Ironically enough, it is really when the weekend hits I am left with no doubts that the vacation is indeed over. For all its wonderful moments, the vacation left me with a bug that I am still recovering from leaving me mostly equipped for dealing with the ongoing this too barely. So, the kitchen has been mostly relegated to anyone who chooses to cook in it through the week.
On Friday, however to shake myself out of the blues I went food shopping and came back with a bag of black rice among the essentials. I realize that this may sound strange, but it is in trying new ingredients that I feel happy and winter leaves a lot of room for all of this since the garden and its bounty does not keep me on my toes.
Playing with colored rice is not typical in my kitchen, sure I do the occasional brown rice thing, I tend to prefer Quinoa to brown rice and for most practical purposes, the white snowy grains of Basmati is what makes the starch engine in our household run. An aged grain, it does work as a complex carbohydrate, but today is not about white basmati but about the shiny black grains of rice that I picked up.
It turns out Black rice is naturally black and of course an unpolished grain
. I first cooked it up and we enjoyed it plain, it works nicely with curried slightly nutty and complex.
Interestingly enough, a couple of days of the weekend Mommy shuttle, I was back to feeling low. I have been indulging in a little bit of extra sleep since Sunday and it has actually been great. There are lots of good food thoughts, I want to share with you and lots of dishes that I want to cook, but, I will do it all once I feel stronger. I have so far started the year on low key note in terms of food changes. I must be learning, my resolve for January and the rest of the months is to be very fastidious about getting in my five servings of fruits or vegetables a day and the past two weeks, I have been succeeding. Simple and attainable goal!
I did sneak in something simple but surprisingly flavorful with the black rice and that is what I will share with you today. I added a touch of ginger, hint of coconut and finished it off with lime. This dish was very simple and complimented the naturally sweet carrot stir-fry that I made with it perfectly.
The grain cooks up slightly sticky and changes to a very deep and pretty shade of purple, so the rice is also called forbidden rice or purple rice.
A simple and flavorful preparation with black or forbidden rice.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup of black or forbidden rice
- 3 cups of water
- 1/2 fresh lime or lemon
Instructions
- Heat the coconut oil on medium heat until the oil is nice and hot.
- Add in the ginger and saute lightly until fragrant.
- Add in the salt and the rice and stir well.
- Add in the water and bring to a simmer and cover and cook the rice for 40 minutes on medium low heat.
- The water should evaporate and the rice should be soft at this point.
- Let the rice rest for 5 minutes, remove the cover, fluff the rice, squeeze in the lime and serve.
A simple and flavorful preparation with black or forbidden rice.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup of black or forbidden rice
- 3 cups of water
- 1/2 fresh lime or lemon
Instructions
- Heat the coconut oil on medium heat until the oil is nice and hot.
- Add in the ginger and saute lightly until fragrant.
- Add in the salt and the rice and stir well.
- Add in the water and bring to a simmer and cover and cook the rice for 40 minutes on medium low heat.
- The water should evaporate and the rice should be soft at this point.
- Let the rice rest for 5 minutes, remove the cover, fluff the rice, squeeze in the lime and serve.
About rinkub
I LOVE black rice, ginger, and coconut…so a dish that combines all three sounds like pure heaven!
Interesting! This is my first forray with Black rice, but we loved it.