Rice (5)

About all types of rice from the point of view of cooking and health

In this post I want to talk about the nuances about rice, which personally were most useful to me when getting acquainted with this product.

So, what types of rice can be found in stores. I will list the color palette of the grain (and not specific varieties), and explain what is what:

1. White grain-processed grain without a top layer consisting of a hard shell and Bran. White rice is simply polished, and sometimes even steamed before that. Such a grain is obtained as a result of steam treatment, during which it absorbs vitamins and minerals from Bran. Steamed rice has a yellow-beige hue, a harder structure, cooks longer and turns out crumbly. Periodically I buy it for side dishes. Also from processed varieties I buy glutinous rice for sushi, Arborio for risotto and any round-grain for porridge.

2. brown or brown/red/pink/purple/black – a grain that has removed the hard outer shell, but retained the nutrient layer (Bran). The colors of rice are the pigment of the bran of each particular variety. I love brown rice, especially jasmine or basmati. The most fragrant varieties in the world! I use them for garnish or dishes like Stir Fry/pilaf. And I like black rice, because it looks very cool in some dishes.

3. Green-just unripe brown rice.

4. Wild (not to be confused with black, although they are the same color!). This is a really wild plant, called Zizania / Zizania, not seeded rice. But since the fruits of this grass also began to be called rice (Wild rice), I will write about it. Its grains are more like dry needles from a spruce, and not like rice. It is cooked for a long time and always turns out crumbly. In its pure form, I do not like, but in a mixture with other types of rice – very much.

5. Yellow (Golden) – a specially bred variety (GMO), the grains of which contain a large amount of beta-carotene. It is designed to improve the quality of nutrition in countries where the population is deficient in vitamin A. I have never eaten this, but I know about its existence.

When the trend for Whole Foods began, white rice undeservedly began to be deprived of attention and began to buy any just not him. In fact, each type of rice has its pros and cons in terms of micronutrient composition and digestibility.

Therefore, I came to the conclusion that it is best to simply alternate between different types of rice in order to take all the benefits from it as much as possible. Moreover, for different dishes, just different varieties are needed. You can also make a mixture of different types of rice, as long as they have about the same cooking time.

Basmati and Jasmine are most often bought in stores The Shanghai bowler and Indian spices and all other types of rice chaotically in supermarkets and online.

If you have some rice tricks or like some Maker, Share if you want. In the comments or in PM, as convenient. I will be very grateful)

Rice for sushi + life hacks on cooking sushi rolls

To make sushi rolls at home is fun, delicious and healthy because you can put in them only what you think is right. The main thing here is to buy the sushi rice and cook it properly.

Ingredients (6 sheets nori):

• 1 Cup sushi rice,

• A little more than 1 Cup of water,

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar (you can at least replace with white wine vinegar),

• 3 tbsp sweetener (I have Jerusalem artichoke syrup),

• 1 tsp. salt,

• 0.5 sheet nori (optional).

How to do:

1. Thoroughly rinse the rice until until the water is clear. The water should be at room temperature, the capacity for washing is quite large. Wash need hands, raking the palm of the water from bottom to top. Not in a colander under the tap. Why so much detail was written in this post. Put the rice in a colander to dry while you boil water.

2. Pour water in a thick-walled bowl with a lid (ideally, if it is transparent, so you can see it boiled off the water or not). Bring water to a boil and cover the rice, put the nori. Bring water with rice to a boil, take out the nori, turn down the heat to low (if you have an electric stove, a better move pan to another burner preheated to low) and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the rice absorbs all the water. Remove from heat and let stand 15 minutes. Cover during cooking, do not open.

3. While preparing the rice, make the filling. Mix the vinegar, salt and sweetener. If you use sugar, then it needs to dissolve completely, as, indeed, and salt. You can heat the dressing on low heat, stirring constantly and without leading up to boiling, to speed up the process.

4. After the rice has rested, you need to put it in a large bowl. Accurately and quickly divide the rice spatula to from a coma, he has become a more or less crumbly. Spread the filling over rice. Try to do it evenly. Can slightly povoroshit rice shovel, but not to mix, and then get a sticky mess.

5. Cover the rice with a towel and allow to cool slightly, so that it can be taken by hand. Now he’s ready for sushi/rolls. You need to use it immediately, then it will become too dry and hard.

Life hacks on twisting rolls:

1. Nori should be placed shiny side down.

2. For laying out rice on nori, you need to prepare tezu to wet hands. Pour into a bowl with a little water and 2 tbsp of rice vinegar. Rice spread on nori it hands dipped in this mixture.

3. To roll had the form of a snail, and looked correctly, the figure you need to lay out stepping back from the edge about 2 cm, and fill to the middle of the sheet. That is, the side which to you should be filled with rice from the edge and at a distance of 2 cm, and then the rice is laid out to the middle of the sheet.

4. To nori stuck to each other, and roll together, edge of the sheet lubricate tezu.

5. Roll to cut you need a very sharp knife dipped in tezu.

Kung pao

The’re making Sizzling kung PAO is a Chinese classic. To cook very simply and quickly.

