Brown Rice
Cooking rice or any grain
for that matter, is a different prospect from beans. Grains generally
cook much quicker, but where in beans you aim to have plenty of water
left when cooking is complete, with grains your goal is for all of the
water to be absorbed. Hence, it’s much more important to get the
proportions right.
Ingredients
1-cup brown rice
2-cups water
dash of salt or 1 bullion
cube (if desired)
Directions
Rinse the rice thoroughly
in warm water. Place rice, water and salt or bullion (optional, but it
adds flavor) in saucepan or pot (filling the pot no fuller than
two-thirds full). Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and set for
45 minutes to an hour. DO NOT STIR! Stirring will cause the rice to
stick to the bottom of the pan creating a hopeless mess. The cooking
time and the amount of water needed will vary with your stove and the
altitude, so you need to fiddle with it a bit to get it right.
If you’re new to cooking
rice, set a timer for 35 minutes. At that point peek under the lid and
see how much water is left. When the rice approaches finished the water
level will sink beneath the level of the cooked rice. However, it’s not
done until virtually all of the water has been absorbed. To check this,
tilt the pot slightly. If no water appears, then it’s done. If there’s
water, give it 5-10 more minutes. If you decide that you’ve added too
much water you can raise the temperature a little bit to boil off the
extra water, but use caution because you can easily boil off your water before the rice gets done.
Rice doesn’t respond well to adding extra water mid-way through the
cooking.
When the water is fully
absorbed, remove the rice from the heat and fluff (stir) with a fork.
Let it sit covered for 5-10 more minutes. Your rice is ready to use!
The same basic recipe
works with most grains (oats, barley, wheat etc.) but the water to grain
proportion may vary slightly, so you’ll need to play with it a bit. You
can substitute any grain for rice in any of these recipes.
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