Isn’t that for different types of rice, like Basmati? And as you said, you cook rice in a particular way for a particular recipe. Wet rice doesn’t stir fry well (and I’m speaking from experience). By that same reasoning, a Chinese chef could make a video teaching how to make the recipe you describe, cooking rice in the Chinese style, creating a mushy pile of rice at the bottom, call it perfect, and nobody would be able to call it wrong.
Granted, I also think it’s wrong to make fun of other cultures’ way of doing things just on the basis of it being different, and any hate directed at the chef is stupid. Also, I think getting up in arms about cultural appropriation is pointless- people trying to make foods from different cultures won’t kill off the traditional style, and can create something new and interesting. But you cook rice this way for fried rice for a reason, and using a different method and expecting it to come out the same is just unreasonable. The chef in question apparently doesn’t even defend this recipe, saying she was just presenting BBC’s recipe. If anything, this seems like a British misunderstanding of how rice is cooked in Chinese dishes, presented as the correct method using a chef of Indian heritage.
Japanese donabes are are pretty expensive compared to electric rice cookers.
I’ve seen corn as a topping on pizza in Italy. Not mayo or nori, though I was in one restaurant in Venice with lots of seafood topping pizzas, I might have missed the nori. It doesn’t seem stranger to me than spinach, which is excellent on pizza.
This was exactly my reaction. Also, I would oil the bread (inside and out) and stick it in the oven for a few minutes before adding the fillings.
You should for a couple of reasons, mainly to get rid of the excess starches but also to get rid of dirt, dust, and most importantly arsenic (if the soil where the rice was grown has higher levels of it). Giving it a decent wash will make it clean and safe to eat. Mind you not all rice will have trace levels of arsenic but if you’re washing your rice like you should then you’re set. I mainly learned to wash it but coming from Latin America i was taught by my mom that it was primarily to make it cleaner, getting rid of the starch wasn’t the main driver there. Same with beans and lentils, those also needed a good wash before hand.
That Japanese version uses a scary amount of cheese, but it resembles a genuine (i.e. Italian) pizza (which is not a pie, FFS) about as much as anything USians generally accept as ‘pizza’.
Well said. And sifting has nothing really to do with whether you measure by volume or weight, which also seemed to be part of the reason why s/he no longer sifts.
I never put butter in rice until my ex’s Cuban grandmother made rice and beans that way. I wouldn’t use butter on rice to serve with food from any Asian cuisine, but if I’m making yellow rice, or rice to go in a burrito, or to serve with ropa vieja? Totally different.
@anon32019413: Aroma also makes rice cookers in the $30-40 range that double as slow cookers, in all different sizes. And unlike most slow cooker brands, the top latches, so it’s perfect for bringing food to a potluck and then using the “keep warm” setting. I’ve had mine for about 12 years now.
@BakerB Did not know that! But yeah, East Asians aren’t the only people who cook rice, other cultures do it different for different dishes, with different methods, and with different varieties of rice!
Personally, I see so many people afraid to try things in their kitchen, or somehow not realizing they’re allowed to do whatever they want. People I know personally, as well as people commenting on recipes with things like “Can I substitute in different spices?” It’s this learned helplessness/lack of a sense of freedom in cooking. Maybe that’s just an American thing, since so many of my peers grew up in homes where no one cooked and are trying to teach themselves as adults from recipes with no context.
@Ministry: Trying to give words strict definitions in general use (not domain-specific jargon) is a losing battle. Words have extensions not intensions. If you’ve never had the pleasure of such a conversation, get some friends together and debate the exact definition of a common word, one with no disagreements or loopholes. I recommend starting with “salad,” or “sandwich,” or maybe try to find the difference between a “box” and a “case.” After too many of those, I’ve arrived at my own opinion of “I’d be very happy to have a continuous numerical metric of ‘sandwichness’ but am not willing to care about drawing a binary dividing line. On sandwichness, PB&J>hamburger>knuckle, can we move on yet?”
I agree, sifting is essential.
And it’s the secret of making my phenomenally good Belgian waffles. Well, that and separating the yolks from the whites. And melting the butter.
Rinsing rice before cooking had a minimal effect on the inorganic arsenic content of the cooked grain but also removed enriched iron, folate, thiamin and niacin.
Rinse your rice thoroughly . The FDA cites several studies indicating that “thoroughly rinsing rice until the water is clear (four to six changes of water) reduced the total arsenic content by up to approximately 25-30 percent.”
This article in Scientific American does posit that parboiling facilities can modify their procedures to help reduce arsenic levels but in parts of the world where that may not be possible they recommend thoroughly washing, and if arsenic is truly in excess it can be cooked via percolation as that method moves water through the rice as it cooks.
One would probably need to read through the actual studies to figure out what to believe.
Parboiling rice can of course reduce arsenic levels, because cooking rice in excess water is proven a proven method for reducing arsenic, but that would also wash out most nutrients. You can also soak rice overnight in a lot of water for a similar effect.
It‘s much simpler to source rice with low levels of arsenic (here‘s a map that might help), because then one can enjoy brown rice - which would contain 80% more arsenic than white rice - without taking any steps to make it less nutritious.
True, but in some parts of the world the rice they get is the rice they get so washing thoroughly is by necessity. It does suck that it can lead to a less nutritious grain but its either that or slow poisoning.
