What’s Cooking: Rice Rinsing, soaking
Hi Everyone, What’s Cooking is a series in which I address questions you may have about food and cooking but maybe too shy to ask.
For us, rice is a simple everyday staple in our cuisine. However, rice’s simplicity becomes complex as we determine which cooking technique to apply to the grains. Things can get complicated when we have to cook rice in union with other ingredients that require varying cooking times to create one-pot dishes. But let’s step back from the actual cooking process and discuss how the rice is readied for cooking.
Rinsing
Rinsing or the washing of rice is at once a cultural practice as well as a sometimesnecessary cleansing process. As a cultural practice, it is something that we grew up seeing generations doing as they prepare the rice before adding it to a pot of boiling water, or into empty pots that are then filled with just enough water to cook using the absorption method.
Rice did not always come in the packages we find them in today. It is a commodity that was sold loose from large crocus bags. Some shopkeepers stored the loose rice in drums and barrels from which they would measure and sell. Depending on the quality of the rice, it necessitated “picking” that is, removing stray paddy, brown darkened grains or tiny bits of debris that would have been accidentally scooped up in the filling of the bags. Actually, these days we can still find rice being sold (retail) from crocus bags, particularly at markets. The handling of the rice through the picking process, and the removal of debris, would instinctively lead to the need to further cleanse the rice by washing it in water, several times, until the water runs clear. The washing/rinsing of rice removed particles of dust, not easily seen or removed by hand. This rice-cleansing ritual was also to get rid of the handling of the rice by strangers – prospective customers who would have dug their hands deeply into the bag of rice to toss it and sniff it, to inspect and determine the quality before buying. Today, even though most people buy rice packaged in clear materials where they can see the rice, along with instructions on the package that it is safe to cook the rice directly from the package, we still continue to wash rice before we cook it.
I subscribe to the washing of rice even though it comes nicely and securely packaged. For example, my house rice comes in a plastic bag encased in a cloth bag, stitched tightly to seal and then zipped for added protection. There are two reasons why I wash rice. First, most packaged