13 replies to this topic

[msacuisine]

A strange thing happened when I made lunch today. I made plain white rice the way I always do--boil the rice in about twice as much water for a minute or so, then turn the heat to low and cover for 20 minutes. When I went to serve the rice it had turned into a soupy mush. My first thought was, "great, the rice is ruined, now what am I going to do?" Then, once I strained the rice to get rid of the excess water, I realized that it had basically turned itself into a risotto all on its own. I played up the creaminess with a generous amount of butter and a little cream and it was absolutely delicious.

 

The only problem is, I can 't figure out why it happened, how I could reproduce it when desirable, or how to keep it from happening again in the future otherwise. Can anyone think of an explanation?

 

[pbear]

Probably just a fluke.  What style and brand of rice?

[nickrey]

Ddi you buy pre-cooked (ad dried) rice by mistake?

[FeChef]

Ddi you buy pre-cooked (ad dried) rice by mistake?

I was thinking the same thing but didnt want to insult the OP, thanks for doing the dirty work.

[msacuisine]

It's from the same large bag of Safeway long grain white rice that I have been using for months.

[rotuts]

Mystery.

[FeChef]

Did you pre-soak the rice? Also how long did you let the rice soak in the excess water before you attempted to drain it? Those two factors are probably why it got mushy. Just a guess, but i think its logical.

[OliverB]

maybe accidentally added an other cup water? If there was extra liquid after you cooked it, that's pretty much the only thing I can imagine. Certainly could happen to me sometimes, kids pulling this way, phone ringing that way....

Something was different from normal, extra liquid is really the only thing I can imagine.

[msacuisine]

It is certainly possible that I inadvertently added an extra cup of water. Making rice is something I kinda do on autopilot, so it's a possibility. Maybe I'll do some experiments and see if I can recreate it. I was hoping maybe this had happened to someone else and would have an easy answer.

[pangty]

It sound to me that you add too much water and make it into porridge. Add more water and cook for longer time with low heat, when cooking, try to stir it often, or you can use cooked rice to do it, but remember to stir it frequently, you get very creamy porridge and very yummy. Try to add seafood, pork meat ball or vegetables like carrot, celery. Add some soya sauce, sesame oil, and crack an egg, it taste really yummy. Remember to add some ginger too.

[ChrisTaylor]

Is it possible that water somehow got into the bag during shipment/storage?

[bague25]

I would have said that "young" rice gets runny and does not hold well on cooking - but that is apparently not the case (since you have the bag since a while)...

[msacuisine]

Pangty: sounds delicious. I will give it a try. Thanks!

 

Chris Taylor: Definitely nothing to do with shipment or storage. This is out of the same bag I have been using a couple times a week for months.

 

I'm going to try some experiments and see if I can recreate the result. Thanks for the input everybody. If anyone has any other ideas, I would certainly be interested in hearing them.

[huiray]

Regarding "rice porridge" and what Pangty suggested: have you seen this recent thread? http://forums.egulle...-cooked-congee/