Tuesday, August 11, 2009

how to prepare some pretty good rice

We eat a lot of rice in our house. My daughters grew up with rice as a regular side, one that was more commonplace than potatoes or pasta. Very early on I learned a valuable cooking tool from my mother-in-law who is quite a good cook. She taught me how to make really good rice. And it's very easy. Here's how: Take a little bit of chopped onion and saute in your rice pan with some olive oil. After the chopped onion begins to sweat, add your measured rice and toast the rice with the onion. It doesn't matter really how long you toast your rice, as long as you don't over-toast it. I actually walked away from mine the other evening while it was toasting and I forgot about it for a couple of minutes. When I came back to the pot, the rice was golden-toasty and no worse for the wear. I was afraid I had burned it but luck was mine and the rice was fine. After you have toasted your rice in the olive oil with the onion, you can add your liquid. Here you can use your own imagination and add or substitute whatever liquid strikes your fancy. I frequently use vegetable broth, low-sodium, but water works well here too. When the liquid comes to the boil, cover your pot and cook as directed, which usually means on a low flame for approximately 15 minutes. When your cooking time is up, voila! You have pretty tasty rice!

1 comment:

EmLit said...

I love the rice you make, it's always no-fail delicious! I have tried toasting my grains of rice but I think I haven't done it long enough when I've done it. I'm not going to give up on that technique, though!