I was raised
in the Mississippi Delta. The earth was
too rich and damp to grow potatoes. My
grandmother’s choice for starch in our diet was rice. Rice and gravy, rice with butter, fried rice. Rice
was a staple in our diet. Fried chicken
with milk gravy on rice…
I am married
to a New England girl and we live in Maine, so potatoes form the bulk of the starch
in our diet. But we do have rice.
I have never
been able to cook rice properly. Directions
say: Bring to a boil, cover, simmer for 15 minutes. There is the rub. I have never had a stove with a burner that
would simmer – it always boils even on the lowest setting – often boiling
over. I end up placing the pan
partially on the burner, checking it often, adding hot water if it cooks too
early; and end up with goopy rice.
Finally, I have
relented to technology. I recently purchased
an Aroma Rice Cooker. The Aroma was the
rice cooker of choice on America’s Test Kitchen.
The Aroma only
cost $29.00 and you get what you pay for.
It is rather flimsy but the rice comes out perfect. The instructions are no brainer. You fill the water to the line in the pot and
add the corresponding amount of rice with the measuring cup enclosed, close the
cover, select the rice and press cook. The
rice takes fifteen minutes to cook and the pot switches to ‘keep warm’ when
done. The clean-up is easy.
The rice has
come out perfect every time. Ok,
nothing to do with cosmology, but we will eat more rice as the universe
continues to expand.
the
Ol’Buzzard
