Who in the World Eats Brown Rice?

[sanrensho]

If you like short grain Japonica varieties, you might like the haigamai (such as Tamaki Haigamai) rices that are partially polished with only the bran removed. There is also a Sukoyaka Genmai (Japanese brown rice) that actually seems like it is partially polished as well. Both can be found in Japanese or Korean markets.

Our daily rice is generally a 50/50 blend of white rice and Sukoyaka Genmai or haigamai. Although I personally prefer a lower ratio of genmai/haigamai (25-35%). This makes a nice alternative to white rice with good texture.

Edited September 19, 2008 by sanrensho (log)

[Lindacakes]

One of my favorite meals in the whole world is a whole chicken with a side dish of brown rice with brown rice gravy with mushrooms.

The brown rice has to be a particular mix from a particular "health food store" -- a mix of both short and long grain brown rice and wild rice with a few grains of white rice thrown in.

The brown rice gravy came to me from the chef at Angelica Kitchen, a vegetarian restaurant in New York. Before it was printed in their cookbook. One makes a roux from brown rice flour to start it.

Oddly enough, before I read this thread, I didn't realize that this is the only way I enjoy brown rice . . .

I don't eat that whole chicken by myself, by the way, but the chicken has to be whole for it to be right . . .

[lperry]

I've been following this thread, and coincidentally on Thursday a friend passed along a ten pound container of brown basmati rice to me because he doesn't like it. He said it wasn't as fragrant as the white. I cooked some of it on the stove in a regular pot using the knuckle water measuring technique, and found after about a half hour of cooking and a few minutes of resting, it fluffed up really nicely with separate grains and no gumminess. We have one of those cheapie rice cookers, but the first and last time I cooked black rice in it there was all sorts of bubbling and spitting that made a huge mess on the counter. Maybe I filled it too full?

I still want some recipe ideas, and I found quite a bit of information on the Lundberg site. I can't vouch for any of the recipes because I haven't tried anything yet, but they have a pretty large range of types of dishes for all sorts of cooks. Different recipes call for using fresh shiitakes while others call for a can of condensed soup, but there are a lot of ideas here. I used to buy their mixes fairly frequently, but haven't done much with rice in a while. But now with about twenty pounds of the stuff in my pantry, I think we'll be eating more whole grain rice this fall.

[azarashi sushi]

I adore brown rice! I eat it almost everyday, some times twice a day. I too, tend to think people who don't like it, just haven't had the "good stuff" or cooked it very well.

I use either Japanese koshihikari genmai or Akita komachi genmai and cook it in a rice cooker... Absolutely divine!!! And I love the aroma of it when it's cooking... It just smells like nature!!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I'm not a fan of brown rice unless it's heavily seasoned. It's partially a texture thing, and partially a flavor thing.

[CKatCook]

I cannot stand brown rice!! The texture is just nasty to me!!

I eat the white stuff almost daily..

[Chris Amirault]

I wonder how many haters have had brown rice made in a fuzzy logic rice cooker. It's not sticky or gummy, and the nuttiness comes to the fore. We make it regularly -- especially when we have a savory sauce that plays well with it.

[maggiethecat]

I wonder how many haters have had brown rice made in a fuzzy logic rice cooker. It's not sticky or gummy, and the nuttiness comes to the fore. We make it regularly -- especially  when we have a savory sauce that plays well with it.

←

I don't know what kind of logic it has, but my cheapo rice cooker arrived yesterday. I'll take on the Brown Rice Project this week, and I hope to be converted from a Hater to a Lover.

[hummingbirdkiss]

good luck with the testing of the rice cooker I am anxious to hear if it matters and may try it again some time...

I have tried so hard to like brown rice..and cooked it every way possible ..but I am a "hater" with savory dishes.. ...however ...give me a giant bowl of it with cream butter, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar on it

and I am very happy!!!

[azarashi sushi]

All rice cookers are not the same, so make sure you're cooking in a good one before you bring down the verdict on the brown rice!

[Lady T]

Good heavens.

