I make a mix of brown rice, wild rice, pecan rice and orzo and keep it in my cupboard. When I cook it, I saute the rice in butter or olive oil with minced onion or garlic until lightly browned then I add 2.5 times amount of stock and maybe a little wine as there is rice. I turn the buner down to low and cook until tender. Once cooked I might stir in some veggies or cheese or herbs whatever I have on hand. One of our favorites with chicken flavor is to stir in some chopped spinach, lemon juice and grated parmesan cheese.

You might find some good ideas in Cookalong #9 - RICE.

Alexa

Here is a link that might be useful: Cookalong #9 - RICE

I'm hooked on that Basmati Rice and I like to put some Sesame Oil in it. What a flavor!

To think that I used to use instant rice all those years! I had NO idea!! ::: hiding my head in shame :::

I like Basmati as well; I still don't cook it as artfully as my local Indian restaurant, though.

American-grown basmati is good, but the imported stuff is aged for a while and has a fuller flavor. If you go to an Indian/Asian grocery store you can usually find the good stuff, and if you buy it in a big sack it's very economical. Sam's used to carry imported basmati in a burlap sack--maybe they still do.

If you're watching the carbs and following the Glycemic Index, both the type of rice and the way it's cooked has an effect. The carbs present in brown rice varieties, because of the increased amount of fiber, aren't as quickly assimilated into the body and therefore don't screw up the blood sugar as much. Parboiled rice (e.g., Uncle Ben's) has a much lower GI than regular rice. That stands to reason--the parboiling removes some of the freely available starch. Jasmine rice, on the other hand, has a lot of readily available starch, and its GI is higher than glucose! So if you're having to watch your blood sugar and other carbs, you may wish to switch from Jasmine to a lower GI variety--brown, basmati or parboiled.

If you buy imported rice in sags or in bags, I suggest you immediately bake them in the oven (low temperature, not to cook them).

Some imported rice have moth eggs. You may find your pantry infested if you don't.

dcarch

I buy basamati by the burlap bag....think it's 11 pounds.
I am not sure you can beat plain basamati cooked in water with a bit of salt and butter!
But if I am feeling jazzy, I will sautee some onions and perhaps peppers,and celery in a bit of EVOO before I add the rice and liquid...broth in that case....and often finish with perhaps pignoli or almonds and some dried cranberries.
And I love leftover rice ( without the onions) for breakfast....warmed with some milk and sugar and nutmeg and cinnamon added....
Sort of like a quick rice pudding.
Linda C

HIGHJACK - I have an infestation of moths right now. From Bird Seed in the garage. I kept finding the little guys flying in the house. So I called the exterminator and he told me about the bird seed. As we came in the house thru the garage, they came in with us. He also checked my pantry but it was all good.

Now back to our regular scheduled programing.....

Rice! It's what's for dinner!!

I have heard of different techniques to eliminate bugs from bulk quantities of grains. One is to put the stuff in smaller plastic bags and freeze for a while--that's supposed to kill them off.

I've also heard of putting grains in an airtight container and placing a chunk of dry ice on top of them, loosely securing the lid of the container to allow air to escape; by the time the dry ice has sublimated into CO2, it has displaced all the oxygen in the container, and you can then secure the lid tightly.

Any feedback from people who have actually tried these techniques?

I often buy the imported burlap bagged Basmati at Costco and divide into several large bags made from Food Saver rolls, seal and store in my freezer. We use a lot of rice but there are only the two of us and Oliver (the poodle). Oliver gets two cups of uncooked brown rice, cooked together with beef or chicken and veggies, when I make his food for the week. After the Basmati has been frozen several days, I store some in the kitchen and take bags from the freezer as I need them. I think this keeps the rice fresh a longer period of time and prevents any eggs from hatching.

We also use several kinda of brown rice, and wild rice, which I buy in bulk.

A few Kefir lime leaves, purchased dried or frozen at an Asian store, added on top of Basmati while cooking gives it wonderful flavor. The leaves are not eaten. If you purchase fresh leaves, the remaining ones can be frozen.

I like Basmati cooked with chicken broth and some curry powder with a handful of golden raisins, or some cut dried apricots, added in at the end.

I also like a pinch of soaked saffron added to chicken broth when cooking Basmati.

I like a blend of two parts short or medium grain brown rice cooked together with one part of well rinsed quinoa. I start the brown rice in the rice cooker and add in the quinoa twelve to fifteen minutes later so it stays firm.