Recipe for 2-3 servings:

1. Poultry fillets (1 breast of duck, chicken, Turkey) or washed, to remove excess fat, bone, skin cut into small pieces and marinate overnight in mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and Jerusalem artichoke syrup (4 tablespoons of each ingredient) + 2H there.l. Cayenne pepper or 2 fresh chili peppers, ground ginger 1 tbsp or 50 grams of fresh, 2 cloves garlic, passed through the press. Half the work done.

2. On the following day. Well heated frying pan (ideally a wok), put a little oil for frying (I have ghee) and fry the meat on all sides until brown (not until tender). Lay the pieces you need in 1 layer and are spaced from one another, so they were roasted and not languished. If in 1 layer to put the whole chicken immediately failed, then fry in batches. The marinade is not poured!

Put meat in a bowl, in the same frying pan put a little cooking oil and 2-3 sliced bell peppers meaty. The pieces should be of the same size with chicken or strips. Fry a few minutes on high heat until brown, stirring intensively. Optionally at this stage you can add a handful or two any Asian mushrooms (oyster mushrooms, eringi, black wood mushrooms, shimeji).

In the end, we have obtained all the ingredients are not ready yet, but with a delicious crust.

3. Return the meat to the pan, there pour the marinade from the chicken and fry until the chicken is cooked, it’s very fast – a few minutes. Not desiccate. And make sure the sauce all evaporates, that’s the whole point. It will thicken and will be wildly tasty. 1 minute until cooked, pour a generous handful of roasted cashew nuts, stir and switch off. If you throw them too soon, they will lose their crispness. Cashews can replace the peanuts or add sesame seeds. Most often I put sesame seeds, and nuts.

As I’m flipping nuts wrote here.

4. Serve sprinkled with green onions. The side dish goes with rice, buckwheat noodles or rice.

Most of all I love’re making Sizzling kung PAO with buckwheat noodles. I cook it as usual, but do not cook them for a while about 2 minutes then simply transfer the frying pan to the chicken, adding a little water from boiling, stir and bring to readiness is already there.

Turns super dish! Buckwheat noodles with’re making Sizzling kung PAO in a delicious sauce.

Massaman curry with fried nuts

One of my favorite types of Curry. I make it with either beef or chicken.

In a wok or deep frying pan with a thick bottom, cut into small cubes 2 medium onions, put 3 sticks of cinnamon, 3 boxes of cardamom, 3 leaves of kaffir lime, 1 star of star anise and pass over medium heat until golden and lightly fried onions in ghee oil or vegetable oil for frying. As soon as the onion is ready, add chopped ginger (50g) to it and fry for another minute, then put 2 cloves of garlic, passed through a garlic chopper, and fry for another 30 seconds.

Spread to the roast massaman curry paste (100 gr.), warm up to a characteristic smell for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Keep in mind that all the proportions I have calculated exactly for the curry paste that I indicated in the link. 

Then add 700-800 GR. meat (chicken fillet or beef tenderloin/other back), cut into small cubes or strips, fry it for 5 minutes, pour the rest coconut milk (only 400 ml., standard jar), and carcass on low heat until the meat is ready. Broiler chicken needs 30 minutes, beef and homemade chicken-1-2 hours.

When the meat is ready, I add spices. Without fail, this is 1-2 tbsp. L. fish sauce, 2-3 tbsp. L. Jerusalem artichoke syrup or to taste. According to the mood, I can put ground chili pepper and cumin for about 0.5 tsp.carcass with spices for 5 minutes, Try, add more spices or more coconut milk if necessary and let it brew for 10-15 minutes, slightly opening the lid.

Depending on the cookware in which you cook, sometimes you need to add water. In the process, it will still evaporate, and the sauce will remain. In my dishes I can close the lid and the liquid doesn’t evaporate at all, so I don’t pour anything.

Serve with TAya jasmine rice and roasted nuts. I like beef with peanuts and chicken with cashews.

Nuts must be fried, crispy. Details on how I roast nuts, wrote here.

Curry also goes well with saag paneer (an Indian dish of cheese and spicy spinach sauce):

How to prepare rice for cooking

There are sooo many recipes for cooking rice. The technology depends on its variety, and on the dish itself (sushi, risotto, pilaf, porridge, etc.), but the preparation of rice is always about the same for me.:

Rice is always washed until the water is clear.

Since this cereal rapidly absorbs water, then you need to wash it in high-quality water (definitely not from the tap) and you need a lot of water.

If good water is not enough. Then 1-2 times wash the rice with it, then rinse in the water that is available. The taste of the dish directly depends on the taste of water

The water temperature should be at room temperature. Cold and hot water mercilessly destroy the seeds.

Wash in a colander in any case can not, for the same reason – the rice is damaged. And you need a large enough container, hand, raking rice from the bottom up.

If the rice is soaked, the cooking time and the amount of water used is significantly reduced, unlike the original recipe.