So I’m thinking about dinner and thinking how I’d like some rice with it and thinking how I sure as hell don’t want to drive to the Safeway to restock the now disappeared jasmine rice…when I recall the storage jar full of brown rice — real brown rice — that’s been sitting in the fridge since before the memory of Human runneth not to the contrary.
Hm. Real brown rice takes 40 minutes or so to cook. But WTF…so much the more time to absorb the contents of the bottle of wine I just bought.
Back in the day, brown rice was THE thing among us back-to-the-earthers. Not that we could raise it in our organic backyard gardens…but as a generation, we were prone to manias. One of our manias was the macrobiotic diet, in which one ate brown rice until one’s health failed. Well, actually, that wasn’t the goal, but it was the de facto outcome, if you could stand eating the stuff that long.
Given the vast popularity of brown rice, everyone and every restaurant had a recipe. I mean, if you ever had anyone over for dinner, you had better know how to cook brown rice.
I took my mother’s recipe for what she called “fried rice” (and my friends all called “pilaf”) and substituted brown rice for the Uncle Ben’s Instant (don’t ask), added nuts (macrobiotic!!!), and flavored it with sherry or white wine if I had any on hand. If guests weren’t vegetarians I’d use beef bouillon, beef stock, or home-made chicken stock for the cooking liquid. The result is extremely tasty.
Here’s how this shakes out:
You can use…
• 1 cup old-fashioned, non-quick-cooking brown rice
• some wild rice, if you have it (maybe 1/8 to 1/4 cup) (hippies love wild rice) (don’t know why, but it’s good)
• 2 to 2.5 cups cooking liquid, which may be all or any combination of the following:
…..water, beef bouillon, chicken or beef or lamb or veal stock, white wine, sherry
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 to 1 whole onion, chopped pretty finely
• herbs of various types, to taste, preferably fresh (from the garden last night, I picked marjoram and rosemary)
• other vegetables such as carrots and celery and bell peppers, to taste, as desired or available, chopped
• nuts of one sort or another, such as pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, or pine nuts
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
Skim the bottom of a good frying pan (one with a lid) with good quality olive oil. Preheat briefly over medium to medium-high heat.
Add chopped onion, celery, carrots, and/or mild peppers. Stir until the onion is softened. Add the garlic, nuts, herbs, and rice. Continue to cook until the nuts and rice are toasted, BUT do not let the garlic scorch(!).
Add the cooking liquid. As soon as the liquid comes to a fast simmer (which may be instantaneously if you’ve overheated the pan), turn the heat to medium low. Cover and allow to simmer slowly for about 40 minutes. But come back and check after 20 minutes or so. If the rice has gone dry, add a small amount of water, wine, bouillon or beef stock, or…whatever. Just don’t overdo it.
Continue cooking for a total of around 35 to 40 minutes. The rice(s) should be tender but not soggy, more or less al dente. Wait until the grain(s) are cooked to season with salt and pepper, since the amounts required will depend on what you used as a cooking liquid.
While this stuff is cooking, prepare the rest of the meal. Stir-fry, grilled fish or whatever, baked squash, salads, etcetera.
To serve, garnish with some finely chopped little green onions or, if your guests will put up with it, grated Parmesan or crumbled feta cheese.
It really is surprisingly delicious. Well worth the time it takes to prepare.
My wife refuses to buy white rice, instead only making brown rice for our family. We buy a giant bag at Costco which lasts a good long time and is roughly 40% cheaper than buying the equivalent amount at the grocery store.
I’m partial to what’s called “converted” rice, which contains most of the nutrients of brown rice but tastes a great deal better. Also takes only about 20 minutes to cook.
Personally, I don’t much care for brown rice…which would explain why the stuff sat in the fridge for so long. Jasmine rice now comes in parboiled or “converted” form, and it really is delicious — doesn’t require the addition of onions, garlic, and flavored broth to make it taste good. Safeway sells it in giant bags.