Rice Part Two: The Varieties

While it is common in Korea to cook beans with rice to add nutrition and flavor, it is not a tradition that we can keep in our home. Our angel is allergic to legumes. Although peanuts are the most severe allergy, other legumes are not far behind like soybeans, chickpeas, red beans, and lentils. We have not tested every bean, but we are certain that our angel's allergies extend to enough varieties of beans that it is worth avoiding them all.  This means that if we want variety in our rice, we must look elswhere. So, I turned to the over 40,000 varieties of rice* available throughout the world.  I mix the rices prior to cooking and, once they have cooked together, the result is often as beautiful as it is delicious.  Here are a few things I have learned about mixing rices:

1- By mixing rices, I can easily alter the texture, taste, and nutritional value of any meal. 

2- Most rice is serviced in rice-exclusive facilities so it lessens the chances of cross-contamination with other grains.  Some rice does share equipment with wheat and nuts so you should always read your labels carefully. 

3- Mixed rice requires a different rice to water ratio. This is often done by best guess at my house taking into account the age of the rice, whether it is whole grain and the length of the grain. Any suggestions to this effect would be greatly appreciated.

* http://www.ricegourmet.com/About_RiceVarieties.htm

Allergic Angel Favorites

2:1 Calrose rice:red rice mix

4:1 short grain rice: wild rice mix

Lundenberg Country Wild Rice mixed with medium grain rice

Lundenberg Black Japonica Rice mixed with short grain rice

For more information on the different varieties of rice, thenibble.com has a comprehensive index at:

http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/rice/rice-glossary.asp

This month we are featuring Korean recipes as we compete for a trip to Korea with KoreaTaste.org. Please visit the AllergicAngel's Korean blog, vote for our posts and help the AllergicAngel go to Korea!.