Lee

Usually I have plain Uncle Ben's or Comet on hand as well brown rice and basmati. I found a Lowe's Foods store brand of basmati that I really like; I will cook 2 cups of brown rice in the pressure cooker for about 18 minutes, cool it and package it up to freeze it. It is better to freeze rice (and cooked noodles) without any sauce or gravy on them so they won't get mushy.

Like Lee I cook 1 cup brown or white rice with a pound of ground turkey in the pressure cooker for my mini poodle, adding other vegetables to the rice and turkey mixture.

I love to make fried rice often or risi bisi with chicken stock, peas, Parmesan cheese and bits of cooked chicken. Kedgeree with flaked salmon is another dish I like, even for breakfast. Nasi goreng is a Malaysian fried rice dish that is also good for breakfast. And I love rice with curry, dried fruit, and toasted nuts.

Teresa

I always freeze flour, rice and any type of grain before it goes in my pantry. (Sometimes I just leave it in the freezer if there's room.) I don't have moths any more, ever.

Basmati is my absolute favorite, and I especially love Basmati brown if I can find it.

I also make a lot of Fried Rice, from plain leftover rice, and agree that sesame oil helps the flavor immensely.

The ATK's version of Mexican rice is very good. You make a puree of tomatoes, onions and garlic and chilis, and bake it in the oven.

Mexican Rice

2 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 onion, quartered, peeled and trimmed
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed and drained
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 jalapeno chilies, stemmed, seeded and minced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt
Pepper
Lime wedges (for serving)

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Puree the tomatoes and onion in a food processor until smooth. There will be 2 cups puree (if necessary, spoon off any excess to measure only 2 cups).

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the rice and sauté, stirring frequently, until light golden, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the garlic and two-thirds of the minced jalapenos. Cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir in the pureed tomato mixture, broth, tomato paste, and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and bake until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, 30 to 35 minutes, stirring well after 15 minutes.

Fluff the rice with a fork. Fold in the remaining jalapenos. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste; serve, passing the lime wedges separately.

a lot of years ago an "old wife" told me that bay leaves deter pantry moths and weevels....so that makes it an official old wives tale....but it really really does work.
I buy bulk bay leaves usually from world market and put them on the shelf where cereals are kept and in the drawer with the rice and pasta. I even put a few in the bag with the rice.
It works...looks messy, but it really keeps the pantry bugs away.
Linda C

I much prefer brown rice to white rice, and Cooper gets brown rice with his meat and vegetables for dinner regularly.

I usually just cook a bunch and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days, adding it to Cooper's meals as needed, or making fried rice or adding it to cold dishes like rice salad with corn, beans and cumin.

My girls like it hot with milk and sugar in place of breakfast cereal, but I use it mostly as a base for other foods, like Sol's caramel chicken.

Annie

Great ideas and recipes. And thanks for linking to the cookalong, I'd forgotten about that!!

I've made notes and cut & pasted too. This is great. One thing I never thought of was adding nuts or dried fruit to rice. I love that idea.

At lunchtime today I bought brown rice and Kasmati rice which is Indian style Basmati but from the US.

Lindac, I'm an old wife who puts bay leaves on my pantry shelves too.

Lowspark, if you don't have it, I'd suggest checking your library to see if they have a copy of Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven. It contains a good method for cooking basmati rice by parboiling and then baking and some other unusual and delicious rice recipes.

I like her Persian style pilafs - carrot-cumin, onion-garlic-saffron or beet-dill mixtures added to the rice. I usually make one flavor at a time but one day decided to make all three.

After reading this thread and going through my recipe files I realize I do not have a lot of recipes for rice dishes!

We love rice, but often serve it plain with stir fry or as a side. I will admit to keeping a few boxes of Uncle Bens rice medleys in my pantry for quick dinners.

We do eat a lot of wild rice, and I have recipes for those. But white rices...not so much. I am copying and saving!

But here are a couple that we really like.

Plain Fried Rice
from Madame Wong's Long Life Chinese Cookbook
"The Chinese do not fry rice with any soy sauce-this combination has more appeal to Westerners. Actually, fried rice is a dish of leftovers. The rice has been cooked and any meat or vegetable can be added"

4 c cold cooked rice
4T oil
3 beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 scallion, chopped fine

Break rice apart with wet hands.
Heat oil in wok to 400F. Stir fry rice rapidly, turning spatula constantly while rice is being thoroughly heated.
Make a well in center of rice. Pour in beaten eggs. Stir eggs until they are scrambled. Then stir fry eggs into the rice until thoroughly blended.
Add salt & pepper. Stir fry 30 seconds. Add scallion.

