More flavorful rice for dinner..??? What to cook the rice in instead of plain water?!


Question: Does anyone have any suggestions as to a base for cooking rice (As opposed to plain water). I finally made a decent basmati rice tonight..but I was thinking that OH, if I added a spoon of OXO chicken broth to my water base, the rice would have had a lot more flavor....

Any other tips for a base for cooking rice??


Answers: Does anyone have any suggestions as to a base for cooking rice (As opposed to plain water). I finally made a decent basmati rice tonight..but I was thinking that OH, if I added a spoon of OXO chicken broth to my water base, the rice would have had a lot more flavor....

Any other tips for a base for cooking rice??

Wine! I substitute about 1/4 of the amount of liquid when I make it with white wine, vermouth (dry or sweet), tequila, beer, brandy, white grape juice, etc.

I also add bullion, and any combination of the following: chopped fresh onion, garlic, celery, red sweet pepper, jalapeno, shallot, leeks, dill, pine nuts, raisins, currants, craisins, walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, lemon grass, lemon, coconut milk, coconut, fresh basil, fresh cilantro, bay leaves, basil, cumin, chili powder, tarragon, lemon juice, catsup, tomato paste, minced chicken, minced pork, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, soy sauce, oyster sauce, green chili's.

I also toast the rice in a little butter and a little olive oil. The oil will keep the rice from burning. Only saute over medium-low until the grains are opaque. Then add your liquid, seasonings, etc.

Be sure to match the seasoning with what it is accompanying the rice. i.e. cumin, oregano, lime juice, onion, chili powder, garlic, green chili's, tequila, for south of the border food...and so on.

Sautee the rice first, for just a few minutes (3-4) in butter or olive oil with some chopped onions. You can also add some dried herbs, like oregano or basil or rosemary (good with poultry). Add some chicken or beef stock or broth (canned is okay) instead of ALL of the water, not just a few tablespoons.

try adding what ever flavour u want the rice to be to the water like say curry or u want it to taste like barbeque(lmao)

Chicken or beef broth.

The chicken broth is a great idea. also keep the water from when you boil veggies. Freeze it if you don't plan on having rice in the next couple days. Then thaw when ready and use that and chicken broth to cook the rice.

you can do that...you can add just chicken or beef bullion you buy it in jars or cubes and add a few to the rice and water as you are cooking it..we did this in a restuarant i worked in

This is what I always add to 1 cup of rice!

1 cup rice and 1 cup beef consomme. no additional water, just boil it like that!

It turns out awesome

Tomato juice, good with beef dishes
Clamato juice, good with seafood dishes
Orange juice, good with pork dishes

I like to make basmati rice with a bay leaf, a pinch of turmeric, a cardamom pod crushed slightly, a few cloves and salt. You can add a tab of butter for extra richness.

1. CHICKEN HAINAN RICE -- Singapore Style

** Ingredients For Chicken:

1 chicken (about 1.8 kg)

1 large piece ginger, smashed

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tbsp light soya sauce

Method:

1. Wash chicken and remove excess fat. Stuff chicken with salt, smashed ginger and garlic.

2. Fill a deep pot with water making sure water level is enough to immerse chicken. Bring to a boil and when boiling put in the chicken and cook over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes till chicken is cooked.

3. Remove chicken and drain liquid from the body cavity. Retain chicken stock for making rice and soup. Scoop out oil for making the chilli sauce.

4. Add 2 tbsp salt to a big pot of water. Dip chicken in and let it soak till it has cooled down. Drain and brush chicken with 1 tbsp sesame oil mixed with 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce.

5. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and serve, garnished with sliced cucumber, tomatoes and coriander leaves.

** Ingredients For Chicken Rice:

600gm fragrant rice

700ml chicken stock

5 cloves garlic, minced

8 shallots, minced

1 small piece ginger, smahed

4 pandan leaves, knotted

4 tbsp corn oil

1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Wash rice, drain in a colander and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

2. Heat 4 tbsp corn oil over high heat in a wok. Add minced shallots and garlic, ginger and pandan leaves, and fry till fragrant.

3. Add rice grains and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a rice cooker, add chicken stock and salt. When rice is cooked, remove ginger and pandan leaves.

** Ingredients for Chilli Sauce:

10 fresh red chillies

6 cloves garlic

5 shallots

2.5 cm piece young ginger

Chicken oil

Juice of 10 limes

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

Method:

1. Blend chillies with garlics, shallots and ginger. Add vinegar, lime juice and chicken oil. Add salt and sugar to taste.



