On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:00:59 -0600, Melba's Jammin'
wrote:

My first thought is that tomato sauce is too thick. Try it with tomato
juice. You should be able to cook the raw rice in tomato juice without
trouble. Or use half water and half tomato juice.


I missed the tomato SAUCE-tomato JUICE nuance. I had always used
tomato SOUP to make tomato flavored cooked rice. If you use an
automatic rice cooker just thin the soup more, 2 water to 1 soup. The
cooker OFF switch will trip when the rice is almost dry (it starts to
climb above the boiling point of water.) Cancel my earlier post about
adding in the tomato soup just before the rice is fully cooked.
Always use a teflon coated pot. That stuff sticks onto bare metal
like glue.

If you have trouble cooking rice buy a cheap automatic rice cooker,
$30. Its such a labor saver. Add rice and water. Switch on and go
do something more interesting including goofing off. A soft click and
the rice is done. You will never burn rice. I love rice that had
been charred on a ceramic pot. As kids we would fight to grab that
first. Automatic rice cooker raised Asian kids will never know the
pleasures of rice patties with charred edges. Correction. You can
order this as "rice in a hot pot" from a Chinese restaurant. Do check
first if the pot used is metal or ceramic. Only the ceramic pot will
make the grade.

If you want a complete meal-in-one add chopped onions, peas, diced
carrots, ginger and garlic to the unboiled rice. Then cook. The
extra lean ground beef goes in when the rice is almost cooked. Use a
spatula to stir the ground beef in throughly with the rice. The wet
heat cooks the beef crumbs to a delicious texture, preferably slightly
rare, to retain the juices. If the rice is already cooked you can
cheat by adding water to recook and then add the ground beef.

Instead of tomato soup use meat extract such as OXO or Bovril.
They're delicious.

For those who need a quick easy to prepare nutritious meal another
ancient Chinese secret is to add some precooked oil* and soy sauce to
taste and crack a one or two raw eggs into the bowl. Then add piping
hot rice over this and stir the mix until the rice is throughly coated
with egg and sauce mix. Again it is delicious and the rice smooth.
You can enhance the serving with pepper, sprinkle some fried shallots
(available prepackaged at Chinese grocers) or any other stuff you
want, for example boiled peas and carrots, leafy veggies and shredded
meat. There's no recipie. Use your imagination, or like me, whatever
happens to be in the fridge.

Chinese always pour on top of a meal a little precooked oil to
"smooth" the food. Cook sliced ginger and shallots or onions in raw
oil until crisp. Keep the fired stuff as spices to sprinkle ontop
your food. They're delicious. The cooked oil is put in a bottle
dispenser to be added on top of your food as one would add a sauce.

I have food intolerances some of which are soy products, gluten,
legumes and a number of other things I lump together under plant
proteins. Uncooked oil causes mild inflammation in my mouth and
oesophagus. There is bloating and discomfort in the belly and in the
GI tract. My ancestors msut have noticed that and therefore cooked
their oil first (oxidize certain molecules?). I truly believe a lot
of vague chronic dietary and health problems have their origins in
mild food intolerance that we ignore because they are bearable
discomforts. My punishment was Chronjic fatigue Syndrome. However,
health issues are an entirely different subject altogether best
discussed elsewhere.

"Hank" wrote in message
...
Ok so everytime I make rice or spanish rice with tomato sauce... Any
advice?

USA Rice Fed's 138 recipes on Mexican & Spanish Rice:
http://www.usarice.com/recipe/recipe_search.cgi

If you get really interested you can find out about cooking the various
types of rice on the site also

"Gunner" wrote in message
...

"Hank" wrote in message
...
Ok so everytime I make rice or spanish rice with tomato
sauce... Any advice?

USA Rice Fed's 138 recipes on Mexican & Spanish Rice:
http://www.usarice.com/recipe/recipe_search.cgi

If you get really interested you can find out about cooking
the various types of rice on the site also

Interesting stuff! I've got no quibbles about details of
*recipes* for cooking with rice and will just say once (tho'
I've said it before elsewhere, probably ad nauseam :-), plain
rice of any type is best and most easily cooked in a
Japanese-style automatic rice cooker. The only type of "rice"
where something else is appropriate, IMHO, is wild rice that
requires about an hour's cooking.



--
Jim Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

"James Silverton" wrote in news:nCxAj.2144
$wM2.2061@trnddc07:

plain
rice of any type is best and most easily cooked in a
Japanese-style automatic rice cooker.

Which is plain rice to you? To me in Canada it is a long grain
basmati...In japan it is a medium grain rice mostly. To some in the USA it
is Uncle Ben's converted (par boiled) rice. In Italy the short grains are
more commonly used.

--

The house of the burning beet-Alan

A man in line at the bank kept falling over...when he got to a teller he
asked for his balance.

