Liz’s continued kitchen adventures
Jul. 1st, 2016 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingYesterday 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...
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...
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-02 03:00 am (UTC)(2) A trick I learned from the Zahav cookbook is to bake the rice, which gives it even heat from all over instead of from the bottom, and that makes it less sticky. It's not as fast, but it does seem to work.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-03 01:56 am (UTC)