Rice cooking


When I first said to one of my best friends that I was changing careers, from marketing to culinary arts, she asked me "but can you cook rice? " and made me describe all the process. The fact is I only cooked white rice as we do in Brazil a couple of times since I went to cooking school in NY. No one seems to care much about the classic white rice except Brazilian’s housewives! If you too love this cereal but would like to be more inventive, or if you just can’t cook it and are afraid to try, don’t worry! There are so many kinds of rice and methods of preparing it, why stick to one? Open your mind to the culinary arts of the world! And I’m not talking only risotto… Did you know that in Korea and parts of Japan, the rice that sticks to the bottom is celebrated? And throughout the region that includes Iran, Iraq, Turkey and their neighbors, stuck-pot rice is encouraged? Yes, the rice is made to brown on the bottom on purpose. To do so, you first cook the rice in an abundance of boiling water, until it is nearly done. Then discard the excess of water and combine the rice in a pot with spices, lentils (whatever you want) so the rice will finish cooking in the absence of much additional moisture, allowing it to brown, making flavors more complex and textures more varied. Easy and delicious!

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