Asparagus Cashew Rice Pilaf
From allrecipes.com Submitted by: Sandy T.

1/4 cup butter
2 ounces uncooked spaghetti, broken
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/4 cups uncooked jasmine rice
2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup cashew halves

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Increase heat to medium, and stir in spaghetti, cooking until coated with the melted butter and lightly browned.

Stir onion and garlic into the saucepan, and cook about 2 minutes, until tender. Stir in jasmine rice, and cook about 5 minutes. Pour in vegetable broth. Season mixture with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and cook 20 minutes, until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed.
Place asparagus in a separate medium saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender but firm.

Mix asparagus and cashew halves into the rice mixture, and serve warm.

And of course there is Deb's Paella Salad that is out of this world!

Linda

I often use brown rice instead of potatoes, since I am not a big potato person. I do, also, like arborio rice to make a risotto. We love risotto.

Teresa, I also love nasi goreng. I got hooked on it when I tried a Malaysian restaurant in Kalamazoo. For that, you need Indonesian soy sauce, which is sweet instead of salty. I bought a jar of it, but have not made it yet.

Linda, you tease, what is "Deb's Paella salad?"

Here's a good side dish made with standard long-frain white rice.

CREAMY RICE AND CABBAGE - 2 servings

1 cup water
1/3 cup rice (not instant)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp. butter or margarine
3 slices of bacon
1/4 medium head cabbage, cored and cut into 1/2 strips
1 tsp. sugar
Dash of paprika
2 tsp. water
3 Tbs. sour cream

In a small pan, bring 1 cup water to a boil; stir in rice, salt and the butter. Cover tightly and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour off any excess water.

While rice is cooking, fry bacon until crisp in skillet. Remove and drain bacon; drain all but 2 tsp. of drippings. Add cabbage to drippings; cook and stir over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Stir in sugar, paprika, and 2 tsp. water. Cover and cook over medium heat until cabbage is crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in sour cream and rice; heat but do not boil. Stir in crumbled bacon.

ruthanna, your picture is beautiful, I'd love the recipe for the rice with beets, when you have time.

And I just happen to have a head of cabbage begging me to make something from it.

Annie

What I made a couple times and turned out really good...

I fried some thick, seasoned pork chops on one side (with chopped onion), turn over to brown other side, added some chicken broth, chili sauce (or medium salsa sauce), garlic, cumin, (whatever spice you like..sometimes oregano, thyme) and rice.

Cover until rice is done to your liking. (Note: when rice is ALMOST done, I add some frozen peas and cover again until done.)

Everything is done in one dish, and the chops are tender and the rice flavourful!

Sherry, I read that you can make kecap manis (the Indonesian soy sauce) by mixing equal parts of soy sauce and molasses. No, it is not authentic, but I'm going to try it until I can find the real thing.

Teresa

I'm using almost all Jasmine at the moment. I buy rice in 5lb bags which lasts a single person awhile. There was a few months when I couldn't get Basamati. Next I don't know... whatever is a good deal when I go to buy rice.

I often toss a Bay Leaf into the water when cooking rice. I just boil water, turn off the stove, dump in a jelly jar of rice, and cover.... 20 minutes later I have perfect rice. One of my few Tupperware items is a large container that holds a whole bag of rice... I keep the measuring jar in the container.

I top my rice with soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, and lemon juice... all to taste no measuring. I love the tang of lemon juice.

: )
lyra

Sherry, here you go. I have made this lots of times and it is superb!

Paella Salad

1 cup good olive oil
2 cups long grain rice
5 cups chicken stock
2 generous pinches saffron
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1-1/2 pounds medium sized shrimp, cooked, peeled (Costco)
1/2 cup julienne slivers red pepper
1/2 cup julienne slivers green pepper
1 cup green peas (I use uncooked frozen)
1/2 cup halved black olives (a mix of greek olives are good)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped chives or green onion

1.In large heavy bottomed pot with lid, heat 1/4 cup of the oil over medium high heat. When oil is hot add the rice and cook, stirring until it is opaque, 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, saffron, and 1/2 tsp. of the salt. Stir well to dissolve saffron and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and cook, covered, until all liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. (try not to over cook)When rice is cooked, remove and turn out into a large shallow bowl or pan and let cool to room temperature.

2. To assemble the salad, place the vinegar and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the remaining 3/4 cup olive oil. Add the shrimp, red and green peppers, peas and olives. Let marinate 10 minutes. Then add the rice, parsley and chives. Mix well.

3. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.
Posted 9/22/08 by Deborah_ps

Linda

After the rice has been frozen, and any moths/eggs etc presumed dead, it wasn't mentioned but surely the rice is washed before cooking, isn't it?

I don't rinse the rice before I cook it because I usually cook it in lots more water than it can absorb, rinse it, then steam it, so any unwanted stuff gets rinsed away.

In this technique you treat the rice as pasta, boiling it in a much larger volume of water. YouÂll need a saucepan with a steamer insert. The size of the saucepan is determined by how much rice you want to cook. For a cup of rice, you need at least three cups of water, and four is better; so for cooking 2 cups of rice, you need at least a 1 ½ or 2 qt saucepan with a steamer insert.

For one cup of dry rice: in the saucepan, bring 3 or 4 cups of water to a full boil. Add salt if desired. Add 1 cup of rice, return to boil, stirring with a fork to keep the grains from clumping. (Some people add a little butter at this point.) Once it returns to a full boil, cut the heat to a mild boil and boil for 8 minutes. Put the steamer insert in the sink and strain the boiled rice into the insert. Run some hot water into the saucepan to get all the rice out, pouring it into the steamer insert. Then run hot water through the rice in the steamer insert until you notice the water leaving the steamer insert isnÂt too cloudy. Put about an inch of water in the saucepan, put the steamer insert over the water, cover the insert and put the whole shebang on high heat; once the water returns to a boil, cut the heat to medium low and steam the rice for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Basically, boil for 8 and steam for 10. The advantage to this method is that the individual grains of rice are not sticky and come out nice and fluffy and separate. Most of the excess starch gets washed away. My dad insisted that this was the only way he wanted rice cooked, so that was the way we had it in our house. (I think he thought rice cookers were a sign of laziness, if not moral decay.)

I threw in chopped dried cherries and walnuts in my rice tonight. It was delightful and such a nice change.

Thanks Linda. Teresa, would you like me to get you a bottle of the Indonesian soy sauce? We have a couple of Asian markets in Kalamazoo.

May, this was a good thread!

Fried rice is not alway eating leftovers.

dcarch

riverrat1 sent me some popcorn rice. OMG. I'm hooked!

I keep it simple and use either brown basmati or brown jasmine. We like the chewiness. I cook it in chicken broth with a porcini cube tossed in. Alice has friends who raid my frig hoping to find some.

Annie, here's the recipe for the rice with beets. It's a good side dish for venison.

BEET MIXTURE FOR PERSIAN PILAF

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 1/2 cups finely minced cooked beets (about 3 small ones)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. minced fresh dill (or 2 tsp. dried)
2 Tbs. raspberry vinegar
1 Tbs. honey
Freshly ground black pepper

3 cups cooked basmati rice

Heat olive oil in a small skillet. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for about 10 seconds. (DonÂt let it turn color, or it will become bitter.)

Add the beets and salt, and saute for about 5 minutes longer.

Remove from heat and stir in the dill, vinegar, honey, and a little black pepper to taste.

Stir beet mixture into the rice.

I made the paella salad recipe that Linda posted. It was good, but I must say, half of the rice called for in the recipe would have been plenty. I would do the following:
cut the rice in half
add more peas
add garlic

I am having it for supper again tonight. I know it is supposed to be paella salad, but I am adding more peas AND tomatoes! I just love it when a recipe feeds us for two days. Summer is too busy to have to cook every day! thanks for the recipe Linda.

Oh! I forgot! I think I would add a liitle more vinegar than it called for also.

I've made that paella salad several times. It is SO yummy! I also added garlic to the rice. And a bit of tomato paste.

Ruthanna and Dcarch, those mixed rice pilaf photos are wonderful. Rice is almost my favorite food, if I was capable of picking one!! Can't wait to try some of these new recipes. I saved the rice thread but the world of rice is VAST! My biggest issue with rice recipes is they have to be FAST! I am really trying to simplify my cooking these days. BF jokes when we eat at his house, and I say something was good, and he says, "Yeah, and only 3 ingredients!!" He likes my cooking but I do tend to favor some of the more elaborately flavored dishes! And I usually way overdo it on side dishes when I have him over for dinner.

Lpink,
When you have some time, cook up a couple of BIG batches of rice and freeze in smaller portions. It freezes really well, thaws in just a couple of minutes in the microwave.
No waiting 45 minutes for a rice dish!!
You could undercook a little and use in cooked dishes, soups, etc. where additional cooking is necessary for melding flavors.

Deanna