Let's talk about... RICE

Rice is a staple food for Indonesians. I grew up eating rice with various dishes. In fact, some says that eating a meal without rice means you've not eaten at all! Rice to Indonesians is, for the most part, like kimchi to Koreans: it's present at every meal.


Now, my mother taught me a bit differently. She used a variety of starches to complement our meals back then. So, I get used to eating not only rice, but other starches like potatoes. But I digress. 


Back to our discussion: rice. Since rice is a staple, there's of course a hundred dozens recipe developed to "jazz up" old plain boring white rice. Not that there's anything wrong with white rice, of course. Every once in a while, though, it's nice to add a bit of spice to this ubiquitous starch.



I'll start with basic recipes for rice, just plain rice. We'll save "fancy" rice for later discussions.


To make rice, I usually use a rule of thumb: add water until rice is submerged up to about the first crease on your index finger (approx. 2.0 cm, measured from the top most part of the rice that interfaces with water). This works for every kind of white rice. More water will make rice softer, less water will make it tougher. So experiment and adjust accordingly. Now that we get that out of the way... Let's cook!


Below are two simple recipes for rice. These two recipes are the basics of two major dishes that I will put in separate posts, soon...


Chicken rice


Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 tbs sesame oil


Directions:
Cook as normal.


Coconut milk rice


Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 tbs cooking oil
1 lemon grass stalk, divided to 3-4 lengths


Directions:
Cook as normal, however make sure that everything is mixed and the lemon grass stalk is somewhat buried into the rice.


Anyways, enjoy those basic recipes. Until then...