Home Cooking/Kitchen Live On Less Money Download Free Images The Adventures of Sputnik VonWiskars
 

Reclaiming The Kitchen

 

 

 

 

 
 

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.

 

Copyright 2006 Mercantilium.com. For questions, comments or site problems please contact webmaster@mercantilium.com