whitericeislife-blog

[whitericeislife-blog]

The Way of the Rice

As many of you might know, rice is becoming more and more common throughout the world. Commonly thought to originate from China, rice has spread throughout Asia and to Europe, as well as the Americas. This means that rice will soon take control of the world and everything you see will become related to rice mwahahahaha~. To be ready for this domination of rice, I, @whitericeislife, will teach you how to make the top notch and best rice ever, Japanese white rice.

First off you, the rice-making apprentice, will need to get a rice cooker. What kind of rice cooker should you get? Well, depending on what kind of rice cooker you want, the rice cookers can vary. If you only use your rice cooker for only cooking a small amount of rice then you should get the Zojirushi NS-TSC10. This model is convenient to clean, allows you to cook 5 ½ cups of rice, and has different settings for cooking different kinds of rice such as White, Sushi, Mixed(White and Brown), Sweet, and Brown. It also has a quick cooking setting which allows the rice to cook faster when you have limited time. It also comes with a retractable cord for easy transportation. Another model of rice cooker from the same company is the NP-NVC18. This model is similar to the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 in many ways. Unlike the other model, this model has an AI that will adapt to your preference of rice texture and cook it to make your ideal rice. You can also cook from three different pressure levels (Regular, Softer, Harder).

Now onto the part where you choose your rice. Since we will learn how to Japanese rice we will need Japanese white rice. Japanese rice is usually medium grain. There are many brands of rice but a prominent brand in the Japanese rice community is Nishiki. You can most likely find it in the Asian/International Section at your local grocery store. You are not bound to Nishiki though. As I said, there are many different brands of rice so if you find a different Japanese brand of rice, like Yumenishiki or Koshihikari or Tamanishiki, it will still work. Even Korean brands will work, just make sure its medium grain white rice.

Now that you have the necessary materials, you need we can begin the step by step explanation on how to make the best rice ever. Today I will only show you how to make 3 cups of rice. With the rice cooker, there should have come a rice measuring cup, if you don’t have it, one cup, in the rice measuring cup, is about 180 ml or about ¾ cups in a Standard U.S Cup. So, with that information, take the removable bowl from the cooker and put in 3 cups of white rice(with the rice measuring cup) or 2 ⅓ cups (540 ml) in a standard U.S measuring cup. The next step after this is to rinse the rice. For this, you actually could wash the rice in two different ways. The first way is to rinse the rice in the bowl and pour the water out after it becomes white and then repeat until the water is close to transparent. The second way is to use a strainer and rinse the rice for about four minutes and then to move the rice into the removable bowl. After you have cleaned the rice and have drained the water for the last time, fill the bowl with water a little higher than the 3 line under the white rice heading.

Next, before you cook the rice, you need to set up the rice cooker. You should have inserted the removable lid &  the bowl with the cleaned rice and closed the top. Then plug the power cord in your power outlet. Depending on how hard you want your rice, your options are softer, regular, or harder. Select your preferred denseness by pressing the menu button. Once you have set everything up all you have to do is to start the machinery. Your rice cooker should then start the countdown until your rice is fully cooked and ready to eat.

You have now finished cooking your rice. Now, something you might be thinking is, “what do I do with this now?” Well, if you let me get to it, I will tell you. So, as I said before, there are many countries that serve rice, whether as a side dish as an entree itself. Today I will talk about some ways the Japanese use rice. A simple way to serve rice, a classic to the Japanese, is to make rice balls or in Japanese “Onigiri”.  Rice balls are simple because they are quick to make and easy to transport, a delicious snack when you are on a hike. There are many different condiments you can put in/on rice balls but you can also just mix a teaspoon or so of salt into a bowl of rice and make triangular shapes to make “Shio-Onigiri” which is just salt rice balls in Japanese. Another simple way to serve rice is to put it in a bowl and sprinkle Japanese seasoning or “Furikake” on it. There are many dishes that have rice is a side dish. A popular dish that is served in many Asian countries is curry. In Japan, you would make the curry and, in a large bowl, put rice on one side and put the curry on the other side. If you want to make rice the main dish and you have leftover rice from a day or two ago that you want to quickly get rid of, you can make fried rice. In the fried rice you can put in meat like bacon or shrimp and veggies like onions, peas, and bell peppers.

Now you know all you need to know to be prepared for the rice domination. I will set you free from this post and now your mission will be to spread the rice knowledge and become a rice-making master. I wish you the best and hope this was helpful!!