The Correct Way To Make Rice

OK boys and girls, friends and lovers. Here we go again, I've been thinking I need to add something that will go with the recipe in the previous post, and for the sake of simplicity, and starting with the basics, I thought rice is a good place to start. If you can cook rice, you can live. I lived in Japan for 5 years, so I do humbly claim knowing something about the subject.

Most people in Japan use a rice cooker, this is a kitchen appliance that is solely dedicated to making rice. Some of them can make bread too, but then it will be round. I's a good investment if you're going to be living on rice, if you're single etc. It's not practical for me, because I don't eat that much in the way of carbs, and so what follows is the manual way.

OK, let's jump right in then. If you live in South Africa, then you are probably familiar with the Tastic brand. It's OK, not remarkable, just a good meat and potatoes rice, if I may be permitted such an obscure statement. There are actually many different kinds of rice, but we won't go into that now. What is remarkable to us, borderline consumers, is that the directions, the cooking instructions on the back of the bag of Tastic and all other 'normal' rice is WRONG. It would seem that the people in charge have an interest in misleading their customers, their very bread and butter, or maybe they just don't know any better.

The idea behind making rice the right way, is to treat the cooking rice as a living organism. Like a pupa in incubation. You have to respect the things you eat, and treat them accordingly. Otherwise they gang up on you and give you heartburn, indigestion, gas, and eventually cancer.

To begin, pour out the rice into the pot. This should be a heavy pot, at least the base must be quite thick. Don't use flimsy aluminium pots. The best kind of pot for making rice is a clay pot, you can use it on  gas, but I'm not sure about electric stove, at least not the kind with an exposed element. This is a bit of a novelty though, and a sturdy stainless steel pot with a snugly fitting lid should work fine. The lid is indispensable, and it must fit well. It is not essential to measure the amount of rice, but lets say for clarity's sake that it's about 500ml, or 2 mugs full.

First, wash the rice, with cold water, unless you have a solar geyser made with food grade materials. Wash it over and over until the water no longer becomes cloudy. Now for the cooking water, it must be cold, this is very important. Pour some in so that the water level is just a few centimeters above the rice level. Shake it a little bit so that the rice lies evenly. Now place the pot on a level surface and put your open hand into it so that your palm and your fingers rest on the rice. You don't really put weight on it, the rice must remain level. Now, the water must reach your knuckles, or your knuckles must be under water but it mustn't come up any higher than that. At least this is true for Japanese rice. Rice sold in South Africa soaks up more water, so what you can do is let the water come up just a little bit higher than your knuckles. but not more than 2 centimeters.

Into this, add a pinch, or two, no more, of salt. Salt is not really that good for you, and for some reason Japanese rice requires no salt at all. Tastic tastes a little bit funny if you don't put in any though. Now put on the lid and put it on the stove. You have to start with a low heat. If you don't want to pay very much attention to it, you can leave it like that for about an hour. If you're in a hurry you can turn up the heat as soon as it's boiling. The most important rule here is that you DON'T take off the lid until it's done. To find out how far it is you  have to listen. There's a certain sound it makes when it's boiling (That's when you can turn the heat up), and when it's almost done it becomes more of a sizzling. Remember though that if you open it too soon, you've blown it. So if you are in a hurry, turn the heat up once it's boiling, then when you can hear that it's almost done, turn it down quite low again, otherwise it will burn.

The first time you try this, rather don't be in a hurry. Low heat and leave it for an hour. When I say low heat, I mean high enough to get it boiling eventually. This is actually why it takes a bit longer this way. Ideally it should  start boiling in about 15 minutes, if it's not boiling in 20, then just turn up the heat some.

When it's done, its will sound particularly dry with a kind of sizzling noise. Open it, and give it a good stir with a rice scoop or a wooden spoon. That's it, Enjoy! If you want to be decadent, and large amounts of butter don't scare you, stir in 50~100g of butter and a teaspoon of thyme with this, just after you've opened it. (Not margarine, PLEASE!)

This is actually a  good party trick because many people cringe if things aren't measured out. As for the 1 cup rice three cups water instructions, they are wrong. As far as measuring things out goes, you don't ever want more than 2 cups water per 1 cup rice. Maybe the reason they say that is because many people just cook rice without a lid, which is a total sacrilege anyway. So now you know. Happy rice making! (And eating).