I've been eating short-grain brown rice cooked in water (with a good solid lump of butter and a little salt) as a breakfast cereal for decades on end, with whatever fresh fruit is in season and a little yogurt (peach is wonderful).

I've been eating short-grain brown rice cooked in a combination of chicken broth and white wine -- with a touch more of that same butter and salt, and a shallot sliced into the mix -- as a vegetable with my meals (particularly nice with most kinds of fish), also for decades on end. Also works a treat in tandem with wild rice and sautee'd mushrooms.

That second brown rice recipe is the foundation of one of my staples when the paychecks aren't biting: Poverty Casserole, the baked agglomeration of beans/rice/whole-kernel corn/garlic/green salsa/cheese that has kept me in one piece many times until things got better.

I dare to state that the only white rices currently stocked in my kitchen are the Carnaroli I use in risotto and the wonderful perfumey long-grain Basmati I find on Devon Avenue in Little India (a Chicago neighborhood). I don't use either one as often as the brown short-grain, truly.

Where ya been, girlfriend? If you buy it as fresh as possible (Whole Paycheck is good for this, I've found) and keep it in the fridge to guard against rancidity, brown rice can be wonderfully nuttily good; cook it slowly enough in enough flavorful liquid and it doesn't crunch -- it offers more resistance than the white stuff, but it's a whole 'nother food on its own merits.

Enjoy!

[andiesenji]

I have posted in other threads about how much I use and enjoy brown rices. I think the other threads all were about the rice cooking appliances.

I actually prefer a blend of brown, "Wehani," mahogany, black Japonica, red and other "whole-grain" rices, often with wild rice and other grains added.

I now buy the individual types and prepare my own blend but started out with the blends packaged by Lundberg..

The flavors of these blended mixtures are complex, nutty and can have an almost "meaty" flavor even without the addition of meat or poultry stocks.

I now have an IH rice cooker but got similar results with the "fuzzy-logic" cookers and even with my older cookers.

I have owned rice cookers ever since the first Panasonic ones appeared on the market thirty years ago. I have lost count of how many I have owned and still own several.

Cooking whole grain rices takes longer than white rice. In fact, I find it tastes much better if I prepare it early in the day and leave it in the cooker with the "Keep Warm" function until dinner. The texture stays perfect and the flavor is enhanced, at least to my taste and to those to whom I serve it.

[hsm]

Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe is easy, tasty and works well with brown basmati. It's converted some white-rice-only friends (no pun intended).

[LB Howes]

I wonder how many haters have had brown rice made in a fuzzy logic rice cooker. It's not sticky or gummy, and the nuttiness comes to the fore. We make it regularly -- especially  when we have a savory sauce that plays well with it.

←

I don't know what kind of logic it has, but my cheapo rice cooker arrived yesterday. I'll take on the Brown Rice Project this week, and I hope to be converted from a Hater to a Lover.

←

Well. . . did the new rice cooker convert you from a Hater to Lover?

[TheFuzzy]

I don't know what kind of logic it has, but my cheapo rice cooker arrived yesterday. I'll take on the Brown Rice Project this week, and I hope to be converted from a Hater to a Lover.

←

Maggie, the easiest/fastest way to cook brown rice is the "pasta" method: boiling in lots of water, then draining. Rice cookers, in my experience, can't do brown rice unless you have one of the expensive ones which has multiple settings. Also, water absorption in brown rice varies more than white rice, I think.

The main secret to liking brown rice is not to think of it as a substitute for white rice. The cooking methods and seasonings you want to use are different. I've been doing a lot of this lately since I'm on a high-fiber diet kick.

I've found an excellent use for brown rice: crock-pot cooking. White rice, in a 6-hour crockpot, turns to mush. Brown rice holds up.

[Sharon Skelton]

We love brown rice! Brown basmati is fantastic - much richer flavor than white. We're also doing a high fiber diet and we're enjoying it immensely.

