Par cooked rice?

[Rasmus]

I wonder if anyone has seen rice that is par cooked, so instead of having to cook the entire ~30 minutes it takes say 5 minutes. I think parboiled rice is different, but I am not sure.

In general I am interested in par cooked food products, i.e. packaged food products, if anyone has recommendations.

I am also interested in techniques for par cooking.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Rasmus (log)

[TdeV]

Hi @Rasmus, welcome. Are you looking specifically for par cooked, or ways to prep meals ahead of time? If the latter, investigate sous vide cooking. You can take a large cut, say a pork shoulder, and cut it into manageable pieces. This could be slices of roast 1 1/2" thick. The raw meat gets vacuum-sealed in plastic bags and cooked at very low temperatures. After they're done, they can be kept in the freezer for a year (at least). When you open one of the bags, the roast can be sliced, diced for chili, etc. There's quite a few good books now published about sous vide. Also check out the sous vide threads here on eGullet. Here's the current thread

[liuzhou]

30 minutes to cook rice?

[ElsieD]

As far as rice goes, I have tried Uncle Ben's, the kind where you microwave the package for 90 seconds and it is done.  However, I don't like the texture as I find it mushy.  However, given  that it is widely available, a lot of people must like it so you could give that a try.  It comes in different flavors.

[Rasmus]

@TdeV: Sous vide, right. I guess that's basics for par cooking protein. I hope to find methods for vegetables and maybe even pasta. Could that be par cooked?

@EliseD: I have found microwave rice, but without having tried it I assumed it wouldn't be very good. I am hoping to find a rice product that I can heat in a pot. Might be the same as the rice though. Do you add water to the bowl when using the microwave?

[Rasmus]

@liuzhou: It depends on what rice it is, of course. My point is more that it takes a long time to cook rice, and I am interested in ways of shortening that time to a few minutes, probably by parcooking it.

[ElsieD]

26 minutes ago, Rasmus said:

@TdeV: Sous vide, right. I guess that's basics for par cooking protein. I hope to find methods for vegetables and maybe even pasta. Could that be par cooked?

@EliseD: I have found microwave rice, but without having tried it I assumed it wouldn't be very good. I am hoping to find a rice product that I can heat in a pot. Might be the same as the rice though. Do you add water to the bowl when using the microwave?

No, you hear a slit in the top of the package and the package goes into the microwave.

[teonzo]

Par cooking rice depends on what rice you are using and how you are cooking it. If you are talking about plain boiled rice then you can drain it 2-3 minutes before it's cooked, then freeze it immediately. When you need it, you pick it from the freezer and put it back in boiling water, finishing the cooking (don't watch the time and taste it to know when it's done).

Pasta is similar: boil it for 2 minutes less, drain it, put it in ice water to cool it fast, then freeze it. When you need it, you pick it from the freezer and put it back in boiling water, finishing the cooking (don't watch the time and taste it to know when it's done).

Some words on freezing. If you want good results then you need a blast freezer, which costs some money. If you don't have a blast freezer then use a small freezer just for this use, this way the freezing process will be much quicker than putting the stuff in a big freezer full of other stuff. You goal is to go below 0°F in less than 2 hours.

Personally I don't see much sense in pre-cooking rice or pasta at home, you save really few time. You still have to put a pot of water on the stove and wait for it to reach rolling boil. Usually you need to prepare the condiments for rice or pasta, you do that while rice / pasta are cooking.

Freezing food can have sense for home made stuff like lasagne, ravioli, gnocchi (freeze them after boiling them, not when still raw). If you have few time for preparing your meals and want to avoid industrial frozen food, then there are plenty of other choices: bread, cheese, charcuterie, pickles...

 

 

 

Teo

 

[ElsieD]

@teonzo  A question on the rice - assuming you only have a regular freezer, and can't/don't want to spend the money on a blast freezer, could you not spread the rice on a cookie sheet and freeze it quickly that way?

[teonzo]

Spreading the rice is the best thing for sure! But it's better to use an empty freezer for the process to be quicker. Much depends on the freezer you are using, if you have a big chest freezer that is almost full then the freezing process will be slow. At least this is my experience here, I don't know if there are differences from Italy to USA / Canada on how powerful freezers are.

