[LJ2ME] Indian food!

[severity_softly]

Indian food for dinner tonight! Sauce from a jar, but I hope to make it myself in the near future. :)

Basamati rice is harder to cook well than expected. Any tips from the foodie sector of the ole flist?

Comments

[innerslytherin]

I've never even heard of basamati rice. :P

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well you're not in the "foodie sector" of the flist. :P Basamati is yummy. It's aged, and has this very different flavor from white/brown rice.

[innerslytherin]

Oh come on, I've tried two new recipes this week! *G*

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

You're amazing.

[innerslytherin]

:-P Even liked one so well I sent it to you, remember? I am expanding my horizons.

But I will say this: by being such a picky eater, I have only ever had food poisoning once in my entire life.

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

I remember! Your food is pretty tame, though. :P

I got food poisoning once, and it was because of tuna at this fancy seafood place. Ugh. Luckily I was home before I had to chain myself to a toilet.

[innerslytherin]

Mine was a bloody burger, and I still don't actually know if I psyched myself into being sick all night, or if it was real food poisoning. I know people who have got it lots of times though, and I totally blame their adventurous eating. ;)

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

LOL I figure you can get sick no matter what you eat, so you might as well try everything once. :) I'm the sort of person who watches Bizarre Foods and wishes she could try some or that weird stuff. :P

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

The basmati rice according to package directions always comes out well--I usually make mine like ordinary white rice. I tend to like more rather than less water, a ratio of one part rice to two parts water--boil the water first, don't rinse the rice, and cook twenty minutes, then leave on the stove top to absorb any remaining water. The traditional way is to rinse the starch off the rice grains, which I think is important if you get the real stuff from India which might have more starch on it than the plastic bagged stuff from the supermarket. In many rice-eating cultures, they soak the rice first. There's no mysterious reason to do this--it's to shorten cooking time and thereby save fuel.

Basmati rice is really great in pilaf or pilau or pulau, depending on who's doing the spelling. If you fry the dry rice in a little oil or fat and spice of whatever kind and then add hot liquid, it usually comes out with soft yet discrete grains.

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my package told me to rinse and soak. Is it not sticky if you don't do that? I thought maybe the extra starch would make it sticky.

It also said equal parts rice and water (well, it said 3 cups and 3 cups, but I made 1.5 cups in equal amounts), and cook till the water was absorbed. I wound up adding more water a few times because the water was absorbed and the rice was still a little crunchy.

It turned out okay, but not anywhere near as good as I've had in restaurants.

fry the dry rice in a little oil or fat and spice of whatever kind and then add hot liquid

Ooh, sounds awesome!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I guess if you soak the rice, and the water actually penetrates, you need a different proportion of water to rice--but your soaking may not get the rice as hydrated as it gets when it's younger or whatever. I also think the rice-rinsing is something you need to do with some kinds of basmati and not others, since they don't all seem to be equally starchy.

Here's a set of basmati directions from Epicurious.com. Here is an Indian coconut rice recipe from the ever-reliable Julie Sahni (someone transcribed it, but I have made this one and it's very good.) This is a rice pilaf from Claudia Roden, again transcribed to someone's blog, and this is Claudia Roden's megadara. (That's the Egyptian pronunciation of mujadrah, which is the Arab version of kedgeree. It's really good!)

[nebula99.livejournal.com]

I love basmati rice - I usually fry onion and spices and stir in the rice before adding the water. Can't remember proportions though - usually check on the packet or recipe.

I lurve Indian food. Husband recently took me to the best Indian takeaway ever - you can always trust policemen to know the good food places. They do the best pakora. Mmmm.

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

Do you soak your rice first, or just fry it dry?

The first time I tried Indian food, I thought I didn't like it. But a new place opened up near me and I thought I'd try it again, and now I wish I could afford to eat there all the time. So apparently it was just the restaurant I didn't like the first time! I'm still trying a bunch of stuff, but I haven't tried pakora yet. So far my favorite thing that I've tried is lamb rogan josh. :)

[nebula99.livejournal.com]

Sorry for tardy reply.

I don't soak basmati - you shouldn't need to. We're spoilt with Indian food in the UK I think - we have plenty of places. I grew up in Birmingham which has a very big Asian population so we had some brilliant restaurants.

Mmm. Lamb Rogan Josh. Mmmm.