Herbed brown rice salad
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raw brown rice
2/3 cup seeded, chopped tomatoes 1 green onion, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Dressing (recipe follows)
Cook rice and water in covered pan for 45 minutes. Let stand until cool; fluff with fork. Chill until ready to use.
For dressing, combine 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon dry white wine, 1 teaspoon capers, 1 teaspoon minced fresh chervil (or 1/4 teaspoon dried) and 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme (or 1/3 teaspoon dried). Whisk until well blended. Pour over rice and toss with fork to mix.
Just before serving, add tomato, green onion, parsley and salt and pepper and toss lightly.
Serves 2. for dessert, or make rice cakes. Saute a rice cake and use it as an entree; incorporate some Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes.
“Old school, if you burned your pot, you never threw away the bottom of your rice. People used it like the Japanese do okoge rice. I do it on purpose. I put rice on both sides of my nori and then I shallow pan-fry it crispy, turn it over again, and I cut it up bite-sized and I put like spicy tuna on it and unagi sauce. It has texture and a little nutty taste, dark brown to almost black at the edges.”
The chefs also go old school when cooking rice, using the first-knuckleon-the-index-finger method to test water depth. Ji said to wash the rice first and then wait an hour before cooking. Lum said after cooking it, let it sit, covered, for 20 minutes before serving. Fong said he uses 3 parts rice to 2 3/4 parts water for sushi rice, 1 part rice to 1 1/4 parts chicken stock for red or black.
You may want to just follow package directions.
“In our household, we never had a rice cooker,” Lum said.
Agreed Ji: “In China a long time ago, they didn’t have electric rice cookers.”
And here’s a final bit of trivia: Wild rice isn’t rice, but comes from four species of grasses. While it’s cultivated, some of it still is harvested wild, the grasses bent over canoes and flailed to release the grain.
Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702383-0474. Follow @Hkrinella on Twitter.