Topic: What to look for when buying rice - any tips

[Malc.]

Ray,

What I found surprising is how different this aged rice is. It is quite different to the usual Tesco or Tilda Basmati rice and produces quite different results. It certainly seems to cook much faster and seems less starchy.

Jerry, I commented on the the volume as I noticed you mentioned using 1.6x being very similar. Thought you might be interested to know. Your volume sits better with what I would normally do.

[commis]

Hi

Axe, I find your note on aged rice cooking faster interesting. I age my own rice and find that after the twelve months storage it has dried as ageing brings on and takes longer to cook!

Regards

[Malc.]

Commis,
 
 I will admit that I formulated that based only Jerry's comments on the  rice he buys and my experience so far of the rice that I have bought. It is some way different  to the rice you find in a normal pack of basmati on the shelf at Tesco.
 
 I have no idea of the ageing process so please forgive me. But when you  say you age your own rice, is it the sort of rice you have bought from a  supermarket or is it a superior branded basmati rice.

Tell you what, i'll go and do a blind test right now. Back in 15!

[Domi]

Different brands of rice can take much longer to cook than others I find. Some rices are cooked in around ten minutes, others take more like 15. If I'm using a different brand I make a small batch first to get the cooking time, after that it's easy. I prefer VeeTee rice (cooks in 13 minutes is always nice and is never clumpy or sticky) though at the mo I'm working my way through a sack of Badshah (not bad but not as good as the VeeTee for me). I think you get what you pay for with rice.

[Malc.]

Well I have blind tested the rice and taken a few pics at timed intervals. I am rather pleased with the results and also quite surprised.

I cooked the rice straight from the bag in boiling water without rinsing with the total cooking time 10 mins.

The rice Kohinoor Gold XL Basmati 5kg. The grain size raw is on average between 8-9mm the colour in the picture is slightly darker than it is in normal light. Added to the boiling water I then timed it and tested at regular intervals.

At 6m30s Pic#4 it was just off being cooked. If  I were to keep it warm in the pan, this is the point I would remove it from the heat to allow it to sit in the pan lid on having been drained. Grain size now reaching 11mm.

At 8mins Pic#5 the rice is cooked perfectly and the grain size on average is 12mm. Its light and fluffy without any undue starch. This the point I would remove the rice normally.

At 10mins Pic#6 the rice has reached the manufactures recommended cooking. I was surprised as I expected the rice to sticky and and quite mushy. However, it remained light and once rinsed in boiling water was as perfect as you would want it. The grain sized varied but on average was 12-13mm.

What I have learnt is that soaking is not a requirement and really nor is rinsing but I do intend to continue the test by soaking the rice for the required 20-30 mins as per instructions.

However, presoaking the rice as I did originally, reduced the length of time required to cook it and helped to increase the grain size and made it lighter still.

Until my soak test, I can only conclude that there is a balance but the test will prove this, with this particular rice anyway.

Pic#1



Pic#2


Pic#3


Pic#4


Pic#5


Pic#6

[Razor]

Great work Axe.

Interesting that you didn't need to rinse the rice before hand.  I have heard of many reports also suggesting this, however, I have heard about the same amount saying that rinsing is a must.

I wonder if it has something to do with the quality/cost of the rice?  I know the cheaper ones that I buy do require a lot of rinsing, as evident by the amount of loose rice powder that rinses away.  With that said, I haven't tried to cook it without rinsing.

I can't imagine the BIR's buying the top quality stuff either so I wonder if they rinse or not?

I do know that soaking rice in salted water, bleaches the rice really white, although, what's use this is, is anybody's guess?

Ray

[Malc.]

Well, I truly have been educated here thanks to Jerry. I would never have bitten the bullet to buy a bag of rice this size thereby enjoying a very different brand and type of rice not available on the regular shelf at a supermarket.

This particular rice, produces a very light and clean grain once cooked. It's certainly quite a distance from other rice I have tried. I am not suggesting though that it is this distance better in taste as it clearly has less taste compared to a supermarket rice. But as I have learnt on here oh so many times, I  am keeping an open mind about this. It could be that this rice being refined is just not what I am used to,preferring a heavy starchy flavour. But I won't be able to determine this, until I have tried Jerry's preferred grain for comparison.

Perhaps if you fancy it Jerry, I could post some to you for your opinion? I'd hate for someone to buy 5kg of rice only to find they don't like it.

[commis]

Hi
Axe, I'm still chasing up your earlier question but gold is not there best.

[Malc.]

I've just visited the website and Gold doesn't appear on the site. The most expensive they seem to do is simply named Basmati and they also have a Silver but not Gold.

How odd.

EDIT toadd the following quote I found on the launch of the Silver, Gold and Platinum:

Platinum is the age-old and rare variety of traditional basmati rice,  which is grown only in the foothills of Himalayas. Gold is the extra  long basmati rice, which is the longest basmati rice available and  Silver is the new generation super basmati rice, which has all the  qualities of traditional rice and yet it yields is more. 
 

[JerryM]

I commented on the the volume as I noticed you mentioned using 1.6x being very similar. Thought you might be interested to know. Your volume sits better with what I would normally do.

Axe,

as Razor importantly pointed out the rinsing does add weight to the rice (quite a lot in fact). the x1.6 is the total amount - i weigh out the water added by the rinsing. automatic to me ie i weigh the rice before and after rinsing and then add the amount of extra water to make x1.6 in total.