Rice and Tea

Here's a quickie about two very large subjects from cultures that are deep, wide and old. It's not my intention to give you an exhaustive tutorial on these topics but rather address the fact that most people don't know the basics concerning preparing these delights of the East in a way that produces pleasure.

Let's start with rice.

Item one is selecting GOOD rice. There is no excuse for cooking shitty rice. Event at twice the price, "expensive" rice is still retardedly cheap. If you like long grain rice I go for Indian and Pakistani brands as they tend to produce fragrant, long, beautiful, firm cooked rice. A far cry from the broken, starchy Uncle Ben's type garbage. If you live coastally, finding an Indian grocery should be a fairly simple matter. Even if said Indian grocery is quite a drive from your house you can make the trip count by stocking up on spices (Indian/Pakistani groceries tend to have a broad selection of very fresh and very cheap whole spices like whole Black Peppercorns, Cumin, Fennel, Chili powders, etc.), top quality legumes (Lentils, Split Peas, Chickpeas, Mung Beans, etc.) for all your Dal and soup making needs as well as a very good selection of bulk black teas which we will get to in a minute...

Brands I like are Swad, Royal and Zebra. When in doubt ask the people who run the place and ask for the best aged Basmati they have and then buy a 10 kg sack of it. Stay away from parboiled or "diabetes" rice, which these places also carry, because these suck. Aged Basmati or Jasmine rice is what you're after.

If you prefer Asian style "sticky" rice or Sushi rice, as it is generically called, get yourself to the biggest Asian grocery you can find and ask which brand is best. I buy big sacks (10 kg) whenever I make it to the Trans World Market when we venture down to Amherst, MA to visit friends but when I run out I go for Organic sushi rice from the bulk section of my local hippy market.

Whichever type you're cooking up, the basics are the same: Wash, Rinse, Water, Cook, Rest.

Wash/Rinse

This step is key. Pour the amount you want to make into a large bowl and cover with water. Next make your fingers into a rake shape of sorts and then run them back and forth vigorously through the rice for 30 seconds, then pour off the water and refill with fresh water and repeat until you don't get any milky starch suspended in the rinse water. With aged Basmati this may only take 2-3 wash and rinse cycles. Sushi rice... well it could take a while, but keep going until it runs clear. Failure to do this will lead to off flavors and aromas in your rice. This, you do not want!

Water

Now pour the rice into your rice cooker (or rice cooking pot). If you don't have one, get one. A simple small, cheap rice cooker will last a lifetime and make rice preparation MUCH easier for the non-rice obsessed. If you don't have one, choose a thick bottomed pot that is no more than 8 inches wide and that has a tight fitting lid. Now level the rice, place you thumb in the pot with a "thumbs down" pose where it just touches the top of the rice and fill with cold water until it reaches the middle of the first joint of your thumb. That's it.
Yes, there are MANY MANY other ways to prepare rice that involve soaking, boiling, basket steaming, straining, etc. Once you master the above technique feel free to nerd out on other methods, but , for now back to the task at hand...

Cook

If you have a rice cooker now simply cover the vessel, hit the start button and walk away. Yep. That is why you want a rice cooker. If you are cooking it in a pot, set your heat to medium-high and cook uncovered until holes in the rice form where the steam is escaping then drop the heat to low and cover tightly with a lid and cook for 10 minutes or so and turn off the heat. Do not open the pot, stir or in any other many molest the cooking rice, which brings us to...

Rest

Now the hard part. Allow your rice to rest, covered for at least 20 minutes before serving. The result will be firm, fluffy rice in the case of Jasmine or Basmati rice and non-soupy/chunky rice in the case of sushi rice. Very important.

Notes

If you seek flavored rice in the case of Basmati/Jasmine types you can add salt to your rice before you cook it, substitute chicken stock for water, color the rice with a small amount of Turmeric, add ginger and garlic, etc. etc. just make sure to stir it into the rice before cooking or it will end up on top of the rice, which is no good.

Tea Brewing

Thankfully, brewing good black tea (if you want to drink green tea, knock yourself out, but I won't comment on the making of that swamp gas/sea weed tasting bullshit here) is MUCH less complicated.

First, start with, like all things, good quality tea. For bagged tea I like PG Tips, Taj Mahal, Red Label or Yorkshire brands.

Now boil cold water that you have gotten from the tap after the water has run for 1 minute to oxygenate the water, then pour the water over the tea bag in your mug immediately after you take it off the boil. Very important! Next steep the tea for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes and remove the tea bag. Add cream, sugar, honey, chai spices, whatever and enjoy.