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 19:30:13 -0000, "Sla#s"
wrote:


Interesting you (almost) all say 1.1.
I was told an easier way - (after washing it) is to put the rice in the pan
and fill with water to a little fingernails worth above the rice. (1/2")
Bring to boil - stir once - put the lid on and simmer until all the water is
gone.


i've heard of the 'finger' measurement before - but it was water to
the height of the first joint of the index finger. can't say i've
used it though, because my measuring cup is the jealous type.

your pal,
blake
However for any tomato based rice dish; I don't wash it as it needs to be
dry to fry, so I fry the rice until slightly golden then add the tomatoes,
an equal amount of water and the whatever you're going to put in it.

Slatts

hahabogus wrote on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:12:43 GMT:

?? plain
?? rice of any type is best and most easily cooked in a
?? Japanese-style automatic rice cooker.

h Which is plain rice to you? To me in Canada it is a long
h grain basmati...In japan it is a medium grain rice mostly.
h To some in the USA it is Uncle Ben's converted (par boiled)
h rice. In Italy the short grains are more commonly used.

Any unflavored rice that is to be served as an accompanying
starch is "plain rice" to me. I'm sorry that I am a heretical
non-connoisseur of rice and don't worry much about type:
arborio, short grain, long grain, basmati etc.:-)

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:12:43 GMT, hahabogus wrote:

"James Silverton" wrote in news:nCxAj.2144
$wM2.2061@trnddc07:

plain
rice of any type is best and most easily cooked in a
Japanese-style automatic rice cooker.

Which is plain rice to you? To me in Canada it is a long grain
basmati...In japan it is a medium grain rice mostly. To some in the USA it
is Uncle Ben's converted (par boiled) rice. In Italy the short grains are
more commonly used.

The real answer to his question is: All types can be cooked easily in
a rice cooker. Pick your poison and cook it.

--
See return address to reply by email
remove the smile first

On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:46:46 GMT, "James Silverton"
wrote:

hahabogus wrote on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:12:43 GMT:

?? plain
?? rice of any type is best and most easily cooked in a
?? Japanese-style automatic rice cooker.

h Which is plain rice to you? To me in Canada it is a long
h grain basmati...In japan it is a medium grain rice mostly.
h To some in the USA it is Uncle Ben's converted (par boiled)
h rice. In Italy the short grains are more commonly used.

Any unflavored rice that is to be served as an accompanying
starch is "plain rice" to me. I'm sorry that I am a heretical
non-connoisseur of rice and don't worry much about type:
arborio, short grain, long grain, basmati etc.:-)

All of the above is fine in the rice cooker. Can't say I've ever
cooked brown rice in there though. I cook that stuff on my stovetop.

--
See return address to reply by email
remove the smile first

On Mar 7, 12:24*am, Hank wrote:
Ok so everytime I make rice or spanish rice with tomato sauce it
always ends with the rice being like paste. [snip]

This post and the replies prompted me to make this version last
night. It was good.

1. Make achiote oil: simmer about 4 TB achiote seeds (aka annato
seeds) in a small saucepan with about 1/2 cup olive oil for a few
minutes. Strain into jar.

2. Put 2 TB achiote oil in saucepan over medium heat, add a bit of
chopped onion and a smaller bit of finely chopped bell pepper. Cook
until onion is translucent. Add 2 cups long grain rice (medium grain
would work, too) and stir in oil until rice grains are all coated and
begin to change color.

3. Add some canned diced tomatoes--I used about half the (14 oz.?)
can, some of the juice, and 2 cups light chicken broth or water (I
used water this time). Stir.

4. Bring to boil, reduce heat and let continue to simmer until steam
holes form in rice, at which time cover, reduce heat to lowest and let
cook for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat (do not uncover) and let
sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

We had it with sautéed chicken legs (with thyme and a splash of the
open sauvignon blanc) and garlicky fresh green beans. Delicious.

I expect to use the rest of the achiote oil to make a sofrito for
black beans. -aem

James Silverton wrote:

h Any unflavored rice that is to be served as an accompanying
starch is "plain rice" to me. I'm sorry that I am a heretical
non-connoisseur of rice and don't worry much about type:
arborio, short grain, long grain, basmati etc.:-)

I don't eat a lot of rice, but I do use different types of rice for
different dishes. As a starch dish with dinner I usually cook basmati.
I use arborio for rice pudding, and I would use it to try risotto if my
wife wasn't allergic to rice.

"James Silverton" wrote in message
news:nCxAj.2144$wM2.2061@trnddc07...
"Gunner" wrote in message
...

"Hank" wrote in message
...
Ok so everytime I make rice or spanish rice with tomato sauce... Any
advice?

USA Rice Fed's 138 recipes on Mexican & Spanish Rice:
http://www.usarice.com/recipe/recipe_search.cgi

If you get really interested you can find out about cooking the various
types of rice on the site also

Interesting stuff! I've got no quibbles about details of *recipes* for
cooking with rice and will just say once (tho' I've said it before
elsewhere, probably ad nauseam :-), plain rice of any type is best and
most easily cooked in a Japanese-style automatic rice cooker. The only
type of "rice" where something else is appropriate, IMHO, is wild rice
that requires about an hour's cooking.



--
Jim Silverton
Potomac, Maryland