This is my Gift,, My Gift to the world...

Today's Masala, or,,  Pea Soup For the Soul

OK then, without further ado. Here we go.  I'm reaping the rewards of this effort as I type this, and I decided it's just too good to keep to myself...

You will need:

The veg, and the substance:
50g Butter
Extra vegetable oil for fortifying spices
1 and a half Tbsp vinegar
50ml milk
Raw garlic, about 4 or 5 cloves, depends on the size
Raw Ginger, about 2 times the size of your thumb, this is very important, you can skimp and use powder, but it wont be quite the same
1 Large onion
2 Small potatoes
2 Carrots
1 apple
1 cup of Split Peas

Whole spices:
Half a teaspoon of fennel seed
Half a teaspoon of caraway seed
Half a teaspoon of fenugreek
4 or so cloves

Grounds:
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seeds
Half a teaspoon of Packo Masala (the five roses of curry powder)
Half a teaspoon of Rajah Mild and Spicy

Method:
OK, one thing I learned by watching Jamie Oliver and cooking shows where all the ingredients are always magically pre chopped, diced, peeled or whatever, is that it pays to do you'r preparation. Much better than bouncing from the stove to the cutting board and burning your spices.

Put the milk in a cup, toss in the vinegar, (I'll explain later). Chop chop, the carrots and the  potatoes in to small cubes. You can have them big and chunky but it takes longer to cook. OK, dice your garlic, ginger and onions separately, or use a food processor, (not mush, but fine). A big, broad vegetable knife is the easiest to use fo this kind of thing. Good, now you're ready for business.

You want a saucepan, heavy and solid is good. Get it nice and hot and throw in the butter, with a bit of veg oil to keep it from wasting the butter. Now throw in all the dry whole spices, swirl it around. Patience is a virtue at this point. You have to keep it moving, not scorching, but sizzling, about 2 minutes is good. Now, the ginger goes, do the same for about another 2 minutes, you'll notice a change in texture. Then comes the garlic, only about half a minute, because it's sensitive, you want to preserve as much of the volatiles in it as possible. Now if at any point during this process what you have in your pan looks dry, add more oil. It should never get drier than a wet kind of a paste. There are 2 good reasons for this. First, you don't want to burn the spices, if their essential oils escape, you lose. Second, the extra oil captures the essential oils that would otherwise be escaping (evaporating). Got it? Good!

Now do the ground spices, they contain thickener, so remember the rule, add more butter or oil if you have to. Don't believe what the media tells you, oil is good for you. Olive oil works great, if that would make you feel more comfortable. It's very important to keep this all moving, a wooden spatula is the best. Keep this going for a minute, then toss in the onion, and still keep it moving until you notice a change in the texture of the onion.

Now, add all the remaining vegetables, (and the apple) and just lightly fry them, you don't have to be thorough, just let them taste the heat and the oil and the spices. Add about 100 ml water, mix and cover, now turn up the heat to HIGH. Wash the peas while the masala starts to simmer, then add them. Now here's where we diverge from traditional Indian cooking, or atleast the recipe's on the backs of boxes of curry powder. Peas drink alot of water. The ones I used today said 2 and a half cups water for 1 cup of peas. I'd say you need atleast that much, Infact I use quite a bit more. Anyway, this cooks on a high flame, so there needs to be enough water for it not to burn. You'll probably find it boiling down before the peas get soft enough, then you just top it up again. Add a bit of salt now, about a quarter of a teaspoon should do it.

OK, put the heat up High, and take a rest. Just check and stir every 15 minutes or so. When the peas are soft, (usually about an hour) take the milk with the vinegar in it, toss it in, and boil for another 2 minutes. The milk will have gone sour, thats the idea. If this idea bothers you, just use some yoghurt, but still add a little vinegar or fresh lemon juice, 2 minutes before serving. This is very important.

Tired? It'll be worth it. Serve with rice, naan, roti, chapati, for now you'll have to figure those out for yourself, I'm going to sleep.

- Enjoy!