White Rice

            White rice is polished rice.  Polishing removes the hull and the bran.  It is more processed and has less fiber and nutritional value.  In most households white rice is most common.  It is very versatile in its uses and in combining flavors. 

 

Long grain rice (such as basmanti and jasmine) is all-purpose rice and makes fluffy rice.  Long grain rice is commonly used steamed as a side dish.  It is often mixed with seasonings and vegetables.  It can be cooked twice as in Spanish rice or fried rice.

 

Long grain on the left and short grain
on the right.  Generic long grain
and arborio on thee right

Short grain rice is shorter and wider.  Varieties of this rice are arborio, carnaroli, Valencia, and bella.  It is used for dishes like risotto, pudding, sushi and paella.  These are dishes that are creamy or dishes that the rice is shaped.

 

Left over rice can be added to soups, pancakes and waffles, main dishes, side dishes and desserts.  It can be used in appetizers, formed in balls and cups.

 

This Week’s Challenge – Try serving rice in a new way

 

            Rice is often served by itself in its fluffy state or mixed with other ingredients.  This week’s challenge is about presentation.  Think of a new way to present your rice.  It can be part of a dessert in a parfait glass, molded into shapes with molds, cookie cutters or my hand.  There are many appetizers that use rice as cups filled with something delicious or rolled into balls.

 I made a rice ring.

I cooked long grain rice in the rice cooker.

I took a ring mold.

I lined the mold with foil, making sure
that t tightly fit the mold and over
lapped the edges

I spoon the cooked, hot rice into the mold.

Tightly packed the rice.

 

Then inverted the mold on the serving dish/

 

Tip for this Week – Hand Shaping Rice

 

            Rice will stick together with little pressure.  Allow the rice to cool enough to handle it.  Wet your hands with water.  Place a small amount of rice in your hand and roll it into a ball.  It can be shaped in to rectangles and triangles, as well as balls and rolls.  Try rolling your shaped rice into sesame seeds, chopped nuts, freshly chopped herbs, or colorful spices like paprika or turmeric.  Ingredients can be hidden in the center for molded shapes, like a piece of meat, cheese, mashed beans or other vegetables or pickles.  Rice shapes can be dipped in batter and deep fried.  So get creative and invent something.

 

This Week in Punkin’s Kitchen

 

Green Rice

 

Green Rice in a casserole.

1 pack Broccoli, frozen chopped or one bunch fresh chopped

1 C      Rice, cooked with chicken bouillon cubes (3 C cooked)

3          Eggs, beaten

¼ C     Butter or margarine

¾ C     Onion chopped

1 can  Cream of mushroom soup

1 can  Cream of chicken soup

1 ½ C  Cheddar cheese, grated

2 cans  Chicken or  2 C boiled chicken

            Salt and pepper to taste

 

The ingredients

1.    In a skilled sauté the onions in the butter until the onions are nicely browned. 

 

In stead of using canned chicken, I dice two chicken
breasts and cooked them in chicken broth.

I reserved the broth using it to cook the rice.

 

2.    Mix the all the ingredients together.

 

Rice, chicken and onions.

The chopped leftover broccoli is added.

In a separate bowl I blended the eggs, soups
and melted butter.  Pour over the rice mixture
and stir to combine
 

 

3.    Place in a prepared casserole dish.

 

Spread it evenly in the baking dish.

Top with cheese and bake until hot and bubbly.

 

4.    Bake at 325 degrees for one hour.

 

 

Chocolate Rice Pudding

 

½ C     Rice, uncooked

¼ C     Cocoa

½ C     Sugar

1 t        Cinnamon, ground

½ t       Salt

3 C      Milk

1 t        Vanilla

 

The ingredients

5.    Mix the rice, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a double boiler.

I used calrosa rice for this.  It s a short grain
rice used for Japanese cooking.

Mix the rice, sugar, cinnamon, salt and cocoa

Ad the milk and blend

Place the double boiler over a pan of boiling water,

 

6.    In a pot that fits the double boiler, bring water to a rolling boil. 

The double boiler should fit the pot so that the
bottom does not touch the water.

The pot lid fit the double boiler. 
I Allowed the milk to begin to boil,
reduce the heat to low and covered it

 

7.    Add the milk to the rice mixture and mix well.

8.    Place the double boiler over the water and cook one hour and 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

The pot covered.

I stirred it every 15 minutes.  The stirring is
important to prevent scorching and lumping.

It will thicken s the rice cooks.

 

9.    The milk should be absorbed and it should have a nice pudding texture.

Allow to cool slightly before adding the vanilla.

 

10. Remove the double boiler from the water and cool slightly.

11. Add the vanilla and mix well.

12. Refrigerate until serving.

13. Serve with thin cream or whipped cream.

 

Make 5 servings of ½ C.

