop, but to be sure we always test the first batch of rice, if it comes out too wet, we know to reduce the water.

The old fashioned way to measure the water for the rice was the two finger method. This comes in handy if you forget how many cups of rice you put in. After the rice is washed and rinsed, (save the water for the garden), add water until the water reaches the first crease on the second and third finger. It works most of the time. The tip of your finger should touch the top of the rice.

When you make sushi, add a half a rice cup less water for a drier rice. The bottom of the rice pot might get brown.

Since I like to save work and energy. I put whole eggs in the rice before turning the cooker on. When the rice is done, I can remove the eggs which will be on top of the rice and clean the rice off the outer shell and I will have hard boiled eggs for the week.

Other things that can be cooked in rice are vegetables like beans. Usually the over the hill string beans and soy beans can be taken out of the pods and cooked with the rice.

Congee or rice gruel is a popular dish on a cold day, when you want comfort food, or you want to use up the bones from that costco roast chicken. Usually it is better with a stewing hen, but with the remnants of the costco chicken, chicken stock or broth ( I use stock because it has less salt), one chopped medium onion, half a bulb of garlic, minced, a finger of ginger sliced and crushed. Saute the garlic, ginger and onion in a large dutch oven until the onion is transluscent. add the chicken carcass with some chicken meat still on it and boil it in the broth for about 30 minutes. If you used chicken broth you don't need any more salt, if you used stock, season with salt or fish sauce to taste. Add about a tablespoon of crushed peppercorns. Take out the chicken and remove the meat from the bones. Discard the bones and return the meat to the pot. Add about 1.5 cups of washed rice. Add soy sauce for color and cook until rice is cooked about 15-20 minutes on simmer. Serve in bowls topped with cilantro or chiffinaded lettuce and hoisin sauce.

Okayu or tea rice. You make a congee, but instead of broth you cook it in tea or water. It is easy to digest and people like to eat it when they don't feel well.
https://japanesefood.about.com/od/rice/r/okayu.htm

The simplest tea rice is chazuke
A bowl of rice topped with pickled or salty toppings, furikake, nori, salted vegetables, takuan, umeboshi. Make a pot of gen mai cha ( barley green tea) and pour the hot tea over the rice.
https://www.facebook.com/onokinerecipes ... 0998819546
Glutinous rice can be made into a dessert. glutinous rice should be soaked the day before so it cooks better. You can buy long grain or short grain glutinous (sweet) rice in small bags.
Filipino Biko recipe
https://panlasangpinoy.com/2009/10/31/fi ... ko-recipe/
Thai sticky rice uses Glutinous long grain rice. Different methods if you don't have a traditional thai steamer.
https://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/sticky-rice
Another popular dessert using rice flour
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/84857/ono-butter-mochi/

I don't care for brown rice the best I can do is hapa rice. Half brown rice half white rice, that is about as healthy as I can tolerate it. Actually, I don't eat much rice anymore since bread and rice were the easiest calories for me to cut and not miss. I only cook rice

[rainbowgardener]

I only use brown rice. Once you switch, you will wonder why you ever bothered with white.

I like to warm some oil in the bottom of a heavy bottomed pan and then put the rice in and stir it until coated and sautee it until the rice is starting to get golden and the first few grains are starting to "pop" (puff up). Then I add the water or soup stock, stir, put on a tight fitting lid. Simmer until the water is absorbed. By sauteeing the rice first, the grains stay separate and it doesn't get sticky.

If you are using spices, put them in the oil and warm the spices first, before you add the rice. Helps release their oils/fragrance.

[applestar]

Ooh yes! That's the way I used to make in the pot. I still do once in a while because I miss that texture and flavor.

[imafan26]

Browning the rice first does add a lot of flavor as it softens the grain and lets the flavor in, especially if you are using a brown or long grain rice. I use that technique when making paella.

I also like fried rice.
Filipino fried rice just contains steam cooked rice. You can use any kind. A bulb of garlic is minced and sauteed in oil. The rice is preferably cooked the day before and added to the pan, oil is added to keep the rice from sticking and salt to taste.

Chinese style fried rice. Steamed rice from the day before, you can use any kind but I only use short grain. I actually do not like long grain rice much.
Saute meats: whatever you want, bacon, ham, char siu, chicken, spam, that have been diced 1/4 inch. Remove the cooked meats but retain the oil. In a separate pan make a thin omellette with 3 eggs, chop fine and set aside. Saute minced garlic, minced onion, finely chopped celery in oil until onion is transluscent. Add 20 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables or frozen peas and cook until it has broken up but still retains color. Add back the meats and add about 4 cups of cooked rice and stir fry until everything is blended add about 3 tbl of oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon of soysauce. Pepper to taste. You can also add mushrooms, snowpeas, julienned carrots, almost anything you like. top with cilantro, eggs, and chopped green onions.