Wednesday, July 30, 2008  Snow Pea-and-Pork Fried Rice...  Do
you have a favorite method of cooking rice - especially brown
rice? For the longest time, I've always just done the absorption
method, usually using a ratio of a scant 2 cups water to 1 cup
of rice. However, lately I've been using the pasta-style method
that I read recently while browsing through a book by Alice
Waters.  Basically, you bring a large pot of water to a boil,
salted if desired, toss in rinsed brown rice and let it boil,
uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes. The water is drained away and
the rice is placed back into the hot pot, tightly covered and
left to steam, off heat, for about 10 minutes. I've found that
25 minutes yields rice that is firm and chewy while after 30 the
rice is still chewy, just a bit more soft and tender.  The
grains are consistently light, still intact and fluffy without
being mushy at all - I used this method this morning so the rice
had enough time to chill out in the refrigerator to make this
Snow Pea-and-Pork Frie