I cook my brown rice just like I do any other (other than for risotto) - I lightly "toast" it in some butter or the appropriate oil, add 1 cup of water for each 1/2 cup of rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let cook until the water is absorbed. Take off the heat, cover with a crumpled paper towel & lid and let sit for 5 minutes.

It's always fluffy, nutty and wonderful. Almost as fun to eat as barley!

I've got a rice cooker that was a gift from a friend. I've only used it a few time - hate it!

Edited September 30, 2008 by Sharon Skelton (log)

[maggiethecat]

I wonder how many haters have had brown rice made in a fuzzy logic rice cooker. It's not sticky or gummy, and the nuttiness comes to the fore. We make it regularly -- especially  when we have a savory sauce that plays well with it.

←

I don't know what kind of logic it has, but my cheapo rice cooker arrived yesterday. I'll take on the Brown Rice Project this week, and I hope to be converted from a Hater to a Lover.

←

Well. . . did the new rice cooker convert you from a Hater to Lover?

←

In fact it did! The cooker fixed the gluey/crunchy texture that I associate with brown rice. We'll be eating a lot more brown rice.

[Lapin d'Argent]

Personally, I love brown rice. I cook it using the pasta method (ie in an abundance of salted water), which pretty much guarantees good results.

If have access to cook's illustrated, their recipe for Brown Rice with Parmesan, Lemon, and Herbs is absolutely fantastic.

←

What made brown rice really work for me was the Cooks Illustrated recipe in May 2004 for Foolproof Oven-Baked Brown Rice. It changed everything.

We're particularly fond of Lunenberg Farm's Rose Gold brown rice.

- Laura.

[lmarshal1]

I love rice when it's cooked correctly. My little cheapo rice cooker (so small it won't do more than 1 1/2 cups of raw rice) does a great job of brown or white rice...as long as I use a little less water than called for. I keep brown rice in the freezer after letting a whole bag go rancid on the shelf. I'm also a fan of sauteing rices before cooking them in liquid...seems to keep the grains separate. I've begun to cook a number of pasta products the same way I cook rice: saute, add a little less than twice the amount of water to rice/pasta. Works wonderfully, especially for orzo. Off topic, I guess, but where can you buy whole-grain orzo? LKMarshall

[David A. Goldfarb]

We eat lots of brown rice. We'll go through a 20 pound bag of Nishiki medium grain brown rice without it going rancid. We also like the Lundberg long grain brown, short grain brown (a little stickier), and brown basmati rices, and sometimes we make black or red rice. The only white rices we eat are arborio or carnaroli for risotto, white basmati once in a while, sometimes short grain sticky white rice for sushi, and occasionally I might get a Spanish style white rice for dishes where that would be appropriate. Most common white rice is boring and flavorless (there are exceptions, of course).

We usually make it in a rice cooker that has two settings--on and warm.

[Porthos]

Alton Brown's baked brown rice recipe is easy, tasty and works well with brown basmati. It's converted some white-rice-only friends (no pun intended).

I use his recipe also but I scale it up to cook 1 or 2 pounds of rice at a time. I portion and freeze what I don't use and then reheat it in the microwave for other meals. Works wonderfully. I use (hold down the howls of shame) house brand brown rice and am happy as a clam with it.

[DanM]

I'm a lover of brown rice and try to use it over whit rice when I can. My personal favorite is medium grain from Lundberg. IIRC, part of the preference for whit rice is the cultural connection between white and purity.

Dan

[nakji]

I'm not a fan of brown rice...it just feels too heavy for me. It's highly probable I've never cooked it correctly, but I'm not that keen to mess around trying to make it better; I prefer to make a multi-grain blend of rice with millet and purple rice.

[Rebecca263]

I've never had gluey brown rice in my life, what am I doing wrong? LOL

Now, on a serious note, I think that a mistake many people make in stove top preparation of brown rice is to treat it as white rice- it isn't! Brown rice NEEDS to be bathed in water- more water makes for heavenly plump grains, less tends to force the grains together.

[sebastian wilde]

i suppose in the diabetic world it's the rule, not the exception.