Friday, April 4, 2008

How do you cook this stuff?

Last night we had a Young Women's activity where Larissa from Mexico taught us how to make some native dishes. Part of her enchilada recipe (which I lost- ah!) included rice. Her rice cooking method stunned me and led to the entire group giving their methods for cooking rice- all different! I remember watching Dad make rice once in CA and being amazed by his method as well. So, how do you cook rice? I want to know.

Here is how Larissa did it last night: She put the rice in a big pot with olive oil, stirred the rice around to coat it with oil and then let it fry for a while on medium heat. When she was satisfied with the frying of the uncooked rice, she filled the pot with water (2:1 water to rice) but her last cup of liquid was thick tomato sauce (!!) then she put about a cup of salt in, stirred only the top, as not to disturb the rice, and made us all test the water from the spoon to see if it was salty enough (uh...yeah!) She waited until it all came to a boil, turned the heat to low and covered it until whenever.

Here is how I make rice: First, I usually only use Basmati rice and I mix half brown and half white. I rinse the rice until the water runs clean (put the rice in a pot, fill with water, stir stir stir, drain, repeat until the water is clean) then put the cooking water in, some salt maybe some broth, sometimes herbs, and always butter. Then I turn on the rice cooker and wait for it to tell me the rice is cooked :).

Seriously- how do you cook rice?

5 comments:

Nicole said...

Wow! I've never seen either of those methods and now you've got me thinking about rice. I like jasmine rice. I put it in the pot at the same time as the water (2:1 ratio in favor of the water), add butter and salt, bring it to a boil, turn the heat to simmer, put the lid on and cook for twenty minutes.

melissa said...

I do it the same way as Nicole, except that I only let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. If it goes with the rest of the food, I add garlic powder, too.

Katy said...

I put a one scoop(pre-measured cup that came with the rice cooker) of rice per pre-measured line if water in my rice cooker. I always use brown rice and if I add stuff to it, no one eats it. It's bland city with rice at our house. Anyway, turn rice cooker on-wait for the light to turn yellow.

allyn said...

i was told a method by an asian lady:measure your rice, put it into a pot; add enough water to cover your hand if you put it in the water with the rice in it. bring to a boil;simmer until water is gone.
i was also told a method by a persian man in our ward: measure your rice, do the 2:1 water/rice ratio; bring to boil. let simmer for a few minutes. before water is all absorbed, drain and rinse rice. while draining rice put sliced potatoes at the bottom of the pot with a little water (maybe 1/4 inch) and let rice steam until soft. that was a yummy one!

allyn said...

i have also measured the rice and water and put it in a casserole dish and put it in a hot oven and just waited for the water to absorb.