It isn't ruined. It just needs more time and more moisture.

It has happened to me. So i always cook rice and beans separate.

In a more dense stew/sauce like chili, your rice is almost sealed and not getting the liquid it needs. I'm sure a microscopic technical term exists to explain it.

You might need as much as two cups liquid and more time, or some time in the oven like a bake.

You could experiment and take out a cup or two, add a cup of water like a soup and simmer that...

My thought at the top of your post was that your rice is dryer than what was used by the people you've seen doing it. Confirmed by your last sentence. So it just needs more water and time, like Sleevendog said. If you know ahead of time that your rice is old, soak it overnight, or boil it up first.

Another way to go, is just to turn off the stove, make sure there's plenty of liquid in the pot, and let it sit for a few hours. Or put it in the fridge overnight.

I've added a LOT more water. It is now taking up half of my stockpot. It's the beans and rice that keeps on growing!

Exactly. An overnight soak should do it if it has the extra moisture...and letting it steam...but do try a small pot on the side if intended for tonight.

We posted at the same time...you are on the right path, lol.

Beans won't soften in the presence of anything acedic....maybe some rice works the same way? Don't know.

I was wondering that too. But the paella I have seen includes tomatoes. But in small quantities. It's turned to horrible glop now, due to me adding so much water so many times and stirring to prevent burning on the bottom. I always have the same trouble with risotto, it turns to glop on the outside and never gets done on the inside!

I have no idea what you are doing wrong.....I have never ruined risotto......the clue is to stir like mad to abrade the rice and make the sauce creamy.
You shouldn't stir risotto....the crusty stuff on the bottom of the pan is a choice part.

You brown the meats, add the cut up aromatics and cook a bit, add the spices and cook util aromatic, add the broth and replace the chorizo, chicken shrimp and whatever...sprinkle the rice around the meat, add clams and or mussels....simmer until rice has absorbed liquid and is tender...addpeas, cook 5 minutes more and serve.

If you have a pressure cooker, 20 minutes it will be done.

dcarch

Pressure cooker might work. I made a pot of beans last week in the PC. First round, they weren't soft enough to suit me but I went ahead and added not quite a pint of salsa and pressure cooked for another ten minutes. They turned out creamy and perfect in spite of an acid component being added midway in the cooking.

So I decided to do the test. Rice and beans cooked in vinegar and salt.

45 minutes in the pressure cooker later, not a very tasty recipe, but the beans were very tender, as well as the rice.

dcarch

After adding a lot more water, I am left with a gluey gloppy mess of not very good tasting ooze. After two hours of cooking, seems like the flavor is gone. I have no idea why it doesn't turn out for me either, this is so frustrating! I made it like Linda describes, although I added a can of crushed tomatoes, which may have been my undoing. After that didn't work I added a lot more water and after two hours the white, medium grained rice was no longer crunchy, but gluey. Ptooey!

Okay, now you put in "a lot" more water. Rice doesn't stop absorbing water, hence the gluey. You can try steaming it off, or you could try mashing some and frying it, frijoles style.

So here's how you get it to all come out. Practice. That's really all there is to it. First find a good recipe for what you want to make. You may have used the exact technique, but not the exact ingredients and proportions. If the recipe just says "rice", skip it. Start with a recipe that says "medium grain brown basmati" or "regular Uncle Ben's" or "short grain arborio" or whatever kind it wants. That's also probably an indication that the directions are thorough--but read it through to make sure before you start cooking. Get a new bag of rice if yours has been hanging out in your pantry a long time (use that for making plain rice). Same with the rest of the ingredients--make sure they're all fresh, not merely okay, for the best chance of success. Then follow the recipe exactly. No substitutions or shortcuts. Exactly. See how it comes out. If it doesn't come out just right, try it again. If it comes out same as the first time, try another recipe. Once you like the recipe and have made it a few times, you can start messing with it, and you'll probably have better success because you'll know what has worked in the past. You'll also be able to grab a technique from the recipe and adapt it to your improvising.

Risotto is dead easy. It just takes time. You might want to spend a week practicing small batches until it comes out right. It helps if your liquid (stock or water) is warm. Don't take shortcuts. Just resign yourself to standing there (or sitting close) for the whole time, and stirring stirring stirring, ladle stir stir stir ladle. When they do it on TV shows, the rice starts out par-boiled, so it's cooked through but hasn't shed its starch. That's the hard way to do it unless you're doing restaurant service and want to finish it a la minute, or you're on TV and can't spend an hour stirring. Once you have a handle on it, you'll be able to time chopping something or measuring something, or ducking out to the bathroom, without any harm. But you have to go right back to it.

