Power to the Pilaf Transcript SCENE 1 18,000 Feet - 3:07 pm [no title graphic presented for this episode] Each day, about two-thirds of the people on this planet fuel up on rice. And why not? It's nutritious, versatile, delicious, economical. It's even hypoallergenic. Yet still, there are a lot of Americans who don't know pilaf from paella any more than they can tell the difference between texmati and arborio. In short, rice is still just a little bit mysterious. And since we 5/26/2010 Power to the Pilaf Transcript goodeatsfanpage.com/…/RiceTranscrip… 1/14
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See, the Carolina lowlands were the perfect place to grow rice. But the mud was so soft, the
machinery, even oxen, just sank into it. So, it had to be worked by hand, hence slavery. It was rice,
not cotton, that began the plantation era in the South. Not only could the African slaves do the
work, they had the knowledge of the rice from their homeland. By the early 18 hundreds,
Charleston was shipping out some 50,000 tons of Carolina Gold Rice per year and it was
considered to be some of the finest rice in the world.
Well, the end of the Civil War brought the end of slavery
and it ended the rice cultivation in the Carolinas. But by then,somebody had already figured out that the low river areas
around Louisiana, east Texas and Arkansas, not only could
support rice, but the heavy machinery needed to cultivate it
in modern times. So today, most of America's rice is
cultivated in states like Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri,
Texas, Louisiana and California.
The folks at the mill
gave me the grand tour: showed me how the husk is removed to
make brown rice and how the bran is removed to make white
rice. Even showed me the laser that sorts out the broken bits.Then I went over and checked out the rice cooking competition,
the rice eating competition and
even the rice threshing
competition. But I still hadn't
found what I was looking for. Why is rice light-and-fluffy one day
and a solid block of goo the next? Finally, a long time rice cooker
broke the silence. A rice cooker? Imagine my surprise.
The self-appointed rice capitol of America, Crowley has been throwing this little October Harvest party for, I don't know, 60 years? During the day time, it's all rice: growing rice, threshing
rice, cooking rice and a lot of eating rice. But come ...
Due to their popcorn-like fragrance, long grain rices like
basmati and jasmine are called "aromatic" rices.
Once it's threshed off the ear, each grain is still encased in
a husk. Remove the husk and, voilà, brown rice. See, like
most grains, the inner part of the kernel, or endosperm, is
surrounded by a thin layer of bran which is where most of
the nutrients are. Since its a tough little cuss, brown riceneeds about 3 times as much water and time to cook as the
same amount of white rice. The hassle is worth it, though,
because brown rice has a great nutty flavor and a stronger
nutritional punch than its buffed up brother. It can be sold as
is or the bran can be rubbed off to reveal the pearly white
underneath.IN HUSK
OUT OF HUSK
Brown Rice
Bran
3 x H2O/Time
Polished
White and converted rice will keep for years on the shelf as long as you keep them in air tight
containers with lids. I like these kind of big-mouth jobbies, easy scooping. Now, brown rice on the
other hand is a completely different matter because, remember, it's still got the bran on it and the
bran means oil and oil will go rancid in just 6 months on the shelf. The answer is the freezer. In hereyou can keep it for one to two years. But, since fats oxidize and pick up off flavors, the thing to do
is to keep it inside a zip-lock bag and then keep that inside another sealed container. Spoilage foiled
again.
Rice bran oil is nearly flavorless & has a very high smoke point.
W: When all the water's been absorbed by the rice the
temperature begins to increase. Sensors then pick up on
the change, tell the machine to let the rice rest and keep
it warm until service.
AB: Wow. Sensors. I'll take it.W: Uh, not this one. We're going to keep it simple for you.
AB: Eh.
SCENE 7The Kitchen
We gave a few of the models a spin and several did an excellent job, especially with brown rice
—traditionally tricky because of its longer cooking time. Many models doubled as steamers, too.
