Feb 9, 2008 8:59 am US/Central
Rice For All Tastes And Occasions
Red Light, 820 W. Randolph St.
(312) 733-8880
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
We are celebrating the Chinese New Year this month, and what better way than with a nice rice dish?
In this edition of Table for 2, CBS 2's Vince Gerasole explores just a few of the approximately 40,000 varieties of cultivated rice around the world.
Don't get steamed. We're just going to run down a few of the basics, with the help of a chef who knows – Jackie Shen from the Red Light, at 820 W. Randolph St. in the West Loop.
"I grew up in Hong Kong; I am Chinese," Shen said. "So my favorite rice, after all, is jasmine rice."
Jasmine is a long-grain white rice that is fragrant when cooked to a soft, sticky texture. Shen says it symbolically helps the family stick together too.
"Some of the diners in here say, like, 'Your rice is not cooked good, because they all stick together; they're all clumped together,'" Shen said. "But that's the way we're brought up, as unity."
Shen says in Chinese entrees, rice is not meant to dominate dishes, but to complement them, like when she mixes it with Asian sauces and wok-fried vegetables.
"It enables you to get the sauces that you cook, and absorb it into this rice, and blend it in," She said. 'It's a background; it's not a component of a dish."
For a rice that is a hearty equal on the plate, Shen turns to long-grain sticky rice, which is more translucent and sweeter in taste. It is substantial enough to hold its own against more powerful players. It can be mixed with coconut milk and served with curry, for just one use.
Another variety is sushi rice, a medium grain that rolls easier. Its starch content helps it keep its form.
And not all rice sticks together. Brown unrefined rice should separate on your fork – or chopstick, as the case may be.
"If you have something like a stew, that's a good blend for that," Shen said.
In general, perfectly steamed rice calls for two cups of water for each cup of rice.
"My mom taught me ever since I was in high school how to do the rice," Shen said.
To get hers just right, Shen uses a self-timed rice cooker. She says a knuckle's worth of water over the top of the rice is enough.
"You're barely touching the rice level, and you put your hand in there, and you see the water level come up to that first line of (your index) finger," Shen said.
An alternate family rice ritual calls for placing your hand flat atop the rice, and measuring the water up to your wrist. Shen says her mother taught her the technique works, no matter the size of your hand.
"For some reason it works, and I asked her – I said, 'What happens if I have a big hand or a small hand?' And she said, 'It works.'"
Shen says there are so many kinds of rice that even she, an experienced chef, has to be careful to spot the differences.
It's a lesson that's stuck with Shen like white on rice.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Make a recommendation
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