2. NASI LEMAK ( Cocunut Milk Rice ) -- Malaysian Style

quantity ingredient
400g Rice
200 ml (? can) canned coconut milk
salt
Pandan leaf (daun pandan)
water to cover

Eat your nasi lemak with curry chicken or fried fish ..

yes....
just buy the bouillon cubes and add them when you boil the water. There are different flavors. Chicken, beef and I bet the chicken tomato one would be real good!

I use soy sauce diluted,even tomato juice depending on what it is used for or served with.
Prepared French onion soup is a nice accompaniment when served with beef .

my tips are simple....!
boil rice , add ANY flavour that YOU like to eat , as the rice begins to boil , let it boil , then strain off the rice as normal.
the rice will soak up the flavour as it`s cooking.
or
melt some butter (about 100gms) and add the flavour to it , stir and let cool.
strain the rice and place into a bowl(while still steaming) , add butter and mix in well....then you can top-up the heat by popping into micro-wave for 1 min. to set the flavour through the rice.....serve and enjoy.
you play , you enjoy.

my preferences:
chili tumeric italian all-spice garlic onion(YUM) pepper spaghetti bolognaise base(interesting taste sensation in rice) balsamic vinegar(check this one out)
Vegemite 5 spice mix lemon quarters lime quarters .............do you get what i`m saying?

Here is a good one......You can take some bell peppers, green, red o yellow, cut it in three pieces, clean it. you can let it boil in a pot with water for 5 minutes, just so it gets a little cooked. then blend it with the water that you are going to use to cook your rise. mixes with the rise, salt, and some butter. Your rise will taste delicious and will take the color of the bell pepper you used.
You can use instead, cilantro or any other thing you like. believe me.....you will love it.
ps/ if you use cilantro, take a good amount.

u can always add soy sauce and egg for Chinese rice

this is a great recipe

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/ricefrie...

----
if u're having chicken u can cook the chicken in water before frying or baking, then cook the rice in the chickens water it will add a little taste and a nice smell :)

enjoy :)

I learned this from Latin American friends:

In a Large skillet heat 1/4 inch of oil. (I use 1/2 balsamic garlic olive oil - but I am crazy about garlic) and 1/2 pure veg oil. Before the oil starts to get warm, pour rice into the bottom of the skillet until it is just covered in oil. I would use a high quality wild rice for something different. [You can do this with white rice as well.]

As the oil starts to warm up make sure it isn't so hot your rice is popping, or burning, or turning to brown. You want a tinge of light brown, because it will continue to cook. After you have tinged your rice thoroughly, the oil should be absorbed into the rice.

Get 1/2 gallon of very hot water [Mr coffee temp is good], turn off the heat source from the rice skillet. Step back, Use Caution, keep your hair, face, clothes, kids etc BACK, SLOWLY pour the hot water into the rice until it is 2/3 water to 1/3 rice.

Turn heat back on the lowest setting, cover skillet. In 20 - 25 minutes you will have Great rice.

Use a can of soup, any flavor that you like, put the soup in a pan, add 1 can of rice and 1 can of water, cook as usual. Check and see if it needs a little more water towards the end of cooking time. Some people like it firmer than others.

How to Cook Rice Perfectly
Letting your rice rest enlarges the window of opportunity for serving perfectly cooked rice

Aside from differences in culture, many Americans shy away from rice due to a fear of cooking it. (Hence the popularity of instant rice, which offers "perfect" rice—in exchange for flavor and texture.) While exactly how rice cooks changes from variety to variety, even from batch to batch (brown rice cooks longer than white, for example; old rice absorbs more water than new) getting consistently good results is not impossible. In fact, the method that works best is practically the same as the one on the back of the box. But what the back of the box neglects to mention is the importance of letting the rice rest before serving it.

These days, most rice comes free of dirt, gravel, and chaff so there's rarely a need to patiently pick through it. Washing rice is another matter. Outside the U.S., talc is still sometimes used as a milling aid and should be rinsed off in a few changes of cold water. Though rice with talc should be labeled as such, I rinse if there's the slightest doubt. Some people also find that rinsing washes off loose starch, making the rice less sticky. (In the U.S., rice is enriched with vitamins, but only a small amount gets washed away if the rice is rinsed.)
Be sure to thoroughly strain rinsed or soaked rice. Excess water can make your rice mushy.

