Liz’s continued kitchen adventures

Yesterday I cooked rice, for the first time in... uh... thirteen years, maybe? Like, I 'cooked' rice a couple times while I was still living with my parents (or at least crashing there during summers), by which I mean I performed one or more of the requisite steps at my mom's direction, in and around setting the table for dinner. But I only made it on my own once or twice, back when I was still living in shared housing up in Collegetown, so I never learned to fine-tune the process.

I don't have a rice cooker, so this was basic stovetop long-grain rice: two parts water to one part rice, bring the water to a boil, dump in the rice (stir briefly), cover, lower heat to a simmer, wait twenty-ish minutes, done. I think I overcooked it slightly -- it came out kind of stickier than I hoped -- but it's perfectly edible and also there is a LOT of it and it stores well in the fridge, so yay efficiency! Next time I will use slightly less water and kill the heat a minute or two sooner, which should help.

I also figured out part of what was missing from my last beef experiment, and rejiggered the spices while I reheated the last serving from batch one in a saucepan. (It had been sitting in the fridge for far too long and needed to be nuked for sterilization purposes.) It was mostly a beef and onion thing cooked in some Worcestershire sauce, and then some soy sauce later on because it smelled funny, but this time I chucked in a little garlic powder and cumin and it balanced much better.

I often find spice mixes counter-intuitive. I should probably just read a zillion recipes until I get a sense of what does and doesn't go together, but man, that sounds like so much work...