I've seen this process of pre-cooking rice and pasta in some restaurants to cut corners. Don't think it has much sense at home, if someone has really few time then much better buying pre-made ravioli or similars. It's possible to make a big batch of ravioli at home and freeze them. Or making tagliatelle (or other shapes of pasta made with eggs) and freeze them fresh (instead of drying), their cooking time is really quick. Same with fresh pasta made with flour and water (orecchiette and so on).

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Rasmus]

@teonzo: When you saw it done in a restaurants (I am interested in commercial kitchen use, btw, not for home), how long did it take to finish the pasta and rice to serve?

Also, have you come across the use of a steam oven to finish or cook pasta and rice?

The product I hope to find, or make, is par-cooked rice which can be put in a steamer oven for say 5-10 minutes to get ready. And then par-cooked pasta that can be put in a steam oven to finish in say 2 minutes.

[teonzo]

It was more than 10 years ago, I don't remember the details.

You can ask to the guy who started this thread:

He is developing a business on this.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Rasmus]

@teonzo: Interesting. That's kind of what I was looking for. I have to check out that parcooked pasta, or try it perhaps.

 

[weinoo]

On 6/23/2019 at 1:12 PM, Rasmus said:

@liuzhou: It depends on what rice it is, of course. My point is more that it takes a long time to cook rice, and I am interested in ways of shortening that time to a few minutes, probably by parcooking it.

How about an instant pot?

[EatingBen]

my understanding is the shelved precooked rice is packaged and steam cooked a few minutes shy but at high enough temps to pasturise the contents. Those sorts of things are difficult to accomplish in the home environment we don't have the machinery or the lab testing to ensure safety. 

 

You could use sous vide, a vacuum chamber sealer to accomplish it in a more domestic settings (or commercial kitchen) and use bags that tolerate higher temps. I have bags that can handle a pressure cooker temperature but they are expensive. 

 

For something like that, it might be worth contacting a food tech company that does these kinds of things professionally.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

5 hours ago, EatingBen said:

my understanding is the shelved precooked rice is packaged and steam cooked a few minutes shy but at high enough temps to pasturise the contents. Those sorts of things are difficult to accomplish in the home environment we don't have the machinery or the lab testing to ensure safety. 

 

You could use sous vide, a vacuum chamber sealer to accomplish it in a more domestic settings (or commercial kitchen) and use bags that tolerate higher temps. I have bags that can handle a pressure cooker temperature but they are expensive. 

 

For something like that, it might be worth contacting a food tech company that does these kinds of things professionally.  

 

Link to your bags, please?

 

[EatingBen]

41 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Link to your bags, please?

 

Couldn't actually tell you mate I got them from a supplier in Sydney. They didn't have a brand on them but I was told they can be used in a pressure cooker and they can and it works and it's amazing but I don't know the name of them. 

[weinoo]

https://vacuumsealersunlimited.com/product-category/retort-bags-pouches/

 

??

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Indeed, they are expensive.

 

[FeChef]

When i make Hibatchi rice, I use my rice cooker white rice setting and set a timer for 25 minutes. Its just enough time to soak up the water (following the water line) then i quickly chill the pot in a ice water bath till the rice is completely cool. It produces a perfect "al dente" texture. Some people suggest refridgerating overnight but useing the ice bath method its ready as soon as the rice is chilled. It only takes about a minute to fry on a hot griddle and the texture is perfect for fried rice. 

 

You could probably get the same results with a steamer for a few minutes.

[Rasmus]

On 6/29/2019 at 3:05 AM, FeChef said:

When i make Hibatchi rice, I use my rice cooker white rice setting and set a timer for 25 minutes. Its just enough time to soak up the water (following the water line) then i quickly chill the pot in a ice water bath till the rice is completely cool. It produces a perfect "al dente" texture. Some people suggest refridgerating overnight but useing the ice bath method its ready as soon as the rice is chilled. It only takes about a minute to fry on a hot griddle and the texture is perfect for fried rice. 

 

You could probably get the same results with a steamer for a few minutes.

That may work. Will try that... Thank you!