Whether you soak rice depends on time and tradition. — Apart from habit, the reasons for soaking rice are to shorten the cooking time and to allow for maximum expansion of long-grain rice, particularly basmati. A soak also makes the grains a little less brittle so they're less likely to break during cooking. If I'm using older basmati, which needs to be treated carefully if it's not to break, I soak it first. (Recipes vary in suggested soaking times, with 30 minutes most common.) But for most everyday meals, I skip this step and still get good results. If you do soak your rice, be sure to drain it thoroughly or you'll be using more water in cooking than you intended.
Cooking rice by the absorption method is simple and reliable
Combine the rice and water and bring to a boil. Use 1-1/2 to 2 cups of water per cup of rice. If adding salt or fat, swirl the pan to mix them; rough stirring could break the rice.

I grew up in a household that only boiled rice and only basmati at that. We'd tip some rice into a large pot of boiling water, adjust the heat to keep the rice just dancing to the surface, and check it now and again by taking a bite. When the rice was resilient without a trace of central hardness, the water got poured off and saved for soup. To make the rice dry and fluffy, we'd tip it back into its pan, cover it, and cook it further over very low heat.

I now prefer the absorption method. In this more streamlined process, the rice is cooked in a measured amount of water so that by the time the rice is cooked, all the water has been absorbed. As the water level drops, trapped steam finishes the cooking.

For every cup of rice, use 1-1/2 to 2 cups of water (less if the rice is washed first). You'll need to experiment a little to find the amount you like best, but in general, use the larger amount for long-grain rice, the lesser for medium and short. Keep in mind that more water gives you softer, stickier rice—great for stir-fries. Less water will keep the grains more separate and result in firmer rice, a good style for rice salads.
Fixing not-so-perfect rice

Cooking a perfect pot of rice isn't difficult, but sometimes, it doesn't turn out as perfect as you'd like. There are ways to fix rice that has turned out less than perfectly.To find out how, read this article on salvaging not-so-perfect rice.
Use a sturdy pot with a tight-fitting lid
Lower the heat to a simmer—bubbles gently bursting on the surface—and cover. Let white rice cook for 12 minutes. Then let the rice rest off the burner, covered, for at least 5 minutes and as long as half an hour.

You want a pot with a heavy base for the most even cooking, and one that's big enough to provide plenty of room above the rice for steam. A tight lid keeps the steam in. If your lid fits loosely, put a clean kitchen cloth between the lid and the pot. (Be sure to fold it over onto the pot so it doesn't burn.) The cloth also absorbs the water that would normally condense on the inside of the lid and fall back down into the rice, so this is also a good trick to get drier, fluffier rice.

A bit of butter or olive oil will also help keep the grains from sticking together, while a little salt adds flavor.

Once all the ingredients are combined, cover the rice and let it simmer. On an electric stove, use two burners: bring the rice to a boil on a hot burner and then immediately slide it to a burner set on low to continue cooking at a slow simmer.
Fluff the rice gently with a fork or chopstick. Gentle handling will keep the individual grains from breaking up into mush.

After about 12 minutes, the liquid should be absorbed, and the rice still al dente. If you served the rice now, you'd find the top layer drier and fluffier than the bottom, which can be very moist and fragile. Here's where you need patience. Let the rice sit off the heat, undisturbed with the lid on, for at least 5 minutes and for as long as 30. This results in a uniform texture, with the bottom layers as fluffy as the top. That a pot of rice actually improves with a rest also gives you more flexibility for cooking the rest of the meal.

Creamy Mushroom Risotto

This variation on mushroom risotto includes cream of mushroom soup for the creamy taste, without actually using heavy cream. A light hand is recommended with the thyme and basil. If you like, stir in freshly grated parmesan cheese before serving.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup boiling water
4 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 3/4 cups Arborio rice
salt and pepper to taste
fresh thyme, chopped
chopped fresh basil

DIRECTIONS
Place dried mushrooms into a small bowl, and cover with hot water; soak 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, and gently squeeze dry with paper towels. Chop mushrooms, and set aside.
Scoop cream of mushroom soup into a bowl, and gradually stir in boiling water until mixture is smooth but not runny.
In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the stock to a gentle simmer.
Heat butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in onion, garlic, and chopped mushrooms; cook about 3 minutes. Gradually stir in rice; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly to coat rice with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in thyme and basil to taste.
Pour in the mushroom soup mixture, stirring until absorbed. Gradually add 1/3 stock, stirring until liquid is absorbed. Continue to stir in stock gradually, 1 cup at a time, allowing the liquid to be absorbed before adding another cup. It should take about 20 minutes for all the stock to be absorbed and the rice becomes al dente (tender but firm to the bite).





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