Recipes from the Collection of Mark and Danielle Hughes
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All about rice Food 101: Cook worth starch knows long and short on rice Q It seems that every recipe calls for a different kind of rice: white or brown, long grain or short grain, and so on. I can tell white from brown, but am I supposed to take a ruler with me to the market to measure how long the rice grains are? How long is long, anyway? And then there are the fancy ones with special names, such as arborio and basmati. Right now, I want to make paella. Does the kind of rice really make that much difference? A Absolutely. Paella rice must be absorbent enough to soak up the savory broth from the seafood or meat and must cook up to just the right degree of ``clumpiness.'' In American restaurants, the sins committed daily against this legendary Spanish dish must be overwhelming the check-in clerks at the Hades Hotel. For example, Uncle Ben's, which is American long-grain, parboiled, then dried, just won't cut the mostaza in Spain. Rice belongs to only two plant species: Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima. But tens of thousands of cultivated varieties (known as cultivars) have been developed and propagated for at least 6,000 years in China and around the world. Relative proportions of two kinds of starch (rice is 77 to 80 percent starch) differ from one rice cultivar to another. The two kinds are amylose, whose molecules are straight chains, and amylopectin, whose molecules are branched and bushy. Most American rice is rich in amylose, whose straight molecules don't absorb much water, so the grains stay relatively dry and fluffy when cooked. Chinese and Japanese rice, on the other hand, is richer in amylopectin, whose bushy molecules can trap a lot of water. On cooking, the water swells and bursts the starch granules, releasing their gluey contents, and the grains therefore tend to stick together. What about the lengths of the grains? That's just a rough way of classifying types of rice without going raving mad trying to name them all. Luckily, their sizes and shapes really do correspond more or less to the kinds of starch they contain: Short-grain rices are generally high-amylopectin, absorbent and sticky. Long-grain rice is three or more times as long as it is wide. Short-grain rice is less than twice as long as it is wide and is often almost round. In the United States, we recognize a medium-grain size, two to three times as long as it is wide. Aromatic rices, such as Indian and Pakistani basmati and Thai jasmine, contain more of the fragrant chemical 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline than usual and have a nutty, popcorn-like flavor. Italian arborio rice is high in amylopectin and perfect for making risotto because it can absorb three times its own volume of flavorful stock or broth, becoming creamy in the process. In a pinch, it will make a pretty good paella. For paella, a medium-short grain rice is indispensable. Three main varieties cultivated in Valencia are Bahia, Senia and Bomba. In the center of each is a perla (pearl), a dense nucleus of concentrated starch that imparts a toothsome substance to the cooked rice. In Spain, paella is often cooked by the men in the family on Sundays, over an open fire if possible. And a good time is had by all.
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