A bowl of rice...

"same old slippers, same old rice,same old glimpse of paradise"

                                                               --William James Lampton

 I prove time and again that I am in heart and stomach a true indian girl by needing my bowl of rice every other day. Of course over time the quantity and type of rice has changed -- the quantity is now minuscule and it is mostly brown basmati rice interspersed with black sticky rice, burmese red rice, jade pearl jasmine rice and parboiled indian rice. Let me clarify - K1 barely eats rice, K2 is slowly developing a liking for rice especially with Dal and Kootu...and cooking the rices above does take a longer time than their white counterpart - so my commitment to this venture is total.

Some fun statistics about rice:

• There are 120,000 different kinds of rice....only 10% is grown and cultivated commercially and I have only tried about 50 kinds of rice --- 40 of them after I moved to the US
• China is the largest producer of rice followed by India
• 75% of the rice is consumed in India and China
• Rice is the main staple of 50% of the world population and provides about 20% of dietary energy
• Govinda Bhog is my favorite kind of rice hand's down found in Orissa and Calcutta and the perfect accompaniment for your dalma and aloo postey and begun bhaja...also known as aambe mohur and found in Maharashtra, which I am sure they have with aamti (given that K1 is Marathi I felt like I needed to add that in)

There is nothing as satisfying as sitting down on the table with a hot bowl of rice with ghee and paruppu podi OR the same rice with Dalma poured over it and some bodi chura on the side...my slice of paradise. I have had many a failed experiments with my black sticky rice -- I first tried to make a porridge/stew with the rice and purple cauliflower...my house ended up with a weird smell unique to the cruciferous family and I had to regretfully throw away the gloppy mixture (including my beautiful ruined purple cauliflower). So I leaned heavily on a tried and tested comfort dish - Rice Pudding/Kheer. It was a hit...so when I read up about this event : Food Palette : Black

all I could think of was my wonderful  black rice kheer.

You need :

1 small cup of black rice (soaked overnight)

2 drops of Spice Drops (cardamom)

750 ml 2% Milk ( I sometimes use vanilla SO Coconut Milk - then I skip the cardamom)

Brown Turbinado Sugar (use whatever you normally use or have at home)

Simmer all the ingredients above till the rice is well cooked and the milk has reduced to about half the quantity and the texture is thick and creamy. I don't have a religious order to adding these ingredients, just throw everything into my stock pot and it turns out fabulous. I have in a pinch (only once) pressure cooked the rice and then simmered it for 15 minutes in condensed milk and it tasted yummy.

I have realized in my adventures with food - that there are hits and misses...but mostly what counts is the journey and the spirit with which you take it. So with that thought I hope that you try something new this week...for me it's meeting JL whom I am seeing after 9 years...I am meeting her son R for the first time. Hope you have a wonderful relaxed weekend.