How to cook brown rice to make it soft and fluffy?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Each hostess has her own, special secrets of cooking certain dishes. Thanks to them, the same dish is obtained differently by different culinary specialists. However, there are a number of products that require a common processing technology - at least at the initial stage of working with them. These include, for example, brown rice.

White and brown: what's the difference?

White groats, which we most often buy, are peeled, polished rice. It cooks faster, but it also contains few useful microelements. Its brown “brother” is unpolished, each grain is in its natural brownish shell. That's why he looks so … not quite nice, dirty. It doesn’t matter, because it is this cereal that is considered the best, it also contains vitamins of group B, iron and magnesium in almost perfectly balanced form. But carbohydrates are much less than in ordinary rice. Therefore, unpolished is equated to dietary products and is recommended for a he althy diet. Now the question arises of how the difference in varieties affects the preparation of cereals. That is, how to cook brown rice?

Tricks of the trade

We will immediately reassure young, inexperienced hostesses: there are no special differences, there are only small nuances that should be remembered once, and then everything will be done automatically. Firstly, in order for the bran shell to soften better (and, therefore, the grains themselves become softer faster during cooking), be sure to soak the cereal in cold water in the evening or at 5-6 o'clock in the afternoon. Check it out first. Before cooking brown rice, drain the water in which it was soaked, and rinse the grits well several times. Then pour it into the pan, pour cold water again, let it boil and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove from heat. Probably, for someone, the instruction on how to cook brown rice resembles a kind of sacred rite (this is how it is among Eastern peoples). However, the task of the cook is to preserve the useful properties of the product as much as possible and at the same time try to boil the grain well so that it is not half-cooked and hard. Because so much fuss cereal and requires! However, this is a classic version of how to cook brown rice, exemplary. Next, your attention will be offered several recipes, where everything happens much faster, and the result is no worse. So, rinse the rice again, add cold water again and now cook for 15 minutes. And only then turn off the fire, wrap the cast iron and leave the rice to simmer for about another hour. Then it will turn out to be moderately soft, crumbly and very tasty.

Porridge with butter

And now the promised recipes. The technology of how to cook brown rice correctly is somewhat different here, but the first two points (long soaking and thorough washing) are strictly observed! Yes, one more note: any cereal is best cooked in a small cauldron or cast iron, thick-walled, which warms up evenly. Porridge in it will not burn, will not stick. And even if such a nuisance happens, the dish will not have an unpleasant smell. And then it is much easier to clean the dishes than, for example, an enameled pan. But back to the recipe! Pour water into the cast iron (at the rate of 4 cups of liquid for 2 cups of rice) and add 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. You can instead of it and creamy - who loves with what. Immediately put s alt and 1 teaspoon per specified amount of cereal. When the water boils, pour rice into the pot. Make the fire quiet and wait until the cereal thickens (the water does not disappear from the surface of the porridge). Now turn off the gas, cover the cast iron with a lid, wrap it with warm something and leave the dish to “reach”, to cook (for 50 minutes). It is this recipe that answers the question of how to cook brown rice in a crumbly (accelerated way).

Rice with tomato and cheese

This is another extremely tasty and satisfying dish that you will treat not only your family, but also your guests. For cooking, you will need: for each glass of cereal, half a glass of tomato sauce (prepare in advance), 40-50 g of grated hard cheese, 3-4 tablespoons of oil. Along the way, another useful tip on how to cook brown rice. The proportions of cereals and liquids are taken approximately 1 to 2, since the main essence of its preparation lies precisely in heating it without fire, and not in bringing it to full readiness on the stove. But back to the recipe again.

Cook the rice (without oil, but in s alted water). Prepare tomato sauce (you can use canned natural juice with pulp or dilute tomato paste or ketchup with boiled water to the desired consistency). Then boil it in a pan, adding s alt, sugar, bay leaf, allspice and hot pepper to taste. Put the cooked rice in another pan, season with oil and gently fry over low heat, stirring until it is lightly browned. Then pour hot sauce, sprinkle with cheese and leave covered for half an hour. After that - serve, separately cutting greens and sprinkling with it.