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haitian technique for cooking rice

post #1 of 2
7/27/09 at 12:58pm
Thread Starter 
jasmine rice or puerto rican rice. (rico brand)

put the rice in the water with salt and fat if desired

boil until the water level is under the rice.

rice looks waterless and is not boiling but steaming

cover rice in pot with plastic wrap to make a close seal and then cover with a lid

let steam on low heat until done

the rice is cooked perfectly and not too mushy, every grain is seperated and all types of caribbean and latin bean and rice dishes and puloas turn out perfectly

not too liquidly, not too mushy, jsut perfect.


whats up with this


can it be adapted for brown rice


does this remind u af a certain indian technique for cooking basmati rice?
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post #2 of 2
7/27/09 at 1:34pm
gosh, there's got to be more ways to cook "the perfect rice" than to soft / hard boil eggs - another favorite fertile ground for a plethora of techniques..... much less how to do it and make them easy to peel!

from my successes and failures, I'd venture a couple "opinions:"

different types of rice absorb differing amounts of water - in terms of weight of rice to weight of water - to get to that "perfect" stage. "different types" of rice can mean not only different varieties - but the same variety supplied with different pre-processing - with / without bran, parboiled, "instant", etc., and variation in how it's handled in the kitchen - rinsed, not rinsed . . .

also the "perfect" stage depends on purpose - they don't call it "sticky rice" without reason.....

all the usual techniques (past boil-in-bag, yuk!) seem to involve:
water rice salt (fat)
get hot - simmer or boil
keep hot at very low heat to "steam" to a finish.

it's the amounts and time that seem to vary -
rice cookers are popular. don't have one, never used one, clueless.

I've adapted the Alton Brown method - oven proof pot&lid, water rice salt butter to a simmer, cover, into a 350'F oven for 15-20 minutes, let stand covered 10 more minutes.

very dependable, works great for all the usual and customary rice suspects I cook - plus barley.

I weigh my rice and since the scale is out I weight the water, too.
weighing the water may sound silly, but stuff like "two cups less two tablespoons" doesn't float my personal measuring boat.
I also keep notes - what worked, what was too wet/dry, adjusting on the next "run"

it's also good for tweaking how you want/need the rice - for example rice as a side I'll make a bit on the wet side (+X grams water) but for a shrimp creole / <something sauced> over rice I'll make drier.

I'm particularly fond of the oven method because I have complete confidence in being able to produce every time "nice rice" (however needed for the dish.) before I latched onto AB's method, it was a bit hit&miss.
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