 

I found the recipe in my grandmother’s recipes.  It is from Delicious, Quick, Easy Riceland Rice Recipes, copyrighted 1952

 

Fish of the Week

 

Tuna a la King

You will need to make a white sauce, or béchamel sauce.  See the posting on September 15, 2016.

Tuna a la King served over a rice ring

 

2 T                   Butter, unsalted

½ C                 Onions, finely chopped

3 T                   Flour

3 C                  Milk

Salt  and pepper to taste

1 t                    Thyme, dried leaves

1 lg. can         Tuna or albacore

½ c                  Peas, frozen

½ c                  Corn, frozen

 

The ingredients

I used albacore juice and all.

 

1.    In a large skillet melt the butter and sauté the onions until soft.

2.    Add the flour and make a roux, cooking to the blonde stage.

3.    Slowly add the milk, whisking to incorporate.

4.    Add the tuna, undrained and stir to blend.

Tuna, peas and corn added. Stir to  blend
and allow the peas and corn to cook.  This
 is a good time to taste and adjust the seasoning. 

 

5.    Add the peas and corn, cooking for a few minutes.

6.    Adjust the seasonings.

7.    Serve over toast or biscuits, rice, potatoes or pasta.

 

I made a rice ring to serve with this.

 

Slice and serve

I topped each serving will some grated Monterey jack cheese.

Note:  This is a great way to use leftover chicken or turkey, too.  Substitute 1-1½ C cooked leftover poultry for the tuna.  Also try adding different vegetables, herbs and spices.

 

Happy Cooking!

 

 

 

Rice - Know Your Ingredients

Rice originated in south Asia from eastern India to southern China in to south eastern Asia.  Western Africa also cultivated a different strain of rice.  Rice was cultivated between 10 and 15 thousand year ago.  Rice is a variety of grass.  Rice is grown in paddies that allow flooding and draining.  The rice plants are planted in the flooded paddy that allows two thirds of the plant to be above water.  The paddies are drained to fertilize the rice plants and then flooded again.  The paddies are drained at harvest.  The flooding prevents weeds growing among the rice plants.  The rice grows in heads and is ready for harvest when the heads turn yellowish and droop.  There are four part in a grain of rice, the hull which is removed, the bran which is left on in brown rice, the endosperm which is starchy and white, and the germ that grows at the base of each grain.

 

Rice comes in long and short varieties and in white, brown, red and black varieties.  White rice is by far the most common.  Shorter wider rice (such as ariobo, carnaroli, bella) is used for dishes like risotto, pudding, sushi and paella.  Long grain rice (such as basmanti and jasmine) is all-purpose rice and makes fluffy rice.  Both brown and red varieties have the bran intact.  This gives them a nuttier flavor and more vitamins. They take longer to cook.  Black rice, also called forbidden rice, is unrefined rice and should be soaked before steaming.  Wild rice is not a true rice.  Broken rice is rice that is broken during processing and is a cheaper grade of rice and making a comeback.  Quick-cooking rice is parboiled, converted rice is this type.  Rice I also puffed and used in cereals.  The flour is fine like cake flour.

 

Rice is used in main dishes, side dishes, salads, soups, desserts, appetizers and beverages.  It is one of our most versatile foods.

 

This Week’s Challenge – Try a variety of rice that is new to you.

 

            Go shopping and fine a different kind of rice.  I found the black rice at Sprouts, but you can order online.  Then research the rice online.  Decide how you will use the rice.  You can try a difference cooking method.  Don’t forget to record what you learned in your journal

 

Tip for this Week – There are different methods of cooking rice

 

            Growing up I thought rice had to be steamed.  I’ve since learned that there are many ways to cook rice.  Some culture sauté the rice before cooking and some actually boil the rice and drain it.  Some cultures like rice that lightly sticks together.  Others like fluffy rice that does not clump.  Some cultures like rice plain, others like to add flavor.

 

This Week in Punkin’s Kitchen

 

Mushroom Risotto

 

6 C      Chicken or vegetable stock

2 T       Olive oil

1 sm.    Onion, finely chopped

12        Baby portabella or cremini mushrooms or

3-4      Garlic cloves

1 ½ C  Arborio or carnarolli rice

1          Bay leaf

½ C     Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

            Salt, pepper to taste

 

The ingredients

1.    In a large saucepan, bring the stock to simmer and keep warm.

2.    In a skillet with a rounded bottom heat the oil.

 

Sautéing the onions and garlic

 

3.    Add the onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.

4.    Stir the rice, mushrooms, bay leaf, salt and pepper.

 

I used Arborio rice

 

5.    Ladle in three ladles of stock, stirring slowly until the stock is absorbed.

 

I added three ladles to begin.

