“So, Like, What Did You Eat for Lunch Today?”
Well, yesterday I had some extra hours at the library so I packed a lunch of leftover split pea soup, a rice & bean salad I made, a Clementine, some mixed nuts/dried fruit, & a vanilla cupcake.
Today I’m off so had time to cook. I made jasmine rice, black beans, & a little stir-fry of carrots, peas, & corn.
I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they have a hard time making rice without a rice cooker. I received a rice cooker as a wedding gift over 15 years ago but I didn’t like how dry it made the rice; I prefer it a little sticky like in the Chinese restaurants. After I dropped the rice cooker & broke it, I decided to learn how to make it in a regular saucepan. I looked up a basic recipe in The Fannie Farmer Cookbook & it was so easy & came out so well that it’s how I’ve made rice ever since.
Usually, since it’s just the two of us, I take 1 cup of whatever kind of rice I’m cooking & rinse it well in a strainer. Then I put 1 1/4 cups (2 cups for brown rice) water in a saucepan, cover it, & turn heat on high. When it boils, I add the rice, lower the heat to simmer, stir it once, cover it, then set the timer for 15 minutes for jasmine (or basmati) rice or 40 minutes for brown rice. That’s it. When the timer dings you lift the lid & all the water is absorbed & your rice is perfect. This works EVERY time. Even my dad tells me this is how he prefers his rice but my mom still uses her rice cooker. I don’t find it any different; you still need to wash the pan of the rice cooker just like you have to wash your saucepan. It’s just another appliance to clutter up the kitchen in my opinion. My relatives in Miami use this a lot but I don’t get it.
I made my usual black beans(see blog dated Feb. 10). The carrot stir-fry is made by cutting up some washed & scrubbed carrots & putting them in a skillet with maybe a few tablespoons of water. I covered them & set the heat to 5 on my electric stove, setting the timer for 10 minutes. Then I drained any leftover water, added 1/2 tbsp. olive oil, some frozen corn & some frozen green peas, then sautéed it all until the carrots started to slightly brown. A quick easy way to get extra vegetables.