Rice - make it more interesting?

sceptre

Hey all

For the past year, whenever I've wanted rice with a curry or whatever, I've been using that Uncle Bens express egg fried rice (I got given a giant box of the stuff, enough for 12 months with rice two or three times a week).

Having used up all of my freebies, I'm back to boiling the stuff (long grain or brown, depending). Ignoring that I'll be having it with some nice curry or chili, how do I make it more interesting? Should I be adding particular spices or something when I'm boiling it? I'm not using the boil in the bag stuff - it's coming out of a big bag.

Amalgam

sceptre, life changing moment, get yourself a rice cooker, they all more or less do the same thing. You can cook onions and various other veg. mixed in, there's a ton of recipes out there so that you will probbaly never have 'just rice' being ladled out of it.

Not expensive, I'll pop downstairs and have a look at the one I'm using..

A Tefal Automatic Rice Cooker - Classic 3,2l

I use mine to mainly steam cook fish and vegetables, which it also does.

Bags, boiling, Uncle Ben's, Single 'Handy' Portions crap is just.. money down the drain, the cooker will pay itself in a week or 3.

glaston

Try some basmati.

According to the silver spoon all rice served with curry should be cooked as follows:
Boil till tender
Drain and refresh under cold running water
Spread on a roasting tray and leave in a warm oven for 10-15 mins.
Never tried it tho.

Anybody know where to get Jasmine Rice??

Amalgam

I had this one before, but myself and family more or less ran it into the ground, from use! It was a tad small as well.

Cookworks - Argos - €29.99

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/4224765/Trail/searchtext%3ERICE+COOKER.htm

If you're in Dublin, I suggest visiting the ground level of Roches Stores, Henry Street, the have a big range. Power City do as well.

Charcoal

Throw a stock cube in with the water when boiling.

Or

Throw some tumeric in and it makes it go yellow like safron bur much much cheaper!

Or

Make your own fried rice in a wok, scramble eggs, bit of soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, peas, corn, even shredded chicken etc.

Also, I always make too much and freeze it. Have a portion containers , bung em in the microwave and perfect cooked rice in minutes, and much nicer than that shop microwave bag stuff.

I've been holding off on getting a rice maker on the basis that I already have a press full of slow cookers, panini makers, smoothies makers, pop-corn makers etc. about to burst at the seams and full of cobwebs from lack of use. Are they really that good? I could make some space....

Amalgam

Charcoal wrote: »

I've been holding off on getting a rice maker on the basis that I already have a press full of slow cookers, panini makers, smoothies makers, pop-corn makers etc. about to burst at the seams and full of cobwebs from lack of use. Are they really that good? I could make some space....

I agree totally on the 'kitchen collecting', you're not alone, we've a graveyard of fruit juice makers and associated tat.

The thing about the rice cooker\steamer is they're functional, they're geared for one or two tasks, with some cooking variety.. and they do it well, but not in a gimmicky way.

Stick to a simple metal model, with a single steam tray. The 'crockpot' in which the rice is cooked lifts out, is light, usually.. and washes in a snap. The outside doesn't get tainted much by the cooking process, so, in effect, all you need to wash is the crockpot and lid, usually. The unit usually just needs a wipe every so often.

glaston, further up, mentioned Jasmine Rice, the cookers can deal with just about any type, including Jasmine. Works great if you add stock too.

It's on a weight\trigger\timer, I've never burnt any in the few years I've had one.

You can do steamed pears and various desserts in the steam tray too.

The only dish I'd be wary about, which most units claim can be done, is Risotto, as you really need to keep an eye on it. Only dish I still hand stir and wouldn't put in the steamer.

I don't understand the market for selling 100g or 200g of overpriced, bagged, quick cook rice, because a rice cooker will usually do the rice in roughly the same time, between 15-20 minutes, depending on volume. Don't get me started on that muck for microwaves..

doctor evil

Could a vegetable steamer be used to cook rice?

lalee17

Mightn't look very nice, but tastes delicious, try adding lots of soy sauce to any boiled rice, mmmmmmmmm.

cuppa

sister has this ball thing on a chain with holes in it.nice rice always.dont know how to use it.feeds 4 .

TequilaMockingBird

I don't think you need a rice cooker - you can just use a saucepan.

Always use Basmati rice, always rinse it well before cooking, simmer for 10 minutes and leave it covered for another 10 minutes.

For flavour you could simply cook it with stock, just add a chicken stock cube or two to the boiling water.

Cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaves, saffron, tumeric, ginger will all add a different flavour. There are so many flavours you could add, just play around with them to find out what you like. (Saffron and cardamom is lush!)

For fried rice I scramble an egg in a wok with sunflower oil, add cooked rice, and a handful of frozen petit pois, a small splosh of sesame seed oil and lots of soy sauce.

The main thing is to avoid anything with "Uncle Ben" or "microwave" written on it .

Planet X

A knob of butter (ghee if you have it), a tbsp of cooking oil.
Star Anise, Cinnamon stick, 3/4 cloves, 2 crushed Cardammon pods, Bay leaf, pepper, touch of curry powder.
5 mins on low heat to activate / open the spices.


