Anyone Have Any New Ideas For Rice?

[Afra]

I'm a very adventurous person when it comes to food so I like trying everything new I come across. I was just thinking about all the different things we can do with food, especially rice. I am asking about rice here because it is part of my meal sometimes. I do like fried rice dishes but I'm sure everyone else has different ideas on what I could do with rice.

So can anyone lend a hand here and share some of their favorite rice recipes? I am eager to find out what kind of dishes you all like when it comes to rice. Do you also have any dessert dishes that contain rice? I have hardly any recipes like this; the only recipes I have containing rice in them are the ones we eat for our main meals. I eagerly look forward to all the responses and I would like to thank in advance all who respond!

My favorite is to cook rice, add milk and sugar and pig out. A great breakfast treat.

Rice Pudding

1/3 cup short grain rice 1 tbs. finely grated lemon peel
1 quart milk powdered cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup raisins – optional


Cover the rice with 1/2 cup of water and set it aside for 5 minutes. Combine the milk and the sugar in a saucepan and bring them to a boil over moderate heat. Add the rice with the water to the hot milk and bring it to a boil, while stirring constantly. Add the grated lemon peel and raisins, if you’re using them. Reduce the heat and gently simmer the mixture until it is thick and creamy. If the liquid has evaporated before the rice is cooked, add a little more hot water to it. Pour the pudding into small serving bowls and sprinkle with cinnamon.

A commercial site with lots of recipes for rice:
http://www.riceland.com/rice/recipes.html

Rice, love the stuff. The best rice is appreciated plain but it is nice to give some variety to life. Here is a dish we do at our lodge, it is not exact as instinct is the main ingredient.

Lemon ginger rice.

Use a boiling stock of the proportion of 1 cup of rice to 1 & 3/4 of liquid. You can use a good quality jasmine rice.

In the stock use:
water
chicken stock base or salt
1 x fresh lemongrass stalk chopped
2" piece of ginger grated
juice of 1 lemon
one finely grated carrot (gives colour)
optional - bruised cardamon pod/s

When the stock boils, taste it and make it a little saltier than a soup, that will disperse when the rice is cooked into it. Then add some olive oil and then the rice. You can stir once or twice before it starts to boil again but gently. Boil with the lid off until the rice and water levels meet then put the lid on the pot and cook very slowly for a while. Turn off the heat and let it stand for 15min with a tea towel on top to insulate it.

It is a moist tasty rice that even kids will consume with gusto (just hide the suspicious looking cardamon seeds). It goes well under kebabs, grilled fish, or chicken.

Enjoy !

PS

The above recipe is not for only one cup of rice ! It is flexible & good for say 4 to 12 cups of rice. If you only cook one or two cups of rice then reduce the quantities a bit, especially the lemon juice. We usually cater for 32 and use 12 cups of rice (1 lemon, 2-3 carrots, 4-5"ginger, 2 stalks of lemongrass, etc).

Oooh - risotto? Marcella Hazan has some wonderful risotto recipes and explains the technique very clearly. Once you have the basic recipe down, you can make all kinds of variations ... asparagus and prosciutto . . . mushroom and pancetta . . .

[Isa]

Check your library for Seductions Of Rice by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford . It's a really nice book.

[Kimmie]

And I shall ditto for Seductions of Rice.

You did say adventurous !

Well here is one for those that fit that label.

Having leftover rice can challeng the imagination sometimes. We make patties, rice soup and numerous things. One day we decided to make Mocchi from leftover pilauf. We wanted to use this savory rice in something that maintained the flavour and would be a good snack or accompaniement.

You could do it with plain rice but we used a savory rice, you could do it with risotto, paella, whatever.

Let the rice go cold in the fridge then put some in a food processor (needs to be a good one or it will clag out fast). Chop the rice into the finest consistency that the processor will cope with then knead some into disks in oiled hands and set aside until all the rice has been done like this.

Fire up the BBQ or some sort of hot plate, pan, etc. Flatten the patty gently on the hot plate using minimal oil and cook through on a "low" heat, turning as often as you like until done.

Tips:
The rice does need to be cold when you start processing or it will become sticky and gum up the processor before time.

Serve hot with curry sauce or what ever you desire. They are nice plain if they are savory to begin with.

Add some green curry paste while processing if you like thing a bit spicy.

Mocchi (not exact spelling) is a Japanese rice cake usually made from pounded sticky rice, it is served sweet or savory and is a good camping food when it is in it's dry form.

[ August 01, 2001: Message edited by: ribbony ]

[Katherine]

You made a rice cake of some sort, but I wouldn't call it mochi. Mochi is made from freshly steamed (and still hot) sweet rice, and needs to be formed before it cools.

Fried rice is a good thing to make from leftover rice. You can make a nice dish by pressing it into a buttered non stick pan and cooking until it's golden brown, then brushing with butter and flipping it over. A frittata (try onions and pancetta) is good, too.

hi just a easy recipe for left over rice,
curied rice with raisns
saute half finely chopped onion with butter
add 1 tbsp good quality curry powder cook for a few mins
add 1 cup raisns and half cup chicken stock cook to plump raisins
toss in cook rise about 3 cups remove from heat season with salt and pepper serve
enjoy from beaches