Lynda is right, of course, about never opening the top to "take a
peek" when cooking rice. She's also right on when it comes to cooking
most brown rice 45 minutes and letting it stand.
But not all brown rice is the same.
I've found a variety of basmati brown rice that cooks in just 20
minutes. It's sold in bulk at Whole Foods in Dallas. It has that
great popcorn bouquet as it steams, but it cooks in less than half the
time of regular brown rice.
Instead of the usual 2:1 water to rice ratio, it uses 1.5:1. And it
is just as delicious as you'd expect from whole grain rice. How they
do it? Be darned if I know. I just cook it and always have it cooked
and on hand for just about any recipe that calls for rice.
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Fruit salad, Karen? Fresh pineapple goes great with the rest of what
you've got planned. The fresher the better.
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Dawn, just leave out the oil. Or you might want to experiment with a
little (and I do mean little) amount of guar gum to add a bit of
thickness and feel to it that the fat usually provides.
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Tammy, there are dozens of ways to use bulghur wheat. I'm sure that
others will come up with their favorites, but I just cook it up and
use it in place of rice or add some veggies to create a pilaf. Yummy!
Ciao...Bev
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