The Ultimate Rice Cooker (23 page)
To Peel and Oven- Dry Chestnuts
While there are vacuum-packed cans of chestnuts in well-stocked grocery stores, the flavor of fresh chestnuts is a real treat in rice dishes. Chestnuts have the reputation of being the most time-consuming nut to peel, but the reward is apparent with the first bite. Place the whole chestnuts in their shells in a large bowl. Completely cover with boiling water. Let stand for 30 minutes, then drain in a colander. With a paring knife, peel off the brown shell and underlying thin brown skin. Cut the nut into the desired number of pieces. Use as is or oven-dry the pieces on a baking sheet in a preheated 300°F oven for 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces.
PRESERVED LEMONS
Preserved lemons are made by soaking lemons in a brine solution made of lemon juice plus salt, sugar, or a combination of the two until the lemons turn pulpy and soft. They are used as a condiment or flavor accent in Moroccan cuisine. While they may sound exotic, one taste and people sure do get excited about preserved lemons! That’s what our colleague Carolyn Jung at the
San Jose Mercury News
found when she wrote about making preserved lemons, an easy yet fascinating process. Carolyn had attended a class in Moroccan cooking taught by cookbook author Kitty Morse, stocked up on salt and Meyer lemons, and then found she was very nearly obsessed with watching the fruit change, day by day, into the tart, pulpy, and addictive preserved lemons. This can take a month or more, but you can speed up the process by chopping or slicing the lemons instead of just slitting them. Some cooks freeze the lemons for several hours first, or boil the filled jars, also to hasten the process. Many recipes say to rinse the salt off the lemons before using and to use only the peels. Carolyn disagrees, and so do we. We like the way preserved lemons add salt as well as a deeply lemony flavor to foods. Just finely chop the lemons and add to a dish (like our Moroccan Brown Rice) during cooking, or at the end. Or use the lemons uncooked, such as in vinaigrettes.
About 6 to 12 juicy lemons, preferably thin-skinned Meyers
Kosher salt
One 1-quart glass jar with a tight-fitting lid
1. Wash the lemons and dry them thoroughly. Using a clean dry knife, quarter the lemons, remove any seeds, and trim and discard the ends.
2. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of salt in the bottom of the jar. Layer the lemons in the jar, alternating with salt, adding 1 tablespoon of salt for each whole lemon. As you reach the top of the jar, press down on the lemons to cram as many pieces as possible into the jar. As you do this, the lemons will exude their juice. When the jar is tightly packed, the level of juice will have risen to or near the top of the jar. You want the jar to be truly full, so if need be, squeeze in some additional lemon juice. Seal the jar and gently shake it to mix the salt and juice. If you are having trouble submerging the lemons, fill the space at the top of the jar with a piece of crumpled plastic wrap.
3. Place the jar on a countertop out of direct sunlight and shake it gently every day or so. In the first few days, as the lemons begin to soften, they may pack down enough to allow you to add another lemon or two. Do so if you can. The lemons are done when they are truly mushy and the juice is syrupy. This will take a few weeks. Once you begin to use the lemons, store the jar in the refrigerator, where it will keep for several months.
TWO RECIPES FOR ENTERTAINING
Sometimes you need an extra-large batch of rice for a special occasion—a holiday, a birthday party, an open house. Here are two recipes.
Rice with Fresh Greens
Here is steamed rice, just a little bit special, to serve with grilled fish and chicken. The combination of parsley, mint, and basil is very Italian and ever so good. Remember that, whenever cooking rice to the full capacity of the cooker bowl, the rice on the bottom will be a bit squishy, so a thorough but gentle mixing after the steaming period is imperative.
MACHINE: Large (10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 20 to 24
6 cups long-grain white rice, such as basmati, Texmati, converted, or Carolina
7¾ cups water
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1¼ tablespoons salt
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water 2 to 4 times, and drain.
2. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the water, butter, and salt; swirl just to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 15 minutes. Add the herbs to the rice bowl; stir with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon to evenly distribute. Close the cover and let the rice steam for 30 minutes. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for up to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Creamy Dill Rice
A simple but filling rice with herbs that can be served alongside roast turkey or ham. It is made creamy by the use of sour cream (reduced-fat, including nonfat, varieties are acceptable) stirred in at the very end just before serving.
MACHINE: Large (10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 30
7½ cups long-grain white rice, such as basmati, Texmati, or Carolina
9½ cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup chopped fresh dill
½ cup minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
¼ cup minced fresh tarragon leaves
3 cups sour cream
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water 2 to 4 times, and drain.
2. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the stock, butter, salt, dill, parsley, and tarragon; swirl just to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 30 minutes. Fluff gently but thoroughly with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for up to 2 hours.
4. When ready to serve, stir the sour cream to loosen it, then stir it into the hot rice. Serve immediately, passing the pepper grinder.
Green Pilaf with Baby Spinach and Endive
Brown Butter Apricotand Pine Nut Pilaf
Arroz Amarillo (Caribbean Yellow Rice )
A pilaf, so to speak, is as old as the hills. Invented in ancient Persia, it is derived from the Turkish word
pilau
, the method of preparing rice by first cooking it in meat fat or oil to enrich the flavor and keep the grains perfectly separated when cooked, then adding meat or poultry broth for steaming.
Rice, along with spices, incense, cloth, and jewels, was one of the basic commodities traded along the ancient sea route from Egypt down through the Red Sea and between the Arabian Peninsula and India. This maritime highway is known to have been in use by 2500 B.C.
An ancestor of the local wild grass called
nivara
, rice had been growing along the Indus River valley for about two thousand years when the first Near East sea traders began their merchant voyages to the ancient world’s delta ports. The fertile, silt-rich area, perfect for the grain that needs so much water, runs along the western Indian border from the mountains of Tibet into the Arabian Sea, through the length of present-day Pakistan. It is one of the sites of rice’s earliest cultivation, a populated area estimated at 500,000 square miles, and is the basis for India being one of the great rice centers of the world, along with China.
The great Indus River valley culture centered at the archaeological site of Mohenjo-Daro, one of six large cities as old and as sophisticated as the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia and the pyramid builders of Egypt. The inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro ran their agricultural economy by nature’s clock, the monsoon, which helped create an extensive natural irrigation system. At the time, the rice-growing area boasted a concentration of approximately one-quarter of the world’s population, each person eating hundreds of pounds of rice per year. Soon rice became a delicious staple in the neighboring Persian Empire, which then introduced the art of rice cultivation to the Babylonians of the Euphrates Valley, the “cradle” of civilization.
Persian
pilaw
was a very popular dish, seasoned with anything from bits of lamb, venison, or ostrich, pistachios, and herbs to whole spices, raisins, dates, and figs. It was a favored stuffing for whole baby lamb or eggplant, a vegetable specialty that exists to this day. The hand-gathered stamens of the autumn crocus, saffron, have given us the favored combination of saffron with rice, a culinary masterpiece that has come up through the centuries into Iberian and Italian cooking as well.
Egypt was one of the first cuisines to use Persia’s technique for cooking rice, and it spread quickly to Greece (Alexander the Great had brought rice back from his campaigns). Recipes for the fragrant
pilaffi
were recorded in the earliest Greek cookbook,
Gastrology
, by the poet Archestratus in 350 B.C. Greek cookbooks have recipes for
pilaffi
with everything from mussels to chicken, along with an extensive repertoire of delicious meatless renditions with simple vegetables or nuts, topped with mounds of fresh sheep or goat yogurt, to be served during the weeks of Lenten fasting. Rolls of stuffed grape leaves,
dolma
, are stuffed with lemon, dill, and mint-scented
pilaffi
.
India had a multitude of rice dishes already in its culinary repertoire by the time of Christ, dictated by the vegetarian diet outlined in the first Hindu Holy Book, the
Rig-Veda
. Centuries later, the Moghul Empire of Muslims from Turkey brought their recipe for
pilau
as they settled in the Ganges Valley. The dish called Sultan’s rice immediately caught on in a world where beautiful cooking was a fashionable kingly pursuit. Made with one of the premium rices of the world—long-grain basmati grown in the Himalayan foothills—
pullao
became a dish fit for royal tables, state occasions, and major religious holidays, often concocted by the king or prince himself. Recipes evolved to include the multilayered
biryani
, one of the most complex and subtle variations of the pilaf family.
Persia—the site of today’s Iran and sharing the western Indian border—was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, and the technique for
pilaw
moved with their foreign military campaigns across North Africa and into Spain and Mediter ranean Europe. The Arabs planted rice along the way, wherever it would grow.
Pilaw
was so tasty that countries subject to any Arab influence quickly assimilated the simple recipe as their own, so there is a pilaf to be found from Greece and Egypt to Spain and Provence
The cuisines of eastern Europe, the Austrian Empire, and part of southern Russia, influenced by hundreds of years of Turkish occupation, all have pilaf. Known as
rys sumiany
, rice sautéed as for a roux until brown, pilaf was a favorite of the old Polish nobility and Hungarian peasants; they ate it alongside spit-roasted meats and game.