By Christine Szalay Kudra
Rice is brilliant to cook with. Not only is it one of the most economical ingredients you can get, but it is also nutritious, filling and versatile. You can serve rice as a side dish or add meat, poultry, or fish to it, along with vegetables, herbs, and spices to make a hearty and satisfying entree for the family.
You can either use a recipe search engine to find classic rice recipes, such as pilaf, risotto, or paella, or you can make up your own. There is something very satisfying about inventing your own recipes and, even if you are quite new to cooking, you will find creating easy recipes with rice to be very simple.
Which Type of Rice to Use
First of all, you need to select your rice. Perhaps you want to use brown rice, which has an earthy, slightly nutty flavor. White rice is always popular and you can choose from long, medium, or short grain rice.
Arborio rice or risotto rice is another option, as is basmati rice. If you want to make a curried rice dish, basmati might be a good idea, otherwise you can get great results with plain white or brown rice.
Different types of rice take different amounts of time to cook. You can get quick-cooking rice, which is ready in eight minutes, or brown rice, which can take three times as long.
How to Make a Sauce
If you are still not confident about inventing your own rice recipe, break the process down in your mind into two steps. One-step is cooking the rice and the other is making the sauce. The sauce includes the liquid you will use, the chopped vegetables, and any seasonings you wish to add.
While the rice is cooking, you can begin the sauce. Remember that cooked rice stays hot in a covered pan for half an hour, so if the sauce takes longer to cook than the rice it is no problem.
You might want to cook the rice in plain water or dissolve a bouillon cube in the water to give the rice extra flavor. Throw in a pinch of turmeric too, if you want yellow rice.
Finely chop some vegetables and saute them in oil in a skillet. You can use bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, carrot, broccoli, or anything else you fancy. If you are going to use canned vegetables like canned mushrooms, corn, or peas, add these at the end because they just need to be warmed through.
When the vegetables are tender, you can make or add a sauce. Store-bought tomato sauce or pasta sauce is good, or you can use a few tablespoons of pesto. If you want to make your own sauce, there are plenty of options. What about combining heavy cream with grated cheese or tomato sauce with chopped fresh basil? If you want to use canned vegetables, leftover chicken, fish or meat, now is the time to stir these into the mixture.
Pour the sauce into the vegetables, then combine this mixture with the cooked rice and taste it. Add salt and pepper to taste and perhaps some chopped fruit, nuts, fresh herbs, dried herbs, chili powder, or any other seasonings you like. Serve the cooked rice dish with extra grated cheese for sprinkling.
You can either use a recipe search engine to find classic rice recipes, such as pilaf, risotto, or paella, or you can make up your own. There is something very satisfying about inventing your own recipes and, even if you are quite new to cooking, you will find creating easy recipes with rice to be very simple.
Which Type of Rice to Use
First of all, you need to select your rice. Perhaps you want to use brown rice, which has an earthy, slightly nutty flavor. White rice is always popular and you can choose from long, medium, or short grain rice.
Arborio rice or risotto rice is another option, as is basmati rice. If you want to make a curried rice dish, basmati might be a good idea, otherwise you can get great results with plain white or brown rice.
Different types of rice take different amounts of time to cook. You can get quick-cooking rice, which is ready in eight minutes, or brown rice, which can take three times as long.
How to Make a Sauce
If you are still not confident about inventing your own rice recipe, break the process down in your mind into two steps. One-step is cooking the rice and the other is making the sauce. The sauce includes the liquid you will use, the chopped vegetables, and any seasonings you wish to add.
While the rice is cooking, you can begin the sauce. Remember that cooked rice stays hot in a covered pan for half an hour, so if the sauce takes longer to cook than the rice it is no problem.
You might want to cook the rice in plain water or dissolve a bouillon cube in the water to give the rice extra flavor. Throw in a pinch of turmeric too, if you want yellow rice.
Finely chop some vegetables and saute them in oil in a skillet. You can use bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, carrot, broccoli, or anything else you fancy. If you are going to use canned vegetables like canned mushrooms, corn, or peas, add these at the end because they just need to be warmed through.
When the vegetables are tender, you can make or add a sauce. Store-bought tomato sauce or pasta sauce is good, or you can use a few tablespoons of pesto. If you want to make your own sauce, there are plenty of options. What about combining heavy cream with grated cheese or tomato sauce with chopped fresh basil? If you want to use canned vegetables, leftover chicken, fish or meat, now is the time to stir these into the mixture.
Pour the sauce into the vegetables, then combine this mixture with the cooked rice and taste it. Add salt and pepper to taste and perhaps some chopped fruit, nuts, fresh herbs, dried herbs, chili powder, or any other seasonings you like. Serve the cooked rice dish with extra grated cheese for sprinkling.
It is enjoyable to create your own recipes when you have vegetables or meat to use up, but a recipe search engine is the best solution if you want to find traditional recipes or classic holiday recipes.
RecipeDirectory.org Where the Web Searches for Recipe SitesArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Szalay_Kudra
No comments:
Post a Comment