There's something simple and beautiful about a bowl of rice. It sustains more than half the world's people and is a glorious main or side dish to any meal.
I have not been able to make a proper pot of rice recently. In fact, every time I do it, it becomes a messy, wet glob or a crisp, brown disk. I come from a long line of rice makers and eaters, what the heck was wrong?
Here's my conclusion: I recently had surgery around the abdomen - my stomach area - thus, my epicurean equilibrium was thrown off because of the trauma inflicted on my body's food centre. Even my boyfriend has remarked that I had lost my rice touch. Well, this past Sunday - Victory. I made a gorgeous pot of fluffy white rice. So, to commemorate this, I've decide to do a little piece about rice.
A FORM OF GRASS
When we say "rice," we're really referring to two species of grass: Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima grown in tropical areas of Asian and Africa.
Rice, the world's third largest crop, is often grown in paddies and may have been domesticated as far back as 6,000 years ago in various regions of the world. The original form of Asian rice was likely cultivated around the hills of the Himalayas whereas African rice, brought over by Arab traders more than 3,000 years ago, was being farmed around the Niger River delta.
"Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook" (Chinese saying)
The glories of rice were spread through trade, travel and slavery: the Moors brought it to Spain, which helped spread it throughout Europe, while African slaves brought to the U.S. helped cultivate rice farming in the southern United States.
The top producers of rice are China, India and Indonesia while the big exporters are Thailand, Vietnam and China.
More than 600 million tons of rice are produced yearly and 2.7 billion people rely on rice as their major source of food (Source: WHO).
RICE PREP
Rice seeds are first milled to remove the outer husks, creating brown rice. Further milling, removing the germ and more husk, produces white rice. The rice may be "polished" with glucose or talc powder and it can then be processed further into flour, too.
"Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth" (Japanese proverb)
In Japan, rice flour is used for everything from rice milk to sake to rice noodles.
Rice is cooked either through boiling or steaming. Obviously, a rice cooker makes everything much easier, just press the button and voila, perfect rice in 15 minutes or so.
Always wash the rice to remove the extra stuff clinging to it. Back in Malaysia, my mother used to clean the rice grains with lots of water and constant stirring with a spoon. She would stir and drain the rice until the water was clear (!!). These days, I just give it a good clean and drain at least once.
"Just because I have rice on my clothes doesn't mean I've been to a wedding. A Chinese man threw up on me." (Comedian Phyllis Diller)
My father taught me a great method for measuring the ideal amount of water so that the rice doesn't end up too wet or too dry: simply place your index finger in the pot and you can gauge whether there's a nice 50/50 split of rice to water. My dad is 67 and I think he's right. It works. Of course, this only applies to plain white rice. I have yet to delve into the myriad other variants of rice: flaky rice, sticky (glutinous) rice, red rice etc... I'll save that for another day.
Check in next week and I'll be giving away a great recipe to eat with rice.
TRIVIA TIDBITS:
- The United Nations declared 2004 the Year of Rice
- About 80% of the world's rice is grown by small-scale farmers in low-income and developing countries.
- Rice can be a good source of thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.
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