Rice: Varieties, Storage, Preparation, Use

[btbyrd]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

@btbyrd Kinda swooning over the boxes here!

 

They're kind of dangerous that way.

 

1 hour ago, Katie Meadow said:

Maybe the smaller one could be used as a sushi mold? I can't quite make out how the lid is designed.

 

It's not really shaped properly to function that way (unless I'm misunderstanding the type of mold you're referring to). Here's a couple stock photos that show the lid design better. Each box comes with a wooden rice measuring cup that can stick to the bottom of the lid via magnet. The lid also has notches cut into it so you can rest it on the side of the box.

 

 

 

For anyone interested, the company who makes them is called Masuda Kiribako. The ones I have hold 1, 3, and 5kg of rice. They make an even larger one that holds 10kg and is basically the height of all of mine stacked together. Seems like it'd get kind of cumbersome to move around and reach into, but I guess if I can move my stack around, it's not that much different. I keep the medium and large ones filled with @Katie Meadow's favored long grain (Lundberg basmati) and @JoNorvelleWalker standby short grain (Tamaki gold).

[SLB]

Wow.  So.Friggin'.Beautiful. 

 

Over here, my rice is in RubberMaids.  I have a long-grain mass-produced one, and a shorter-grain mass-produced one.  I can't keep up with too many rices.  I have that Seductions of Rice book [mine is an original, and it has the cover with the bowl of rice on it]; when I first returned to NYC I figured I was gonna go deep into rice, so much of it being genuinely available here.  But it never happened.

 

My rice is altogether uninspired.  And it lives in RubberMaids.  

Edited November 29, 2020 by SLB (log)

[weinoo]

59 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Top bedroom shelf.

 

Antica Riseria Vignola Carnaroli, Santo Tomas Bomba, Tilda Basmati.  Not shown, bag of Tamaki Gold on the floor.  Less interesting rices in the kitchen.  The rice I go through most is Tamaki Gold.

 

 

 

Nice! Have you ever tried the Tamaki Haiga? It's practically white rice, but with the nutritional content of brown, as they leave the germ.

 

43 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Lundberg isn’t readily available in supermarkets on the East Coast?

 

It is - but I was suggesting to @Gayle28607 for her brown rice cravings.

 

I haven't bought any Lundberg in quite some time.

[AlaMoi]

deleted

Edited November 30, 2020 by AlaMoi (log)

[weinoo]

 

Is this the one you get, @JoNorvelleWalker?

[weinoo]

12 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

Google / search "rice cultivars"

 

the only thing which exceeds that list is the list of "marketing names" applied, with surcharges.....

 

I keep 4-5 rice types on hand + barley + farro + couscous + "wild (but not a rice) rice" . . .

now - no question about it - different rice strains lend themselves to different preparations/dishes.

after that one needs a very skilled barber and a microscope to split those hairs.....

 

Well, that's certainly giving rice short shrift. As is googling.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

15 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

Is this the one you get, @JoNorvelleWalker?

 

Indeed.

 

I have tried Tamaki Haiga but I did not care for it.  I don't like brown rice either.

 

[gfweb]

I've got a lot to learn about rice. 

 

I have "arroz" from the market, arborio and wild (Michigan) rice, and barley, which also isn't rice.

 

I put them into my Zoj with the fuzzy logic (that looks like a pokemon), push the button, listen to the jingle, smile and walk away.

[heidih]

Being a California girl my current everyday is the hybrid Calrose. Yes we grow rice here though Calrose is grown in many places. http://rice.ucanr.edu/About_California_Rice/#:~:text=Rice production is concentrated in,20% above the U.S. average.  Current bag is Botan distributed by JFC

 

ETA: the bag states it has microscopic holes for breathing

Edited November 30, 2020 by heidih (log)

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, SLB said:

Over here, my rice is in RubberMaids.  I have a long-grain mass-produced one, and a shorter-grain mass-produced one.  I can't keep up with too many rices.  I have that Seductions of Rice book [mine is an original, and it has the cover with the bowl of rice on it]; when I first returned to NYC I figured I was gonna go deep into rice, so much of it being genuinely available here.  But it never happened.

 

I think the original is the one I showed a picture of above...not the bowl of rice cover. But this one...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dtremit]

I'm not adding much here that others haven't mentioned — but in normal times, the three types of rice we always have on hand and use frequently are a Thai jasmine (not always the same brand, but always one with the Thai hom mali green seal), Tamaki haiga, and a good aged Indian basmati. (For basmati I'm not sure I've settled on a favorite brand, although I've never had a bad experience with Tilda.)

