Kristoff Carrots and Perfect Rice

     Today I thought I would share two recipes.  One is so basic that it didn’t seem right to dedicate an entire blog post to it, and the other is rice. 

     Wait, what?  Rice isn’t basic, you ask?  Nope, it ain’t.  I have been cooking for 32 years, and I just finally managed the perfect pot of rice.  I even did it on an electric stove top.  I didn’t think it was possible to get a perfect pot of rice on an electric stove top because it takes so long for the temperature to actually change after you’ve adjusted it, but you CAN get a perfect pot of rice on an electric burner, without having to use two burners. 

     I used to think, if you had an electric cook top, you had to use two burners, one on high to bring the water or broth to a boil, and one preheated on low to transfer the pot to when it reached the boil so it wouldn’t boil too long.  This only marginally helped my poor, mushy, sad, sorry rice, though.  I thought the best I could really hope for was not having a layer burnt to the bottom of the pan. 

     Gas stoves are much easier to cook on, because they respond immediately when the flow of gas is altered.  Electric elements take so danged long to heat up and cool down, even with new stoves, that it affects cook time and results for a lot of my food.  I’ve been using an electric stove for a little over a year now, and I still mess up dinner.  I feel like a newbie all over again. 

     Turns out there are two secrets to spectacular rice with actual individual grains that does not cook down to mush and does not burn to the bottom of the pan. 

1)  Wash it.  Wash the rice really well to remove the powdered rice that is in it from friction and the (possible) talc powder or cornstarch from processing.  All that extra starch contributes to sticking, burning, and mushiness. 

2)  Ignore the directions on the box/bag of plain white rice and follow the directions below instead.

     These two things will help you attain rice perfection! 

     Look at those individual grains!  No mush!  SO HAPPY!!

     I never use the parboiled stuff.  I buy bulk bags of plain white rice.  The directions say to put 1c of rice in 2c of boiling water, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, then fluff with a fork.  

     It doesn’t say anything about washing, first of all, and second of all, I have since learned that 2:1 ratio of water to rice is almost double the water actually needed. 

For absolutely perfect rice:

*Wash the rice well polishing it gently with your fingers until the water drains clear.  I fill my dish pan with cold water and put my rice in a berry sieve (one of those with the screen instead of a colander).  I put the berry sieve of rice into the dish pan and swirl the rice gently until the water looks almost like 1% milk.  I dump the water, refill it, and repeat the rinsing process for at least 3 rinses.  By then there is usually very little powder coming off the rice. 

*Drain well before cooking.  Leave the berry sieve sitting in the empty dish pan or in the sink for a while.  It will look almost dry again after about 10-15 minutes, give or take, depending on your humidity. I never time it.  I just get some other stuff ready while I let it drain. Just don't immediately dump it in with your water, or you'll still have too much water and mushy rice.

*Use 1c and 2 Tbsp water to each cup of rice 

     Bring the water and rice to a boil in the pot together, turn down to low, cover, and cook 20 minutes, then remove from heat and leave the lid on for another 10 minutes to finish steaming.

     I Googled around looking for recipes for the perfect rice, and all of the blog posts I found were in agreement:  Don’t use so much water.  So I didn’t.  And it was glorious!  You should definitely try it.  It’s amazing what a good basic pot of rice can do for an entire dish.  Everything I make that uses rice as the base is now 100% better!  My fried rice will never be the same!  Even rice as a side is amazingly improved.  I actually like plain steamed white rice.  Who knew?  Not me.  Not until I finally got it right.  

     And that second recipe I promised?  

     Kristoff Carrots.  If you’ve never seen Disney’s Frozen, you probably have no idea why I would name my carrots Kristoff.  Kristoff is one of the main male figures in the movie, and his best friend is a reindeer named Sven.  They share carrots.  My Little loves Frozen, and he loves Kristoff and Sven, and because of them, he will eat carrots, sometimes, if I fix them this way. So these are Kristoff Carrots.  Little named them LOL. 

Kristoff Carrots:

*1 lb carrots - baby, sliced, diced, chunked - just bite-sized.

*1-2 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds and pod from one vanilla bean

*some water

*some butter

*some salt and pepper

*some honey or real maple syrup - pancake syrup works just fine, and I’m sure you could use plain corn syrup, but I’d opt for dark rather than light.  You could even try molasses if that’s your thing.  I don’t much care for molasses myself. 

     The length of time this takes to cook depends entirely on how big your pieces of carrot are.  Usually it takes me about 20-30 minutes to get them as tender as Little likes them when they’re sliced, 10-15 minutes more if they’re baby carrots.  In the end, it’s personal preference, because you might like yours crunchier or softer than we do. 

     Put your carrots in a pot, and add enough water to come up to the top of the carrots.  Turn heat to high until it boils, then turn it down to a nice simmer until they’re as tender as you want them.  Drain.  I save the water for soups later, because it’s got carroty flavor and some of the water soluble vitamins from the carrots.  If you're using a whole vanilla bean, you would add it while the carrots are cooking to extract the flavor. 

     Add a pat of butter and enough of the sweet syrupy substance of your choice to glaze the carrots (a Tbsp or two is usually enough for us), add the vanilla, sprinkle with just a little salt and pepper (1/2t and 1/4t usually are plenty for us) to taste. 

    These are an all-around family favorite for us and I usually have to make two pounds of carrots at a time, because the Little will eat two or three helpings of them sometimes.  When he decides carrots aren’t the devil.  

**This recipe was modified from a Martha Stewart recipe for maple-vanilla glazed carrots, so it's not my original idea.  I just changed it around a bit.