Spring Cleaning: A few grains of wisdom on rice

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Mar 30th 2006 @ 3:19PM

Rice is something I grew up with, and I remember having enormous sacks with either an elephant or a rose on the front of it in our pantry. However, I grew up on only plain white, Asian short-grain sticky rice. Only in the last few years have I branched out into healthier brown rice, as well as the long-grain, fluffy rices from India and and Middle East. Rices are basically defined by their color (brown or white) and by the length of the grain.

When rice still has the bran and germ attached to it, it is brown rice, which is healthier because the bran and germ account for fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Brown rice takes longer to cook, and has a much shorter shelf-life (one month) than white rice, even in the refrigerator. There are also black and red rices.

Grain lengths are short, medium, and long. Short grain rice is sometimes glutinous rice, not because it contains gluten, but because it's sticky when cooked. Most Asian rices are short grain. Long grain rices are almost three to five times longer than they are wide, and sometimes look like brokedn cappelini when cooked.

The most well-known of the medium grain rices are from Spain, used in paella, and Italy, the base of risotto. Russ Parsons from the LA Times recently did a great review of risotto, which isn't just made from Arborio rice. There is also Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, and Baldo. Since risotto is basically rice, stock, and wine, it's a perfect pantry dish that can be embellished with other things from the pantry like dried mushrooms, or fresh vegetables.

"Aromatic" is also another characteristic that is used to describe rice. Basmati is a long grain rice that I am most familiar with in Indian and Pakistani cuisines. Jasmine is also an aromatic long grain rice from Asia.

Filed Under: Ingredients, Methods
Tags: america, asia, comfort food, dinner, europe, food, food and drink, food and wine, italy, lunch, mediterranean, rice, south asia, steaming