We even made some pretty decent jambalayas. So, if you cook rice a lot, don't mind spending 50to 100 bucks or more, and have counter or cabinet space to spare you have our blessing. Now, the
microwave cooker we tested didn't save any time but it performed consistently and freed up
valuable stove and oven space.
The problem is, you can't make risotto in a rice cooker. And
what's worse, you can't make pilaf. It seems the word 'pilaf' is
from the Persian, pilaw, means rice dish. Well, there's a little
more to it than that. A pilaf always starts with long grain rice, and
it's always sautéed in a bit of fat, usually butter, before any liquid
got a tight fitting lid. Now, when the butter melts add your onion and your bell pepper along with a
couple of pinches of kosher salt. Stir to coat then turn down the heat. We want this to sweat, not to
brown or sauté. You want to cook it slowly until the aromatics become soft and fragrant.
Now, these ingredients do not a pilaf make. Pilaf is a method. Even if nothing ended up in this
pan but rice, a little fat and water it will still be a pilaf.
Now, the second secret to happy rice is finding the right ratio of rice to liquid. The instructions on
your average bag of rice always says the same thing, "1 cup rice, 2 cups water." If that were right,
and I don't think it is, one could deduce that a 2 to 1 water/rice ratio would always be the way to gono matter how much rice was involved. Well, it isn't that way. Not only are 2 cups of water more
than any respectable cup of long grain rice needs, but the proportion of water to rice actually goes
down the more rice you cook. Here's how we see it.
Now, for the sake of argument we will restrict our
demonstration to American long grain white rice. One cup of
rice will cook very nicely, thank you, in 1 1/2 cups of water.
It seems pretty simple, right? But, the plot thickens.
1 1/2 Cups H2O
1 Cup Rice
Two cups of rice will cook perfectly in 2 3/4 cups of
water. Wait, it gets even weirder.
2 3/4 Cups H2O
2 Cups Rice
Three cups of rice can be cooked to perfection in 3 1/2
cups of water.
3 1/2 Cups H2O
3 Cups Rice
Which obviously makes it seem apparent that the more rice you cook the less water you need.
Now, if you have a slide rule and you know how to use it you could probably figure out some handy
formula or at the very least come up with a good comedy routine. "Hey, Abbot. When are we going
to have more rice than watuh?"
In Japan, rice fields are often named like people.
We have a boil so it's time to talk about lids. We need a tight
cover that won't let steam sneak out of the pan. Here's a cool
trick. Say you've got a boil, which we do, turn off the heat and
then spread a barely moist dish towel over the pan. Then cover
and fold up the edges. This is also going to keep condensation
from dripping off the lid back into the pan. Okay, in the oven.
Now, you may have to rearrange the racks to get the handle in a bit. Set your timer for 15
minutes and walk away. You know, I feel good about the 15 minutes because I know my oven is ata cozy 350º. How do I know? Because I've got a thermometer in there to tell me so. Now, rice bag
instructions have to be a little bit vague for cooking times because they can't be sure about your
range heat anymore than they can microwave wattage. So, they have to average a guess.
SCENE 9Baseball Field
The fall flowering crocus is ground zero for saffron. Each tiny flower contains three little
threadlike stigma which have to be picked by hand. Now, if you picked this patch and about43,000 more just like it—it's about 5 of these infields worth
—you'd have a pound of saffron with a market value of
about a $1,000 making saffron the most expensive food on
earth.
Now, Kashmir saffron is the best. It's easily recognized
by its solid red threads. Now, Spanish and Turkish saffron
like this can contain up to 10% yellow stamens so they're a
wee bit less intense. Personally, I don't notice the difference
in flavor as much as the difference in price which can be
substantial. Now, luckily a little goes a long way. We only used about a quarter's worth for our
pilaf.
Now, we suggest you buy saffron from a specialty spice catalogue, not from a store where it may
have been laying around losing its punch. And never settle for crushed
or powdered saffron. It's almost always been cut with turmeric. Now,
keep your saffron in a heavy plastic bag or a jar with an air tight lid.