BlogHer - Rice is Nice - Comments

These are really great

mike — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:28:53 -0500

These are really great links. We eat lots of rice in our household and will surely try a few. Funny thing, my wife who is from China tells me they never made fried rice. In her view fried rice is mostly an "Americanized" Chinese dish.

I adore rice, but I

margalite — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:17:48 -0500

I adore rice, but I understand it from an other-than-culinary perspective, too.

There are a wide variety of wonderful species and qualities of rice --- black, red, brown, nutty, soft, long, short and on and on. It's a simple yet complex food. Most importantly, choose rice in its most-natural, least-processed form. Keeping its bran (outer coating) is important, as most of the nutrition is there. White rice is largely "empty" of nutritional value.

Rice recipies can generally be made with whole brown rice (preferably a Basmati, but a short grain version may be needed, too --- it depends on what you are cooking).

Mixtures of rice can also be very interesting. Lundberg makes some wonderful choices. Find them at health stores.

As far as combatting the huge sugar-shock of white rice, if you insist on using it, then make sure there are healthy fats in your recipe or in your meal to slow-down the huge blood sugar spike that white rice brings. (That's probably the reason there is so much illness in China surfacing as epidemiological studies show an increasing prevalence of diseases which are effected by excess-insulin or that create high tissue acidity [which white rice does]).

Healthy fats are found in cold water fish, organic, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, organic hemp or flax oil (never cook with these and keep them refrigerated), avocadoes and their oil, nut oils (not "peanut" - it's a legume not a nut) and organic, non-refined virgin coconut oil (yes, it's a vegetarian saturated fat that has critical medium-chain essential fatty acids).

All of these oils go well with rice; some are phenomenal with rice!

As far as favorite recipes go, my favorite rice recipes are pilaus and biryanis --- any country --- and Indonesian Rijstaffel, as it is lots of fun!

By the way, rice is one of the least allergenic foods, so for those struggling or if you have allergy-prone guests, rice is a very safe-bet.

And, in the same vein, "wild rice" is NOT the same botanically as "rice". They are completely different botanical families, and this is useful. Food sensitivities can arise from over use of a particular food or food group, so wild rice gives options, especially for those who might be gluten intolerant.

I'm going to check-out a couple of the links above, now. Thanks for the article, Kalyn.

Best to all ---
Margalite

P.S. Please visit me at: http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
"Everyone knows someone who needs this information!" (TM)

laughing with delight

Mistress Of The Dorkness — Fri, 11 May 2007 23:31:43 -0500

I can imagine the embarrassment, but, that sounds like a great memory! :-)

And I've been really needing some Chinese darn it!

Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
Mistress of the Dorkness blog

I love rice dishes!

Andrea Meyers — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:20:50 -0500

Thanks so much for posting these links, Kalyn. I now have a few new recipes to try!

Andrea
Andrea's Recipes

Brings back memories

Kalyn Denny — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:35:39 -0500

Melanie, your description of how you love that fried rice brings back memories of when I was in high school and if we got on the honor roll, my parents would take us out to dinner. I always picked a Chinese Restaurant which was a family favorite, and my dad would tell the waitress "Tell your chef I will work here for free as long as I can keep my mouth full of fried rice all the time I'm working. (He said it every time, and as a teenager I was probably embarassed to death.)

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

hands down

Mistress Of The Dorkness — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:29:32 -0500

I love some curry dishes, sushi, rice cakes, rice crispies, risotto, heck, even rice a roni... but, nothing is better than some good pork fried rice.

I don't mean the greasy stuff, or the dry stuff, or the stuff that doesn't have any pork in it...
I've had a lot of good fried rice over the years, but, the best is from a little place just outside the city called DingHo. mmm. Always the perfect moisture and flavor. mmm.

Although, I think I might have to try some of the recipes mentioned here.

Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
Mistress of the Dorkness blog

Rice is Nice

Kalyn Denny — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:32:10 -0500

[img_assist|fid=3934|thumb=0|alt=Persian Rice]
Persian Rice photo by The Culinary Chase.

What's your favorite dish featuring rice? It may be hard to decide when you look at the big assortment of things made all over the world with this versatile grain.

You can get a quick tutorial on different types of rice from Maki of Just Hungry, who's Japanese but lives in Switzerland.

In Hong Kong, The Culinary Chase features Persian Rice, pictured in the photo.

Andrea's Recipes features Saipan Red Rice, colored and flavored with achiote seeds. (If you're not sure where Saipan is, Andrea has a link to tell you.)

Saucy in the Kitchen tells us how to make Mujadara, a classic middle eastern dish featuring lentils, rice, and carmelized onions.

In San Francisco, Heidi from 101 Cookbooks often makes elaborate dishes, but her Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice looks like it would be very satisfying.

Pepper writes Frugal Cuisine from Sichuan, China, and her Rice Cakes look authentic and delicious.

Jaden grew up in Hong Kong, but now she writes Jaden's Steamy Kitchen from Sarasota, Florida and shares Secrets to Cooking the Best Chinese Fried Rice.

Turkish Wild Black Rice looks fabulous when it's prepared by Burcu of Almost Turkish Recipes, who came from Turkey but now lives in the Midwest U.S.

Last, but never least, Ellie, the Kitchen Wench is Korean but now lives in Melbourne, Australia where she recently made amazing looking Risotto Cakes.

Food editor Kalyn Denny also blogs at Kalyn's Kitchen in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she makes South Beach Diet friendly rice dishes like Curried Rice and Red Lentils or Brown and Wild Rice with Pine Nuts and Thyme.