1 mug of Basmati. 2 mugs of chicken stock (or slightly less).


Bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Take off heat. Give it a good stir to fluff it up.
Presto.


Have a rice cooker also but prefer to cook it in a pot. Rice cooker can overcook rice and leave it stuck to the bottom of the cooker if you're not careful.

glaston

Japanese (sticky) rice is nice too, lovely texture.
You can get it in tesco.

the beer revolu

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Always use Basmati rice,

WTF??????

So many different types of rice.
Why stick to one?

Olives, chillies, grilled tomatoes, gherkins, roast garlic, grilled peppers, capers etc. etc are all nice stirred through rice for more European dishes (just pick a few)

We have a rice cooker but always end up using a saucepan.

TequilaMockingBird

the beer revolu wrote: »

WTF??????

So many different types of rice.
Why stick to one?

WTF????????

Chill pet. It's just rice.

Amalgam

Planet X wrote: »

A knob of butter (ghee if you have it), a tbsp of cooking oil.
Star Anise, Cinnamon stick, 3/4 cloves, 2 crushed Cardammon pods, Bay leaf, pepper, touch of curry powder.
5 mins on low heat to activate / open the spices.


1 mug of Basmati. 2 mugs of chicken stock (or slightly less).


Bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Take off heat. Give it a good stir to fluff it up.
Presto.


Have a rice cooker also but prefer to cook it in a pot. Rice cooker can overcook rice and leave it stuck to the bottom of the cooker if you're not careful.

Urge to try rising.. Have everything but the ghee, where is the handiest place to pick it up?

TequilaMockingBird

The regular larger supermarkets will have it, or any Asian foodstores.

sharonl

Try rice with peas, I love the stuff! can eat is as an accompaniment. I've tinkered a little with the recipe but I make it as follows.

1 cup rice (whichever kind you prefer)
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup good vegetable/chicken stock
1 small red chilli chopped (or to taste)
2 spring onions chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic (or to taste)
1 sprig fresh thyme (or to taste, I use lots cos I love thyme)
1 small tin red kidney beans
dash of soy sauce

Quickly stir fry the spring onions, chilli and garlic for 1 or 2 minutes in a small dash olive oil on gentle heat. Don't let the garlic colour. Throw in one cup of rice and coat with the oil only for a couple of seconds. Turn up the heat and add the thyme, kidneybeans, soy sauce, coconut milk and stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and gently simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed. Its lovely on its own or as an accompaniment with any kind of meat or fish. I love it with jerk chicken or pork!:cool: mmmm hungry now.

Planet X

Amalgam wrote: »

Urge to try rising.. Have everything but the ghee, where is the handiest place to pick it up?

You can make it yourself with a saucepan and 2lbs. of butter. Did it before and it worked well.

Miaireland

Cardamom Rice



Ingredients

• 3 cups water*
• 1 teaspoon granulated chicken bouillon or vegetarian chicken bouillon*
• 1 1/2 cups basmati rice
• 10 whole cardamom pods
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

Directions

1. In a saucepan combine the water and bouillon and stir well. (The idea of the small amount of bouillon is to barely flavor and salt the liquid, but not to make the rice taste “chickeny.” You can increase the amount of bouillon if you like, but I think it was perfect this way.) Bring to boiling.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and allow to boil together for 1 minute.
3. Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan, and let sit for 20 minutes. It’s done! Fluff the rice and serve.
4. *Note: if you don’t have chicken bouillon or vegetarian chicken bouillon, or if you’d rather, you can probably use 2 cups water and 1 cup chicken broth instead, with much the same result.

LimeFruitGum

Tumeric is good to take away that boring whiteness.:)

Sometimes, I give the water a squeeze of lemon juice for flavour.

The Sweeper

Go the pilaf route - sweat some onions and garlic in some butter, then add other flavours of choice - pine nuts and raisins, for instance, with some spices - a little cinnamon, for other dishes try some cumin or tumeric. Add enough stock to cook by absorption. Makes a meal in itself.

biddywiddy

sharonl wrote: »

Try rice with peas, I love the stuff!

There are no peas in this recipe!

Though it does look great. Might try this later!

the beer revolu

senelra wrote: »

There are no peas in this recipe!

Though it does look great. Might try this later!

In the Caribbean, they call beans peas.
They usually do it with pigeon beans (also called gunco beans)

biddywiddy

Oh really? I had no idea.

Tonight ended up with a chicken and rice casserole. mmm.

rediguana

I sometimes make it with a very light stock instead of just water, which obviously gives it a touch of flavour.

If you put a half a teaspoon of tumeric in the water it'll turn the rice yellow.

Other times I will just fling in a couple of cloves or bits of star anise as it boils, and fish them out at the end.

Rice time is so exciting in my house.

Mr.David

Amalgam wrote: »

Have everything but the ghee, where is the handiest place to pick it up?

Copper face jacks :P