So what makes our rice so special??
Two things:
1. The rice we buy.
2. Our fancy Persian cooking method.
We are super picky about the rice that we purchase. The rice must be a beautiful long grain Basmati rice, there are lots of brands out there, but not all rice is created equally. Knowing what rice grain will grow with cooking and has a great flavor is a trade secret.
Our Persian cooking method is pretty fancy:
1. The dry rice is soaked in salt water overnight. (This salting while soaking really goes a long way)
2. The salt water is drained off.
3. The rice is partially cooked in a huge pot of boiling fresh water.
4. The boiling rice pot is strained, and rinsed (think pasta).
5. The rice is returned to the pot, the burner is set to full blast for a secret amount of time…then,
6. The burner is turned down very low (also for a secret amount of time), steaming the rice under a cloth covered lid.
All this happens for every pot of rice we make.
This may sound like a lot of work, and it is, but he end result is totally worth it: a light, fluffy mountain of basmati rice. The straining and rinsing removes much of the starch that makes rice stick to itself, so our rice cascades over itself like fluffy white snow. The steaming cooks and humidifies the grain without too much water present (keeping it away from becoming porridge).
Fun fact for health concerns: Basmati Rice has a glycemic index of 52, heck yea, putting it in league with brown rice, and whole wheat bread.
