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Rice is the staple food of over two thirds of the world. It’s rich in thiamin, niacin and iron, easy to prepare and can be used in many types of recipes. Use it in soups, stews, main dishes as well as desserts. Rice is one of the highest quality protein foods. White rice contains 103 calories per half cup serving, while brown rice contains 108 calories per half cup serving. Rice can be used in just about any kind of recipe from gourmet to frugal and is very nutritious. Use it in soups, stews, main dishes as well as desserts.
Brown rice contains more fiber than white rice, helping you feel full with fewer calories, and is rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant proven to protect cells from damage that can lead to health problems such as cancer, heart disease and cataracts. Brown rice takes longer to cook than regular-milled white rice (45 minutes versus 15 for white rice) since the outer bran layers act as a barrier to heat and moisture. It also requires a slight increase in cooking liquid: 2 to 2 1/2 cups liquid is recommended.
Rice is plentiful in the United States with at least seven states that grow rice. Arkansas, California, and Louisiana account for over 80% of the rice production in the United States. Rice is the most non-allergenic of all grains. It’s gluten-free and can be an important staple in diets of individuals with gluten sensitivity. Most rice sold in the United State is enriched, meaning that thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron, and foliates have been added to replace what was lost during the milling process. Enriched rice with folic acid is one of the “good” grains that is a source of the disease fighting nutrient.
Cooking family meals at home that include rice promotes good health. You can prepare great tasting dishes by preparing you own rice seasoning mixtures. Here are a few of the many ways that you can prepare rice:
Nine Flavored Rice Pilaf Mixes
1 cup long-grain, converted rice Flavor Packet 2 tablespoons butter 2 1/2 cups hot water
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Saut the rice, stirring constantly, until it takes on a translucent quality; do not let the kernels pop. Slowly stir in the water, then the Flavor Packet; bring to a full boil; cover and lower heat. Simmer 20 to 25 minutes, or until nearly all of liquid is absorbed and the rice looks just a bit too moist to serve. Turn off heat and let stand for 10 minutes before uncovering and serving.
Each recipe makes one flavor packet. Also, these recipes are meant for bouillon cubes that mix with 8 oz. of water. If you prefer to substitute bouillon cubes that mix with 6 oz. of water, or powder, you will need to figure the differences accordingly. Three 8 oz. cubes equal four 6 oz. cubes.
Chicken: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed
1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes 3 dashes pepper
Beef: 3 beef bouillon cubes, crushed 3 dashes pepper
Onion: 3 onion or beef bouillon cubes, crushed 2 teaspoons dried minced or chopped onion 3 dashes pepper
Mushroom: 3 chicken or beef bouillon cubes, crushed 2 tablespoons dried mushroom slices, in bits 3 dashes pepper
Celery: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed 3 tablespoons dried celery flakes 3 dashes pepper
Curry: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed 1 teaspoon curry powder
Saffron: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed 1 pinch saffron 1 pinch turmeric
Oriental: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed 1 onion bouillon cube, crushed 2 teaspoons dried celery flakes
2 teaspoons dried mushroom slices, in bits 1 teaspoon dried minced onion dash of powdered ginger add several dashes soy sauce to boiling water
Spanish: 3 chicken bouillon cubes, crushed 2 tablespoons dried green pepper flakes 2 tablespoons dried minced onion dash of chili powder add 2 tablespoons tomato paste to boiling water
Good tasting rice dishes do not have to be expensive. Try the recipes above and get rave reviews from your family!
About the author:
Barbara King Owner: Recipe-Cafe.com membership site where you can download thousands of mouth watering recipes.
Written By: Barbara King
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In any number of cookbooks and recipes you will find advice on which herbs go with what. Im not going to take that route.
While there certainly are marriages that are tried and tested, such as tomatoes and basil or lamb and rosemary, the reality is that the use of herbs is every bit as much a matter of personal taste as any other aspect of cooking.
Consequently, what I want you to do is to sample as many herbs as you can and try to marry up the flavors with the foods you are familiar with. Thats not as difficult as it sounds. Just close your eyes and think about it.
You will find, after a while, that you will instinctively know which flavoring to use, when to use it and how much of it you need.
Do this with both fresh and dried herbs. Crush a little between finger and thumb and smell it. This is much more important than your sense of taste.
Something magical will happen. You will come to realize that fresh herbs are not better than dried ones, they simply impart a different flavor. There are two major exceptions to this.
One is mint, which has a strange musty flavor when dried, and the other is chives, which are so delicate that the flavor rarely survives cooking. Using dried chives is therefore pretty pointless.
One other point to watch out for is that some dried herbs can remained inedible even after thorough cooking. Rosemary is a very good example of this and needs to be filtered out of any liquids in which it has been used as a flavoring.
In any case, fresh or dried, it is better to chop up herbs such as this before using them.
Using herbs in cooking
Many herbs, such as basil and coriander (sometimes called Chinese parsley and cilantro in the USA) are terrific simply torn up in salads. Note that I said torn up and not cut; only cut herbs if you intend to cook them.
Its important to recognize that some herbs lose flavor with extended cooking, even in their dried state. Fortunately its fairly easy to spot which those are.
Tough leaved herbs such as bay can be safely added at the start of cooking time and will maintain their flavor. In fact, they may need to be in the food for as long as possible in order for their flavor to fully develop.
Herbs with light and delicate leaves, however, will lose their flavor very quickly once in contact with heat. To use basil in a soup, for example, you needed to add it, not to the hot liquid as you might expect, but rather to the warm plate you intend to serve the soup in. Then pour the soup on top of it.
Alternatively, simply sprinkle it on top of the soup and leave it there. It will make an attractive decoration and impart a wonderful aroma as you take the soup to the table.