Paella is about building layers (figuratively--of additions, not strata). There's no one way to make it, but the way I learned the tomatoes go in almost at the end. First you toast the rice in your pan to give it browning and dry it more so it can soak up more yummy juice, then you add liquid, seasoning and herbs. You don't start putting the meat and hard vegetables in until the rice is halfway cooked or more. Then the softer vegetables, and the tomatoes and olives near the end. If you're using fast cooking seafood/fish, it goes in once the hard vegetables have softened and more or less with the soft vegetables, depending on how long each needs to cook.

I didn't add a lot of water all at once, I added about a cup at a time in 30 min. intervals over two hours as I tried to get the rice to soften. This was white rice, not brown, so it should have cooked in about 20 min. And I bought this rice specifically for paella after researching online what kind of rice to use. I live out in the boonies and can't get special Spanish imported rice. And I practice makinf both paella and risotto all the time. I have thrown out more food that way!

The paella recipes I have seen brown stuff in the paella pan for the flavor and caramelization and fond. Then move to the sides when the rice goes in. Should not be a problem if your darn rice cooks properly!. I have had problematic rice before, I think it is an issue with the rice. I won't buy this kind again. But also probably compounded by too much tomato.

Yes to browning the meat in the pan first. I think you might need patience if your paella rice isn't cooking thoroughly. If all the liquid is gone and the rice is still crunchy, you can add another cup of stock the way you did with the beans. But make sure it's really dry before you do so. And if half cooked isn't working for you, you can let the rice get 90% cooked before you put the meat in, especially if you let it cook more than just browned when it first hits the pan.

Another thing that will work fine in paella is if you cook the rice first. Just cook it as you would for plain rice, but using the liquid (stock or whatever) that you intended for the paella. After it's cooked, toast it off a bit in your pan full of fond with a small amount of the liquid, then proceed.

If your practice risotto isn't working, maybe you could share your method? I don't have time now, but I can post the way I do it later if you want. You are using arborio rice for the risotto, though, aren't you? It's the most commonly used and available one. Plain old rice won't do it.

L, I don't think tomatoes will affect the rice, my Spanish Rice recipe calls for browning meat and onions, adding tomatoes, rice and seasonings and cooking it all together. The rice always gets soft. So, it's probably something else and I'm betting your rice was old and dried out. I've had the same problem when making cabbage rolls, even after all day in the crockpot the rice will stay crunchy. I avoid it by cooking the rice first, then adding it in.

So what to do with your pot of glop? (grin) Did the rice ever get soft? If so, add more seasonings. I wouldn't throw more good ingredients into the pot at this point, I'd just add seasonings to see if I could make it taste edible.

Annie

Shaking my head......Lauri, I know you are not new to cooking because I have seen your posts for lots of years.....
never have I known anyone who has so many problems with basic stuff!! LOL! I mean rice?? Really....never had a failure with rice....and I have cooked rice for nearly 60 years. Sometimes it was too hot, sometimes tasteless and sometimes over cooked....but never "crunchy"!! LOL!
And then there was the sticky cast iron pan and the cake with the puddle in the middle, the spreading bread...or wasn't that your problem...was it someone else's?
I guess there are some that cooking doesn't come easy to....I wish I lived next door...I would cook your rice, season your pans and bake you a loaf of bread now and then!!
But I definitely have to hand it to you....you keep plugging along and never let crunchy rice daunt. I admire your tenacity! A toast to always learning something new!

Yes, I know, I am far from a natural when it come to cooking. On the one hand. On the other hand, I would be the first to admit I am a soup savant. A muffin maven. And I can usually crank out a pretty good salad and a mean coleslaw. I can can. And if your tofu is giving you troubles, I'm your gal!

Annie, it was amazing, it went from taking up 1/4 of my stockpot to 1/2. Kinda like Lucy's bread baking experience. I did add more seasoning but something about it is just "cooked out." It doesn't taste bad, it is just too gloppy. Not sure what I'll do with it. A couple of bowls of it is about all I can stomach. I have about a month's worth of "stew" now (if I ate a bowl and day) and I hardly feel like freezing it, further extending this nightmare, lol! I had a bad bag of rice once before, even my SO, who always seems to be able to make perfect rice, said there was something wrong with it. But anyway, thanks for confirming your recipe, because that is the exact recipe and technique my friend uses and she makes fantastic Spanish rice. That's exactly what I did, I browned the meat and some onions in EVOO, added two cans of beans, a big can of crushed tomatoes and some taco seasoning. Then covered it all with beef broth and added the rice. Brought it to a boil, turned it down to low, covered it for 20 min. and then uncovered for another 10. Crunch. Add a cup more water, stir, cover for 20 more. Crunch. Rinse repeat two more times. Glop.

What can i say.....cursed for sure....but celebrate the soup and salad gene!