Rice can go a long way for little cash.
Non-sticky, low-cost Rice:
1. Fill about quarter of a cooking pot with rice (the basic kind that comes in 25 lb. bags)
2. Fry with margarine, oil, or whatever until browned. Add other ingredients to taste (celery salt, worcestershire sauce, or the like). The frying will give it a tiny bit of a nutty taste (or something like that).
3. Add water, until the water is about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch deeper than the rice (depth depending on your elevation above sea level—about the length of a clean thumbnail being the rule of thumb).
4. Bring to a light boil, turn the heat down as low as you can get it then cover with a lid.
5. Leave covered and cooking on lowest heat for about 20 - 40 minutes (length of time depending on elevation. Experiment!).
Check it. Add water and simmer longer if necessary. You’ll get the hang of it. If it’s fat, soft and non-sticky, it’s done.
Try it with veggies and your favorite sauce (soy...whatever) and little or no meat. Or, if you want to get really full,...
Try it topped with pinto beans (and *small* amounts of spices like chili powder, cumin, jalapeno peppers, black pepper, red pepper, cajun spice—whatever), and a little cheese sauce on top of the beans, if you want to get really full.
Make it a super fat meal with home sliced, egg-battered and fried onion rings, hush puppies...whoooooooweeeee! And ladies, that stuff is cheap (check Sam’s Club for large containers of oil and such, Wal-Mart for corn meal)!
For leftover white rice, you can make a good rice pudding by putting some milk in a pan, heating it and adding cooked rice. Cook till it thickens adding a bit of vanilla and sugar. Cool in the fridge and add raisins. You can also top with jam or stir in fruit. Yum!
familyop, good suggestions on jazzing up rice. And here’s a simpler ratio to remember: 1 rice to 2 waters. I usually use a coffee mug, so it’s one mug of rice, toast (brown), then stir in the water & cook per your directions.
(Takes slightly more water for brown rice and even more for “wild rice,” which in some cases are actually cultivated grasses.)
I liked white rice with lots of butter and Texas Pete, had to cut it out now that I have diabetes.