Rice

[Bootstrap]

I use the instant rice packets of various kinds, but I don't like them.

At home, I make Basmati rice from scratch, it sticks with you a lot longer (i.e. has a lower glycemic index), tastes a lot better, and has much better texture.

Is there any way to make really good rice with reasonable cook times? I know you can make your own dehydrated rice, is that any better than the commercial stuff?

Jonathan

[Pedaling Fool]

...Is there any way to make really good rice with reasonable cook times? I know you can make your own dehydrated rice, is that any better than the commercial stuff?

Jonathan
Dehydrated rice? Is that like dehydrated pasta thing, I keep hearing about? I suppose the cooking time (the second time) will be faster, but I also imagine you loose a lot of the nutrients in the first boiling of the rice, that's if I understand the concept correctly.
I also like rice on the trail, not much into the ramen noodle thing, just have to wait the required simmer time, as far as I'm concerned.

[StarLyte]

Besides coffee and peanut butter, rice is my 3rd favorite thing on the Trail. I am not a thru hiker, and yes I understand rice weighs, but dehydrated rice is tasteless. The texture is awful!

I strictly buy Jasmine rice, and you can find this in generic everywhere and it's always from Thailand somewhere, somehow. I buy it for $1.29 for the small standard size 1 pound bag.

Jasmine rice cooks QUICK thus requires less water and it tastes REAL GOOD.

[Pedaling Fool]

...Jasmine rice cooks QUICK thus requires less water and it tastes REAL GOOD.
Forgot about that stuff, it is good rice!

[Bootstrap]

Jasmine rice cooks QUICK thus requires less water and it tastes REAL GOOD.

I know I like Jasmine rice (I've been to Thailand and eaten loads of it there), but I never made it, and several of the recipes I see on the Internet suggest cooking it for 20 minutes. (At home, I cook Basmati for 17 minutes).

How long do you cook it? Do you do anything special?

Jonathan

[Pedaling Fool]

20 minutes is about the time I cook it. It's greatly enhanced when you add dehydrated stuff, like: Jerky, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, spinach.... and cut up some raw garlic...ok I'm getting hungry now...

[take-a-knee]

Brown Minute Rice, one to one rice to water ratio. I use the freezer bag method with a cozy. You can premeasure the rice in the bag or just measure it in a cup. If you cook it in a pot, measure the water first of course, then the rice, boil the water, add rice, place pot in a cozy (mine is made from an evazote sleeping pad) and let it steep.

[sarbar]

Jasmine and Basmati rices dry great! I did a pictorial in my drying section on how to do homemade instant rice (http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dehydrating.htm#120957436).
As long as you cook your rice where you are not draining off water at the end you won't lose nutrients :) I use my "instant" jasmine rice now pretty much all the time.

[Pedaling Fool]

Just a thought: Dehydrating for a hike is time consuming enough; I would not want to add to that the time of drying something like pasta/rice, just to save 10 minutes of cooking time on the trail. Of course if you don't dehydrate as much stuff as I do, then I guess it's not much of an issue.

See ya all on the trail.

[sarbar]

The last time I cooked rice on the trail from raw was in 1992. It was partially undercooked, stuck to my pan like glue and well...yeah, for me it is worth drying it at home. That way I can also have higher quality brown rices (which just are awful to cook on trail from raw).
I usually dry 2 batches worth of rice at a time, along with 4 lbs or so of pasta..so for me, a couple minutes work equals a lot of meals :)

[gsingjane]

I haven't tried this on the trail, but I'd think that if you pre-soaked brown rice for an hour or two, and then didn't pour off the soaking water but just added whatever extra water you needed to cook it, you might be able to cut the cook time significantly. Has anyone tried this?

Jane in CT

[Blissful]

I haven't tried this on the trail, but I'd think that if you pre-soaked brown rice for an hour or two, and then didn't pour off the soaking water but just added whatever extra water you needed to cook it, you might be able to cut the cook time significantly. Has anyone tried this?

Jane in CT


I know you can't do that with pasta. We did it for a mac and cheese mix, thinking it would cut the time, and the starch that came off the pasta made this gluey, awful mess. Terrible. Which is why you add pasta to boiling water (I learned my lesson).

[AT-HITMAN2005]

i would take minute rice, cook it first. then fix mac like normal. mix it all together. pretty heavy calories, in a good way.

[GGS2]

I haven't tried this on the trail, but I'd think that if you pre-soaked brown rice for an hour or two, and then didn't pour off the soaking water but just added whatever extra water you needed to cook it, you might be able to cut the cook time significantly. Has anyone tried this?

Jane in CT

Haven't tried it on the trail, but it should help some. However, the outer case on brown rice is water resistant, and you will probably get inconsistent results. I think par boiling at home is a better bet.

[russb]

I haven't tried this on the trail, but I'd think that if you pre-soaked brown rice for an hour or two, and then didn't pour off the soaking water but just added whatever extra water you needed to cook it, you might be able to cut the cook time significantly. Has anyone tried this?

Jane in CT


It would probably turn out more like risotto, or a rice gruel than separated kernels of rice. Try it at home first.

[Bootstrap]

I haven't tried this on the trail, but I'd think that if you pre-soaked brown rice for an hour or two, and then didn't pour off the soaking water but just added whatever extra water you needed to cook it, you might be able to cut the cook time significantly. Has anyone tried this?

I would expect that to work better with parboiled rice, and perhaps the soak time would be longer than an hour or two. I tried this with brown rice overnight years ago, and it didn't greatly reduce the cook time.

See this thread too, though:

http://tinyurl.com/392dz6

Jonathan

[Bootstrap]

Jasmine and Basmati rices dry great! I did a pictorial in my drying section on how to do homemade instant rice (http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dehydrating.htm#120957436).
As long as you cook your rice where you are not draining off water at the end you won't lose nutrients :) I use my "instant" jasmine rice now pretty much all the time.

Thanks - I will definitely try this.

I'd love to have a solution that lets me pick up something at a store along the way, without having to prepare at home ahead of time.

Jonathan