 

For those three, we use one of these containers acquired on Amazon that have rice cooker measuring cups incorporated into the lid:

 

 

We generally have a bunch of other miscellaneous rice varieties on hand — arborio, bomba, Thai glutinous, and a few brown rices — most of which I don't honestly use that often. (Right now we have Tamaki Gold in place of the haiga as it was the closest I could buy the last time I went shopping.)

 

I have never managed to fall in love with brown rice, though I adore haiga. The only exception is Lundberg's "Jubilee" blend, which I have had trouble sourcing lately. I don't entirely understand this; I prefer most *other* grains as unprocessed as possible.

 

One interesting unusual rice is Thai "riceberry" — which is a hybrid of black jasmine rice. I've liked it more than a lot of other brown rices, though I do prefer it in a blend.

 

 

[liuzhou]

I was in my local supermarket earier and, with this topic in mind, had a look at the varieties on offer. In total, they had 21 different rices. 16  of those were white rice, both short and longer grain, plus glutinous rices. All were Chinese grown rice except one - my regular Thai jasmine rice. Chinese rice is not the best in the world!

The others were brown rice, black and red rice, the latter two coming in both regular and glutinous varieties.

 

It isn't the biggest supermarket and I know the larger ones have even more.

One exception to my general dislike of Chinese rice is this.

 

 

 

It was a gift and and don't know much about it, although I have actually been to the field it was grown in. I ony know it is considered to be a superior variety, low yield and hence expensive. I'll try to find out more.

I'd love to find Basmati rice, but relations between China and India have never been good. Few Indian products are available here.
 

Edited November 30, 2020 by liuzhou
typos (log)

[weinoo]

7 hours ago, dtremit said:

I'm not adding much here that others haven't mentioned — but in normal times, the three types of rice we always have on hand and use frequently are a Thai jasmine (not always the same brand, but always one with the Thai hom mali green seal), Tamaki haiga, and a good aged Indian basmati. (For basmati I'm not sure I've settled on a favorite brand, although I've never had a bad experience with Tilda.)

 

For those three, we use one of these containers acquired on Amazon that have rice cooker measuring cups incorporated into the lid:

 

 

We generally have a bunch of other miscellaneous rice varieties on hand — arborio, bomba, Thai glutinous, and a few brown rices — most of which I don't honestly use that often. (Right now we have Tamaki Gold in place of the haiga as it was the closest I could buy the last time I went shopping.)

 

I have never managed to fall in love with brown rice, though I adore haiga. The only exception is Lundberg's "Jubilee" blend, which I have had trouble sourcing lately. I don't entirely understand this; I prefer most *other* grains as unprocessed as possible.

 

One interesting unusual rice is Thai "riceberry" — which is a hybrid of black jasmine rice. I've liked it more than a lot of other brown rices, though I do prefer it in a blend.

 

 

 

So it appears that the cup attached to that lid for cat food rice storage is marked for 180ml (the standard Japanese gō rice cup size), but it's actually larger than that. I really have trouble measuring when I have to eyeball the line, and much rather prefer a cup, which when full holds the 180 ml amount.  Actually, I much prefer weighing rice.

 

The Haiga is great stuff. 

 

And brown rices, at least the long and short grain ones I remember from my health-food conscious years in California, kinda sucked.

Edited November 30, 2020 by weinoo (log)

[heidih]

3 hours ago, weinoo said:

And brown rices, at least the long and short grain ones I remember from my health-food conscious years in California, kinda sucked.

The last time I bought brown rice was from the bulk bin at Whole Foods. A short grain as I recall. Their bins get lots of turnover. Allowed me to get a small amount to see if I liked it. Did in the Zo and was surprised at the scent and taste - nutty and sweet.  They had other rice varieties. A pre-Pandemic way to try them out without committing to bulk.  Took me back to the days when every supermarket had open bins of rice and of pinto beans - every kids favorite play spot behind mom's back.

[Gayle28607]

20 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Lundberg isn’t readily available in supermarkets on the East Coast?

The bin my Earth Fare had of this isn't always available due to the pandemic. The bags on the shelf tend to be rancid - often enough that I've stopped buying them. I also am not going into grocery stores much these days, so that has added another barrier here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. Earth Fare, which was my only local grocery that sold Lundberg short grain brown rice at all, or in enough quantity that the rice was fresh, also went through a huge, ill-planned expansion followed by bankruptcy. About mid-summer the founder and a few other investors bought back the name and my local Earth Fare building, plus one in Asheville and a couple others that had a history of being solvent. They are still dealing with suppliers angry at what happened in the bankruptcy. Or that is what the shelves look like the few times I've ventured in. So, there is plenty of Lundberg rice that could be here, but isn't due to this fascinating and hugely frustrating bit of recent grocery industry history.

