Rice Series
The Series Introduction and Menu
It all started with Rice.
As CHOW is intended to be a series reboot of Thousandthdish, I've decided it would be fitting to start with the dish that is not only the most basic of dishes; but also was the dish that started my cooking blog in the very beginning.
I've been blogging since 1996, and was site #24 in the very first online blogring in existence, called OpenPages -- before the term "blogging" was even coined. Back then, it was a loose collection of "Online Diary" writers who had come together to form a "Webring".
As the years went on, I ended up writing a sort of "Man School" blog, talking about things that men should know how to do -- like fixing broken household plumbing and working on cars, to male social etiquitte, how to choose suits, how to understand your partner's love languages, and how to detect and obtain the proper gift for a woman... to slightly more extreme topics like survival in hostile environments, advanced driving technique, and how to engage and neutralize multiple targets in a streetfight.
One day, after suffering through one too many shoddy bowls of poorly made rice, I decided to write an entry, half-jokingly, on how to cook rice.
Up to that point, I thought cooking rice was common sense. Apparently, it wasn't. In fact, apparently the entry was so popular that people started linking it and talking about it. People found it informative, and so I decided to keep going with the basic cooking entries -- which ended up becoming Thousandthdish. Up to that point, I hadn't written about cooking at all. I'm not sure why, in hindsight -- after all, cooking is an excellent way to show someone Love, and as a guy, cooking for a girl is a wonderful thing to do. Always. Even if it's bad. But much better when it's awesome.
So, if you're new here, and you've scrolled back to the beginning of this blog and you don't know how to cook at all, this is a good place to start -- by learning how to cook rice. Or if you're an old timer, let's revisit Rice and reboot this bastard.
Here goes.
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Basically, there are three grain types of white rice: Long Grain, Medium Grain and Short Grain.
Long Grain rice is about 4x as long as it is wide. Medium Grain is about 2x as long as it is wide. Short Grain is pretty much round (or oval-ey).
The shorter the grain, the higher the starch value; the longer the grain, the lower the starch value. The starch value determines how "loose" or "sticky" the rice will be when cooked, given the same treatment during the pre-cooking stage.
The stickiness and starchiness of the rice has to do with the ratio of the two predominant starches present in rice: Amylose and Amylopectin. Amylose does not gelatinize during cooking.
Long Grain rice contains about 23% to 26% Amylose. Medium Grain rice contains about 18% to 23% Amylose. Short Grain rice contains about 15% to 18% Amylose.
The lower the percentage of Amylose, the stickier the rice will be; because there is a higher proportion of Amylopectin, which gelatinizes and gets "sticky". Thus, Short Grain rice is best suited for sticky rice dishes and Risottos. Medium Grain rice is well suited for Japanese food, as well as dishes like Mexican Arroz Con Pollo and Spanish Paella. Long Grain rice is well suited for Pilafs and loose Fried Rice dishes, as well as most Chinese dishes.
Among these, there are further classifications, often by cuisine and region. For example, Italian Arborio, Spanish Calasparia, and Indian Basmati. It can get even more specific than that -- in Japan, the highest quality rice can be specific down to the rice field it came from.
We also have Brown Rice, Red Rice Black Rice, and Wild Rice (which isn't really a rice) -- but we'll get to those later, separately in their individual posts. For now though, we're going with the ubiquitous White Rice.
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In our Rice Series, we will be working with most major types of rice from around the world; and learning the techniques used to cook them into the dishes that represent those culinary cultures.
We will not be doing the entire series at once in a row, as I already have twenty-eight Rice dishes planned. Frankly, we'll get sick of Rice by then. So the various Series planned will mix in with each other; most of the time crossing-over within the same cuisine.
We'll do a few here and there, and then switch it up and go in another direction. And then come back later. But we will, eventually, get to it all -- and by the end, if you have followed along, you'll have such an detailed familiarity with International rice techniques that you'll be able to trace the cultural migration of recipes as they cross political borders and bring together peoples from around the world.
Here's what we have In The Waiting Line so far:
* Basic American Rice Pilaf Technique
* Creole Jambalaya
* Cajun Étouffée
* Mexican Arroz Con Pollo
* Peruvian Tacu Tacu
* Brazilian Feijoada
* Spanish Seafood Paella
* Italian Wild Mushroom Risotto
* Italian Arancini (Risotto Balls)
* Greek Spanakorizo
* Moroccan Kefta Rice
* Nigerian Djelof
* Turkish Lamb Pilaf
* Persian Lamb Polo
* Indian Madras Lamb Pulao
* Malaysian Nasi Goreng
* Thai Green Curry Eggplant Rice
* Chinese Congee
* Chinese Young Chow Fried Rice
* Taiwanese Sticky Rice
* Hainanese Chicken Rice
* Mongolian Roast Lamb Hotpot
* Japanese Katsu Donburi
* Japanese Sushi Rice Technique
* Japanese Hot Sushi Casserole
* Korean Konnamul Bap
* Korean Kimchi Fried Rice
* Hawaiian Loco Moco
For some of us, these dishes will be a great way to revisit foreign places we hold fond in our memories, by preparing and eating the food we loved eating in those places. For others, these dishes will be adventures on their own, expanding our culinary repertoire by delving into and learning about ingredients and techniques foreign to us. And for others, these dishes will be a first peek into a strange and unfamiliar culture from the other side of the world.
Whoever you are, I invite you to join us on our world-trekking journey to view the world through the most ubiquitous ingredient common to the world: Rice.
My Love and Aloha as we embark from our Islands of Hawai'i,
-MC
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