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I'm on a puff binge!


gfron1

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I've been making these great adult rice krispie treats by puffing my Minnesota hand-harvested wild rice. Last night I puffed Thai black sticky rice - also very good. This morning it was tapioca pearls. Next on deck is Lotus Foods red rice.

What else have you all puffed?

BTW, for those of you who don't know, to puff, you can just put in hot oil. I've been using peanut, but I guess most high smoke point oils would do.

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Can you tell us some more about the puffing? This may sound like a REALLY dumb question, but I'm assuming you're puffing raw (not cooked) rice? And are you essentially pan frying it in oil, or are you deep frying it in oil?

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I've puffed wild rice, jasmine rice and barley. I usually precook the things I puff. I cook the grain in a large quantity of water until it's completely swollen and essentially overcooked but not turning to complete mush, drain, dehydrate at 150 f. until dry and flash in 425 f. oil.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Outside of my local Korean market today they had this incredible machine that was puffing rice mixed with a few other grains like wheat or barley. There was a 6 inch diameter cast iron looking plate with the grains scattered on it, then another plate came down from the top and the stuff exploded and shot out in a thin crisp cracker. Unfortunately no pictures. This was similar to the rice cakes that are the bane of a dieter's existence, but they tasted of the grains.

They were also using already puffed rice along with sesame and pumpkin seeds in a big wok, adding in what they called "Korean corn syrup", then spreading flat and cutting in squares like rice krispie treats. This was definitely not sweet tasting.

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Heidi, did the contraption you saw look anything like the video I linked above? These things fascinate (and scare!) me...

I wonder if the "Korean corn syrup" was actually millet syrup. I think they use that in Asian non-sweet applications. (Or maybe I'm imagining that...)

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Heidi, did the contraption you saw look anything like the video I linked above? These things fascinate (and scare!) me...

I wonder if the "Korean corn syrup" was actually millet syrup. I think they use that in Asian non-sweet applications. (Or maybe I'm imagining that...)

No - it did not shoot out like a cannon (which is what I think thing the video looks like and I have seen similar ones before). This was actually moving north to south; the grains on the south side and the hot plate on the north/top side and then when it exploded it shot out. As to the syrup, you may be right. The gentleman I spoke with said that I might think it looked like honey but it was not really sweet.

I will have to explore further in terms of home application. Sounds like something for street fairs and school functions! They were touting it as low calorie, whole grain and healthy.

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I puffed long black wild rice last Hallowe'en, and wheat berries. Tonight we made egg rolls and puffed all the leftover wrappers.

I would love to see before and after photos of all the puffables.

What happens when you deep fry popping corn?

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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I would love to see before and after photos of all the puffables.

I don't have a before picture or a solo picture of after but this is barley I puffed combined with melted soy marshmallow and toasted sesame seeds to form a somewhat savory twist on rice krispie treats.

gallery_53467_5170_21944.jpg

This is the same puffed barley/soy marshmallow base rolled into thin sheets and brushed with barley malt syrup to wrap salmon that was cooked sous vide at 104 f.

gallery_53467_5046_27002.jpg

And this is puffed barley combined with caramelized sugar to form a tuile. It's between cajeta ice cream and cebada con leche.

gallery_53467_5170_15941.jpg

Edited by Tri2Cook (log)

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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I would like to try this. Can someone please tell me exactly how I would go about doing this? Do you do this as you would for popcorn as in, put some oil in a pan, add rice (or whatever), cover, and shake pan while poppIng?

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Okay - first, I did this for the first time using the Alinea cookbook recipe for savory granola. Take your oil filling a pan with at least an inch, and bring it to the point that it shimmers (there's a specific temp, but I haven't worried about that - I just toss a grain in and it either puffs or not). Next dump in the rice/grain/hamster and they will puff almost instantly. Skim them out of the oil and dry them on a towel. The puffing takes seconds, the heating takes minutes.

That's my version and the way that Alinea handles it at least in the one recipe. Larry's version is described above and involves a bit more.l

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Just like rice krispies, except every grain is going to be slightly different. The wild rice looked like small maggots, but the texture was the same. The Thai sticky rice barely looked puffed, but was soft. That's why I'm interested in this - there are so many different applications based on what you're puffing.

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I tried this in an Orville Redenbacher hot air popper, just to see what would happen and, uh, it did not work, so maybe don't try it. The rice just shoots out, almost immediately, unpopped and totally unpuffed.

This is just an FYI.

I tried this with raw and parcooked rice, BTW, and both times the results were not good. Basically, the only result was rice all over my counter. I suspect the problem is that the fan is set a speed suitable for corn and the rice I'm using, even with added moisture, is too light for the fan.

Edited by carp (log)
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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally made time to try T2C's method of puffing - also the technique found on the internet. To recap - Achatz's method is to just drop in the dry rice into hot oil. It works well and leaves you with a crunchy but edible rice. T2C's method is to boil, dry then fry. More time consuming but not that much. The volume is significantly greater with this method. It is not nearly as crunchy which is good or bad depending on what you're doing with it. I'll probably be switching over however.

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I tried this in an Orville Redenbacher hot air popper, just to see what would happen and, uh, it did not work, so maybe don't try it. The rice just shoots out, almost immediately, unpopped and totally unpuffed.

This is just an FYI.

The deal with popcorn is that there is a little moisture sealed inside the kernel. When you heat the kernel, either in shallow oil or hot air, the water turns into steam, which makes the inside of the kernel highly pressurized, Finally, the kernel shell can't take the pressure, and it explodes. The steam puffs the starchy center, and you've got popcorn.

That explosion issue is why "deep frying" un-popped popcorn without a lid would be such a very, very bad idea. Just to totally spell it out: some kernels will explode under the surface of the hot oil, that explosion will splatter significant amounts of oil out of the pot. The splattered oil will burn anyone near by, and could catch fire from whatever is heating the pot.

Do some one grain tests with any grains you aren't familiar with, preferably with a lid or splatter screen between you and the oil. Somewhere out there is a grain that will behave like popcorn in oil, and if you dump a handful in, you'll get a huge eruption of hot oil. (meaning burns and/or fire).

I suspect that something similar is happening with the oil puffing of uncooked grains. In the case of white rice, there is no shell, but the oil may be heating the interior of the grain so quickly, that the conversion of water to steam is fast enough to puff the hard starches. Maybe that is what's happening with the Korean street cart - the hot plate rapidly heats the grains, causing the rapid conversion to steam.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've had some hits and misses as I've tried different rices, so today I tried to rescue a miss from yesterday and ended up with my favorite yet. I used Thai black/sticky rice and cooked it in a rice cooker. When it was done I followed Tri2Cooks instructions above but I stopped when the rice was dry but still soft. I then fried in peanut oil and found it still too soft...I could have fried longer probably. I wanted to get out of the kitchen so I left it to sit overnight. Today I came in and re-fried (just like french fries) and sure enough got this incredible texture that was softish, a bit chewey, but very crisp. I'll try this now with other rices, and I'll try just frying a lot longer and see if it makes a difference.

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