 

6.    Repeat adding a ladle of stock at a time and stirring until the stock is absorbed.

 

 

I added the mushrooms and bay leaf at this point.

 

 

 

7.    Check the rice for doneness.  It should take about 20 minutes.

 

It gets more creamy as the rice cooks.

 

 

8.    Leave a little stock with the rice as the rice will continue to cook and absorb the stock.

9.    When the rice is just about done, remove from the heat and add the cheese.  

 

Cheese added.  Leave some broth as the risotto
continues to cook and absorb the broth.  Serve
immediately and it thickens as it cools

 

10. Stir to blend in the cheese and allow it to melt before serving.

 

To make this recipe a basic risotto, omit the mushrooms and add frozen peas when the cheese is added.  All kinds of ingredients can be add instead of the mushrooms, like bacon, ham, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, asparagus, and other kinds of hard cheeses.  You can be very creative with risotto

 

Seafood Paella

 

12        Shrimps (21-25 count), peeled and deveined

12 oz. Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless, cut in fourths

4-6 oz. Chorizo

12        Mussels, scrubbed and debearded (I like to use 6 mussels and 6 clams)

12        Scallops

9          Garlic cloves, chopped

3 T       Olive oil

            Salt and pepper to taste

1          Red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 sm.    Onion, finely chopped

1 ¼ C  Arborio or Valencia rice

½ t       Saffron

1 can  Diced tomatoes

2 C      Chicken broth

¼ C     Dry white wine

1/3 C   Peas, frozen, thawed and rinsed

 

The ingredients

1.    In a Ziploc bag, add one tablespoon of the olive oil, half of the garlic, salt and pepper and the prepared shrimp.  Set aside.

 

The shrimp and scallops marinating in a baggie.

 

2.    Pat dry the chicken and season with salt and pepper.

 

Chicken thighs deboned and patted dry.

Browning the chicken.  I suggest buying the thighs
already deboned and deskinned and cut
the thighs in thirds for large sized potions

 

3.    Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a paella pan or a pan with a rounded bottom.

4.    Brown the chicken on all sides and remove from the pan.

5.    Add one tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan and add the chorizo, bell pepper, onion and a little salt and sauté until the vegetables are soft.

 

The chorizo, peppers and onion sautéing.

 

Ready for the rice.

 

6.    Add the rice, remaining garlic and saffron, stirring for about half a minute.

 

I used Arborio rice

 

7.    Stir in the tomatoes and cook about five minutes.

 

Tomatoes, broth and wine added.

 

8.    Add the broth and wine and bring to a simmer.

9.    Add the chicken and reduce the heat, cover and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 minutes.

 

Scrub the mussels and clams.  Remove the
beard from the mussels by pulling hard on it.
The beard is fibrous strands hanging from the
mussel.  See it across my fingers

 

10. Set the mussels (and clams) hinge side down in the rice and arrange the shrimp and scallops over the top. 

 

I don't like mussels that well, so I
opted to do six mussels and six clams.

 

I emptied the baggie over the mussels
 and clams and allowed it to cook
until the shrimp and scallops were done.

11. Cover and cook until the shrimp are opaque and the mussels are open about 7 minutes.

12. Remove from the heat and discard any unopened mussels.

13. Sprinkle the peas over the top and replace the cover.  Allow to set about five minutes before serving with lemon slices.

 

 

Peas added, one mussel and two clams
discarded.  ready to serve.

 

 

 

Fish of the Week

.

Honey Mustard Glaze for Fish or Chicken

Honey Mustard Salmon

2 T                   Vinegar, light (Distilled, Rice, White Wine or Champagne)

1 T                   Dijon mustard or other prepared mustard

1 t                    Honey

1 t                    Herb, freshly, finely chopped (oregano, dill, rosemary, etc.)

                        Salt and pepper to taste

 

The ingredients

1.    In small bowl mix all the ingredients.

Vinegar, honey and mustard

Fresh oregano from my garden



Finely chopped oregano added

Blend the ingredients by stirring or whisking

 

2.    Place the fish or chicken in a baking dish.

3.    Brush the glaze over the top and bake until done according to the fish or poultry being served.

Glazed salmon ready for the oven.

 

4.    Remove from the oven and brush with more glaze.

5.    Serve warm

 

Note:  Experiment with different herbs to go with the fish or chicken you are serving.  I used salmon and dill would have gone very well with it.  If you are cooking chicken rosemary would be nice.  Experiment with different vinegars or substitute lemon juice or other acid.  The type of mustard you use will affect the color of the glaze.

 

Original recipe

Happy Cooking!