Tryst with Rice (Chawal, Pulao, Biryani, Khichadi)

Rice : So many cultures for so many centuries, have survived on the staple diet of rice coupled with some basic preparations like vegetable or meat curries. The coastal cities of India would prefer to take rice in all the three major meals. Boiled rice can be literally eaten with even the most humble of the preparation or simple ingredients like onion, pickles, yogurt or lentils.

It is strange that the seedlings of rice can tolerate the most inhospitable environmental condition not suited for most of the grains. It is, in fact, neck deep in water when they are planted in the paddy field, tolerate the wet weather throughout its growth, ultimately harvested and sold as per their quality.

Without an iota of doubt, Basmati is the king of all the rice grown across the globe. So famous is the quality that few enterprising Americans wanted to patent the name “BASMATI” which for centuries is indigenous to India. It boasts of long slim grain, which becomes at least 2 ½ times longer after cooking. The aroma of this rice has enchanted even the king and no wonder that a major part of the grain is exported to fetch better money value in the international market. Try to find Basmati rice which has been rested for at least an year for better result with your rice, pulao or biryani dishes.

Rice cooking requires some sort of practice as the difference between good and bad rice is few extra minutes. What is most important is also to understand the heat contained in the rice to carry-over cooking for the required duration when it becomes perfect cooked rice. There are two ways of cooking rice, one is called absorption method and the other as drained out method

In absorption method, which is the tougher of the two, rice is cooked in just the required amount of liquid which is normally 2 ½ times of the rice quantity. During the course of the cooking, rice absorbs most of the liquid, some is lost as steam, and lengthen in size. If cooked perfectly, most of the grains will remain separate and is a good indication of correct cooking. One of the most important benefits of this cooking process is that nutrients remain with the rice because there is minimal loss of water during the cooking process.

The other method is very popular with Indian household where rice is boiled with lots of water and when tender, excess water is drained out which means some of the nutrients are also drained out. The important aspect of this style of cooking is that the rice remains lighter for consumption in terms of its starch content as most of it is drained out with the water. Some of the household keep the drained water to serve as pastime drink or apply to cloth to stiffen it.

Some of the blogs will definitely feature a few of the most popular Indian dishes like pulao, biryani, tehri, flavored rice etc. Watch out until then “Happy tryst with rice”.

- Kuntal.

Tags: murgh, tikka masala, bhatura, indian curry, chicken, gosht, paneer, chana, chettinad, kebab