Rice, or, How to Fall in Love Again

Cooking rice...living in South Korea it was such a given that I started to loathe it, but now that we've come back to the states it is becoming part of our daily routine.  What would we eat in place of rice now I cannot tell you.  We have begun to diversify our rice experience by introducing spicy new alternatives, and by spicy I really mean sexy, and by sexy I really mean different.  Please enjoy the following suggestions for making life new again with rice:

Thanks to this blog!

Korean mixed grain rice:  Now this rice is serious, so much that it resembles bird seed and will sweeten up your life.  Downside?  You have to soak it for 5 hours before cooking.  I thought cooking beans was tough with their 2 hour soaking, this makes it seem like a walk in the park.  Pick this up at your local Asian supermarket and you'll be pleased.  The good news is that it takes about 30-40 minutes to cook once soaked and it follows the 2:1 water rice ratio.  It's sweet and good for you--last night it was mixed with brown rice and next time we'll mix it with jasmine to see if it tastes better.





Long grain--Mahatma is a good one, but of course I'd encourage you to save your money if it's not on sale.  More pricey than the store brand equivalent.







Jasmine--Oh, so light and fluffy!  There are tons of brands that are good, lately we have bought Thai because it's cheaper and it works well. Wal-mart has it for next to nothing for a 5 pound bag.

Brown--Mahatma makes a mean brown rice, and besides its 30 minute cook time it's really a great companion for chicken, or perhaps sausage.  It takes quite a bit more effort to chew and swallow it, but look at what you get in return?  Regularity!

LKM Nutrition

Lundberg makes a great organic sweet brown rice that goes really well with brown rice, like that above.  Because it takes about 40-50 minutes to make it doesn't get really soggy and nasty.  Regular brown rice is sometimes hard to eat and doesn't get enjoyed as much because of this--try mixing this in with it to see if it is both sweeter and more reasonable in texture. Amazon sells it for a reasonable price.