When I grew up, my mother usually prepared white medium grain rice. My mother, like many Asians, takes rice pretty seriously. She determines whether a variety or the brand of the rice is good by its taste, fragrance, and texture. However, in our household, my father disliked soft rice. He said rice is good when it’s like you bite into a bullet (unlike the slang “bite the bullet”). Thus “bullet rice” was born in my home! All my life I cooked rice slightly hard and chewy. My dear husband said my bullet rice is so hard that I could assassinate someone with it. When I have had guests for dinner, they always wonder whether I properly cooked the rice. I can’t tell my guests to bite the bullet and just swallow the rice, can I?
Now I rarely cook white rice, or when I cook it, I dress it up. I guess I’m rebelling against the bland rice from when I grew up. At this moment I can almost hear my mother’s protests that if I don’t eat bland rice, how will I know the taste of the rice! I think she is right!
Which reminds me … my dear husband told me when he lived in Indiana during college, he always made a pot of bland rice and his roommate eagerly asked for the leftovers. Then he added butter, milk, and sugar in it and he thoroughly enjoyed this “treat” of rice. I am pretty sure if my dear mother heard this she would flip. So, please! don’t tell her!
Wild rice blend can be pricey and I don’t have it all the time. I will cook this on special occasions. This year I prepared it for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Here is my favorite the way to prepare wild rice blend:
(1) 3 cups wild rice blend. Wash it thoroughly, drain and saute it in a lightly oiled non stick pan until it gets a nutty fragrance.
(2) Add water or vegetable broth, whichever one to use depends on how you like it. Cooking it the way you normally do white rice, or using a rice cooker at “white rice” setting will yield a harder and chewy texture. (Don’t do it unless you want to assassinate someone! Ha ha!) If you add a little more water (but no more than 1 part of rice to 2 parts of water), or use the rice cooker on “brown rice” setting, all the grains will burst and you’ll have pretty soft rice.
(3) If you don’t use vegetable broth, add a vegetable boullion cube, and salt to flavor the rice and now you can cook the rice.
(4) While rice is cooking, prepare the following:
2 finely chopped green onions, 1 cup loosely chopped Italian parsley, 1 cup golden raisins, ¾ cup coarsely chopped toasted walnut.
(5) After rice is cooked, add all remaining ingredients to the rice and mix well! Cover and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. It almost deserves to be served as a main dish!
| Views: 654
Email This to a Friend 
