Red Rice [and black rice]

Hello.

My parents were nice enough to bring me red rice from Thailand. It looks spectacular and I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

I've done the standard online searches and gotten nothing. I'd really like to do it justice, though, I've never even eaten it before, so maybe it's the Thai version of Uncle Ben's. . .

Help?

The link contains description, recipes, and mail-ordering details for the U.S. (of which I'm going to avail myself after posting this).

http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=127574&prrfnbr=146774

Cheers,
Wade

I've never heard of a red Thai rice -- is it a long-grain aromatic (e.g. jasmine or basmati) variety, or a short-grain like sticky (glutinous) rice?

There is a red arborio, which apparently is a spontaneous mutation back to a wild form.

In your place, I'd just stick it in a rice cooker and see what happens. Hard to ruin it that way.

I've bought red rice -- and black rice at the Thai Grocery on B'way at Argyle -- I use it in place of regular white or brown rice -- it's awesome in rice & beans -- could do a red/white & blue (black) motif salad

SGFoxe wrote:I've bought red rice -- and black rice at the Thai Grocery on B'way at Argyle -- I use it in place of regular white or brown rice -- it's awesome in rice & beans -- could do a red/white & blue (black) motif salad

Indeed. Some neat possibilities! I'd like to make the red rice with white beans -- a nice inversion of the usual combination of white rice and red beans. But what is the actual colour of the red rice when it's cooked? Does it stay genuinely red?

Antonius

I have no idea about the red Thai rice but I will just point out that a year or two ago I bought some of that French red rice you see around-- well, it's iron in the rice that makes it red, and I cooked it in a white enameled pot, and it basically rust-stained it. So be aware of that possibility and choose your cooking vessel accordingly.

Yes, it stays red.

Hi,

I bought last nice a bag of black rice at H-Mart. I may have misread the pricing label, because I thought it was $7.99. I read the receipt today to see it is stated as 'sprouted black rice' at the even loftier price of $16.99.

I am making Japanese rice logs for a program Saturday. For six cups of white Japanese rice, I need only 3-6 tablespoons of this black rice. My efforts to be true to the recipe is getting rather expensive plus I don't know if I have the black rice specified.

Does anyone know much about black rice? Did I buy the right stuff?

Regards,

HI,

What I learned today about black rice, though it probably scratchs the surface.

I talked to one Japanese ex-pat who assured me Japanese do not eat black rice. Very likely most of the Japanese population does not eat black rice, though there are some who do.

I saw one article refer to black rice as the new brown rice. It seems to be adopted by health conscious people for its enhanced nutrition. A higher level of nutrition can be achieved by consuming sprouted sweet black rice. This boost comes at price: $16.99 for a kilo of sprouted rice whereas regular black rice is $6.99 for a kilo.

Black rice still has the kernal, though the rice inside is purple. Black rice is often cooked with white rice rather than by itself. It is suggested you soak a tablespoon of black rice for an hour before adding to rinsed white rice and cooked. You can avoid the soak, though you need to add extra water and expect a chewier rice grain.

I am presently experimenting on cooking it with my new crop Japanese rice.

Regards,

Hi,

I soaked one tablespoon black rice for at least an hour. Meanwhile, I washed the new crop Japanese rice using several rinses of water. I added the black rice to the white rice (5 tablespoons black rice to six cups white rice, then added 6-3/4 cups water).

The texture of the black rice was just a bit crisper than the white rice. The white rice was thankfully not mushy, which would have forced me to make another batch.

I'll edit in pictures once I take them.

Regards,

I just tried black rice for the first couple of times. I bought a bag becuase of a recent New York Times recipe for a black rice and lentil salad. The recipe was fine (nothing to go crazy over), but the black rice really stood out; rich, chewy and nutty. I made some more this weekend as a side dish and really like it. I'm a brown rice fan, and this is in that vein. I cooked it just like brown rice: two cups water to one cup rice. It only takes around half an hour.

Jonah