[dtremit]

11 hours ago, weinoo said:

So it appears that the cup attached to that lid for cat food rice storage is marked for 180ml (the standard Japanese gō rice cup size), but it's actually larger than that. I really have trouble measuring when I have to eyeball the line, and much rather prefer a cup, which when full holds the 180 ml amount.  Actually, I much prefer weighing rice.

 

Yeah, 180ml is definitely to the line, not the top of the container. That said, given you're pouring into the container (rather than dipping and sweeping) a cup that was 180ml full would get kind of messy. I don't mind reading the line so it works well for me.

[heidih]

19 minutes ago, dtremit said:

 

Yeah, 180ml is definitely to the line, not the top of the container. That said, given you're pouring into the container (rather than dipping and sweeping) a cup that was 180ml full would get kind of messy. I don't mind reading the line so it works well for me.

As they taught us in chemistry lab - set the cup (measuring receptacle) up high so it is at eye level. For liquid look at the meniscus; for dry this gives you a good read. I do it with my Pyrex measuring cups all the time. Window ledge usually.

[ElsieD]

This is an interesting topic.  Who knew there were so many kinds of rice out there?  Kind of sad, I know, but I only have some Uncle Ben's converted rice and some aged carnaroli rice labeled Acquerello if that means anything.  When I feel really daring I pick up some basmati.  

[chromedome]

I don't keep nearly the volume and variety on hand that I used to, for a variety of reasons (one being a GF who has been keto-ing or similar for much of the time we've been together). Looking in my cupboard (because now I'm curious) I find some generic white long-grain, the tail end of a bag of Indian basmati (I need to get some more), some arborio, black "forbidden" rice, red Thai rice, brown rice and a mixed rice/multigrain mix from Costco which (IMO) isn't as good as the one they used to carry.

 

Part of the reason I've been eating less rice is that I also eat a lot of other grains, but I'll maintain a tactful silence on that front lest I incur the Wrath of Mitch.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

34 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

This is an interesting topic.  Who knew there were so many kinds of rice out there?  Kind of sad, I know, but I only have some Uncle Ben's converted rice and some aged carnaroli rice labeled Acquerello if that means anything.  When I feel really daring I pick up some basmati.  

 

Oh, I have Uncle Ben's!  I got it to make dosa.

 

[heidih]

52 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

This is an interesting topic.  Who knew there were so many kinds of rice out there?  Kind of sad, I know, but I only have some Uncle Ben's converted rice and some aged carnaroli rice labeled Acquerello if that means anything.  When I feel really daring I pick up some basmati.  

Uncle Ben's done pilaf stye was my childhood other than totally non rice conversant grandmother who baked Mahatma brand and we fought over the browned bits at bottom of pan - now thrown around as soccarat.  Big rice world - have fun

Edited December 1, 2020 by heidih (log)

[liuzhou]

I went to the larger supermarket today. They have all the same rices that I mentioned yesterday, plus some. Here are a handful of the more unusual.

 

Tibetan Red Rice

 

"Forbidden" Black Rice

 

Not all Jasine Rice is Thai. This is Cambodian and I've also seen it from Laos...

 

... but most is Thai.

 

Alkaline Rice? No idea what that's about.

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

[Katie Meadow]

I grew up eating Uncle Ben's and only Uncle Ben's. As far back as I can remember and until the day she died at 94 my mother never cooked any other kind of rice. Chicken and rice was her signature. She lived three blocks from the Halal cart at 53rd and Sixth Ave for her last 50 years and never once wondered what the line was about. That halal plate was always my pre-plane meal when I left after visiting NY. She was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker who never ate street food.  

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

I grew up eating Uncle Ben's and only Uncle Ben's. As far back as I can remember and until the day she died at 94 my mother never cooked any other kind of rice. Chicken and rice was her signature. She lived three blocks from the Halal cart at 53rd and Sixth Ave for her last 50 years and never once wondered what the line was about. That halal plate was always my pre-plane meal when I left after visiting NY. She was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker who never ate street food.  

 

As long as you didn't take that meal onto the plane! (For people who don't know, let's just say the Halal cart meal is distinctive in its aroma).

 

I got out my microscope, called my barber, and made risotto last night, with one of the many cultivars of "risotto type" rices.

 

And I googled! 40,000 varieties of rice, all just waiting to be marketed...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rice_cultivars

 

 

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I went to thelarger supermarket today. They have all the same rices that I mentioned yesterday, plus some. Here are a handful of the more unusual.

 

Tibetan Red Rice

 

"Forbidden" Black Rice

 

Not all Jasine Rice is Thai. This is Cambodian and I've also seen it from Laos...

 

... but most is Thai.

 

Alkaline Rice? No idea what that's about.

 

 

@liuzhou - this is awesome.  Have you ever tried that Cambodian rice- that would be one I'd be interested in.

 

I wonder if the alkaline rice is ground up to use for certain noodles?