Whats that? You want to use a tureen and server the soup at the table? No problem. Sprinkle the herb in its raw state on top of the soup anyway. The effect, when you remove the lid, will be the same. Just stir it in as you serve.
The spices of life
Most people, including most professional chefs, use spices that have already been prepared.
That is to say they have been ground up, ready to use. The main exception to this is probably black pepper, which you should always grind yourself. Not difficult. You can buy a pepper grinder just about anywhere and the peppercorns are available in any supermarket.
Of course you can, if you wish, go to the trouble of buying a pestle and mortar, tracking down the raw spices and then grind them yourself.
If you do this, you will be richly rewarded with deep and penetrating flavors. You may also find that you get tired of doing it very quickly. However I would highly recommend it for a special occasion, or a wet weekend in Bargo.
Generally speaking, though, the shop bought variety are fine, providing you dont keep them hanging around in a cupboard for too long. They will lose their flavor.
As with herbs, its very important that you learn the taste and smell of each individual spice and, uniquely, its pungency. This last item is one that is frequently overlooked, even by experienced cooks.
Just about everybody is aware that chili needs to be used carefully for obvious reasons. But for some reason they do not pay the same attention to turmeric, which is quite delicate, and, say, star anise which can strangle an incautious palate at a hundred paces.
Both give themselves away, however, if you simply take the lid off the jar and sniff them.
Mixing spice
Generally speaking, it is a rare thing to add more than a couple of spices to the same dish. The obvious exceptions to this are Asian and Indian dishes, where the carefully blended mix of flavors will be both traditional and subtle.
You have a choice with these. You either follow a recipe, or you use one of the many excellent pre-prepared pastes that are now available. I tend towards the latter choice, although I do still mix my own spices from time to time.
You should do the same. Its fun and you learn a great deal about which spices mix well and which are best kept as an individual flavoring.
However you choose to cook with spice, treat it with respect and always add it a little at a time, tasting as you go.
Remember also, that the flavor will change with the length of cooking time. It may deepen, or it may lessen in its effect. Only experience will teach you what each individual spice does and how quickly it does it.
One excellent way to test the effect of adding spice, is to cook your rice with something like cardamom seeds. These come in little pods that needed to be cracked open and the seeds extracted.
Do this by placing them on a stable surface, place the flat of a cleaver blade over them and apply a bit of pressure. They will open easily. Use about two pods for one dish of rice.
You could also add some turmeric to the same rice dish. This will turn it yellow and also add a subtle flavor which complements the pungency of the cardamom. Call it saffron rice if you like, very few people will be able to tell the difference.
Rice is a good way to test any number of flavorings. Personally I find it a bit boring on its own, and I frequently add something to it to jazz it up a little. Experiment. You will be pleasantly surprised at what a difference a new flavor can make.
You will also be pleasantly surprised at your growing reputation.
About the Author
Michael Sheridan is a former head chef at the Pierre Victoire restaurant in London’s West End, specializing in French cuisine. An Australian, he is a published author on cooking matters, and runs a free membership club and cooking course for busy home cooks at http://thecoolcook.com
Written By: Michael Sheridan
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Go to any family restaurant with Italian dining in mind and you are likely to order chicken parmesan, pasta alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, or maybe a pizza. It is easy to think that some pasta, some marinara sauce, a crust of Italian bread and a glass of wine is the beginning and end of Italian cuisine, especially if you grew up in the United States. There is much more than red sauce and starch on the agenda for most Italian regional cuisines, and with all of the various regions and cultures in the boot on the ocean, Italian regional cuisines have as much range as your average New York City block.
There is the tourist region of Tuscany, on the northwestern coast of Italy. Tuscany is sought out for its simple but delicious dishes, seasoned sparingly with basil, parsley, and thyme. Tuscan bread and a little bit of olive oil is a big part of the seafood dishes of the Tuscan region.
Abruzzo, a little known treasure in the middle eastern section of the boot mixes chili peppers into almost all of their dishes. Like many other regions in Italy, there is a mixture of mountain and seafood dishes. Pasta is very often a first course, instead of a part of a stew or entre. Most of the chefs in the Abruzzo region are skilled at hand rolling their own stuffed pastas, and crepes are used in meat dishes, rolled in savory sauces or put in to broths. Polenta is enjoyed with hearty sausages and rich, meaty sauces.
Sardinia, an island off of the western coast of Italy is home to a rich fishing tradition as well as a beautiful mountainous inland landscape. This, in addition to a rich heritage of not only Italians, but also Arabs, French, Greeks, and Spaniards, has made the island home to a diverse culture of seafood and meat dishes spiced with fennel and saffron. Stews and rich, hearty pastas make up a large part of the local cuisine in Sardinia, as well as sheep milks cheese.
Emilia-Romagna is perhaps the most sought out region of Italy in terms of local cuisine. It is often called the market basket of Italy. Located in northern Italy, Emilia-Romagna is home to many of Italys most renowned dishes, like Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and balsamic vinegar. Chefs in the Emilia Romagna region have a penchant for gregarious presentation and rich spices.
Much like the American idea of Chinese food, the American idea of Italian food is only the tip of the iceberg. Italian regional cuisine is marked by the countrys locality to northern Africa and other Mediterranean countries, as well as a diverse local landscape, ranging from mountains to oceans. Sheppards, shopkeepers, farmers, and fisherman all contribute to one of the most diverse cultural cuisines in the world. Next time you are in the mood for Italian food, try something a little bit different than your usual spaghetti and meatballs, maybe a saffron seafood stew or a polenta. Rest assured, you wont think of the words Italian cuisine the same again.
About the Author
This article provided courtesy of http://www.organic-foods-guide.com
Written By: Steve Wilcott