That should read "bag". Not "back". Gah!
"Julie Bove" > wrote in message
...
>I have never washed my rice before but... I bought a horking huge back of
>aged Basmati brown at Costco. And I am using it to make Spanish rice.
>Yes, I know this isn't the typical rice. I would normally use Texmati for
>this but I only have one cup left and I want to make a very large batch of
>it. So I need more rice than that. The only other brown rice I have is 1
>cup of long grain, which would be my second choice but again not enough.
>And a couple of small packages of some kind of Asian rice which appears to
>be a medium grain. So this is the closest thing that I have.
>
> The directions say to wash in cold water, then cook at a ratio of 1 cup of
> rice to 2.5 cups of water. Can add 1 tsp. of salt and oil if desired.
> You are then directed to let this mixture soak for 15 minutes, the cook,
> bring to a boil while stirring, then cover and simmer for 35 minutes.
>
> I am not sure how this batch will turn out. The rice did appear to need
> to be washed. There was a little crap in it. Like straw like stuff.
> Could just be lone hulls or something. Dunno. I rinsed it well and
> drained it and lost a few grains in the process. My intent was to use 2
> cups of rice, then about 4 cups of liquid which includes salsa. It is a
> cheap jarred salsa and it contained a few lone kernels of corn and a few
> beans. I cooked up a pound of small red beans earlier. I will probably
> add some of those in. Maybe a cup or so plus a can of corn (drained)
> towards the end of the cooking time. I am also adding a pound of cooked
> ground beef, and some chopped red and green peppers and white onions. I
> did not measure these but portioned them out for the freezer. Just
> eyeballing this there is probably 1.25 cups of each.
>
> So... I kind of messed up in measuring out my liquids and I think that I
> put in a little much because these veggies are not cooked and will add
> liquid. I could cook them separately and then add them but I feel that I
> will get a better flavor if they are cooked in there. So to compensate, I
> intended to add another .25 cups of rice, but I screwed up and dumped in
> about a half a cup. Yeah, I know I am going all metric then not. Deal
> with it. Heh. Hopefully that part will all work out in the end. I'll
> check it at about 25 minutes and add more water if I need to or cook it
> down a little with the lid off if I need to do that.
>
> But... I just wonder about the washing part. If you wash your rice...
> How do you do it? I had read somewhere to put it in a colander and rinse
> it but mine has holes that are far too large for this. I used to have a
> big wire one but no longer do. Can't remember what became of it but I
> think perhaps it broke somehow. I do have mesh strainers but they would
> be too small for 2 cups of rice. But... I also thought... If you are
> rinsing it in the strainer, then only the teensy pieces of crap would
> drain out.
>
> So... I put it all in my pot, filled the pot with water a couple of times
> then drained most of it off, restraining the rice with my hand. I did
> lose a few grains in doing this. Then to get the rice out, I just scooped
> it with my hand back into the measuring cup. I was rather astounded at
> how much liquid the rice had soaked up at that point because it totally
> overfilled the 2.5 cup, cup then! For the remaining bit that I added, I
> just sort of did the same thing with the rice in the measuring cup then
> used my hand to restrain it as I poured the water out. Again, lost a few
> pieces. There has got to be a better way!
>