Ruined Meals aka Perfect Pot of Rice

There have been many here in the past 20 years of marriage.  I still manage every once in a while to burn something. 

One of the things I would do regularly in the early days of our marriage is burn rice.  Steve LOVES rice.  I don’t think I can relay how much he loves it.  Seriously if I was out of everything in the house he would be satisfied if I would cook a big pot of rice & put it on the table. The kids have taken after him in this—well all except one(that’s my boy!)  Oh and it doesn’t matter if it is white or brown rice.  They are both accepted here!  I push the brown but occasionally we have the white for a treat.

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My parents hardly EVER ate rice and if we did it was minute rice.  I tried that ONCE with Steve & he just looked at me like “What is this?”  The only “real” rice in his book is the kind that you boil for 20-30 minutes.

Now one big thing in in this equation is that when we were first married, we had glass cookware.  I am not sure anyone can keep from burning rice in glass cookware.  It heats up faster than metal therefore the rice touching the glass would cook WAY faster than the rest of it & would burn every single time.  I also probably turned the burner up too high—hurrying it because I was used to minute rice that was done . . . well . . . in a minute.

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Perfect rice isn’t a hard recipe-in fact my 8 year old can cook it.  But you have to know how to make it. 

It takes 2 ingredients—rice & water. 

The ration is 1:2.  So if you want to cook 2 cups of rice you use 4 cups of water.  That is the amount I regularly cook for my family of 6 when we have it as a side dish. 

I use Pampered Chef cookware right now—I was a consultant for quite a few years.  It is nonstick & easy to use.  The right tools make all the difference.  Remember that rice gets bigger as it cooks so don’t choose a pan that is just big enough to hold your water because soon the rice will overflow the pan.

Step 1:  Put your water & rice in your pan and bring it to a boil.  Now you can keep it at that temperature but you may have it over flow the pot as it boils & then it will be a big mess.  Then you will need to know how to clean your stove top.  I do this regularly so don’t feel bad. 

Step 2:  A better way is to turn down the heat & let it simmer.  As the rice gets close to done you will notice there isn’t as much water in the pot. 

Step 3:  When you can no longer “see” the water under the rice it is a good time to turn the heat all the way down to the lowest setting.  Let it cook just a few more minutes & then turn it off.  Don’t remove the lid!  The rice will continue to cook a bit if you keep the heat in.

Notice I didn’t put any time amounts on this.  Rice takes about 20-30 minutes but it depends on how hot your burner is and the kind of pot you are using.  So play with it & see how it works for you.

By the way rice is VERY inexpensive so if you have a crew to fee & they like rice it is a money saving meal!   If you love Mexican check out the recipe below

Mexican Rice

2 cups brown rice

2 T olive oil

1 (6 oz) can tomato sauce

4 cups water

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 crushed garlic clove or 1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

Heat oil in pot & add brown rice.  Stir over high heat until it turns opaque and white.  Keep stirring until it turns golden brown.  Mix tomato sauce, water, oinion, garlic & salt.  Cover and turn to a very low heat.  Let cook for 1 hour.  Don’t lift the pot lid or stir it.  I promise if you leave it be then you will have perfect Mexican rice!