You probably know that serving a range of color in our foods is more appealing to the eye and therefore makes the food more appetizing. More recently, scientists are telling us that the natural, bright colors of foods contain anthocyanins that our bodies need, and serving a combination of colors can be quite good for us.
But have you ever tried colored rice?
Personally, I’m a big believer in the idea that kids are more likely to try and like new foods if you keep them interesting and fun, and that includes using color. No, green eggs and ham don’t count: too monochromatic, and totally artificial. Sorry, Dr. Seuss.
So in the warm summer months, I raid the farmer’s market for purple potatoes, red carrots, multi-colored bell peppers—anything to capture the colors of summer and put them on the plate. But since these options are most readily available only in a short period of time, colored rices offer a nice year-round source of healthy color on the plate.
One of our favorite restaurants in town, Koreana, serves a dish called bi bim bahb which consists of several different stir-fried vegetables over rice, with purple rice as one option. Kim, one of the sisters who owns and runs Koreana, explained to me that the purple rice is actually black rice cooked with brown and/or white rice. The color from the black rice bleeds into the cooking water and turns everything purple. In digging further, I learned that the black rice is a whole-grain rice and contains similar health benefits to brown rice.
This led me to search for and experiment with different colored rices. I had to look beyond our local grocery store to find these unusual varieties, but at Whole Foods and at Sendik’s in Whitefish Bay (WI) I was able to find black rice under the name “Forbidden Rice” as well as packages of mixed black and white rices that were marketed as “purple rice” and a different variety altogether marketed as “red rice.”
These rices require slightly different techniques for cooking from one to the next. In general I prefer cooking my rice using the pasta method (boiling it in a large quantity of water and then draining it) as opposed to the pilaf method (cooking the rice in a precise amount of water and stopping when all of the water is absorbed). I have been told repeatedly that the pilaf method is the “proper” method, but I have had much more consistent results using the pasta method and am not about to change anytime soon.
In using the premixed packages of black/white and red/white rices, I heat a 2qt. pot of water to a boil, reduce the heat, then stir in about 1 tsp. of salt. Next, add the amount of rice you want to make, increase the heat until the water returns to a simmer, and cook until the rice is al dente or slightly firm when you bite into it. This usually takes 10-15 minutes, so start testing it at 10 minutes so it doesn’t become a pot of purple mush. Drain the water and let the rice rest on the stove, lid on, until you are ready to serve.
With the “straight” black rice (the Forbidden Rice), I start with the same 2 qt. pot of boiling water and add the 1 tsp. of salt. Then I add black rice to comprise about 2/3 of the total amount of rice I want to cook. Let the black rice simmer for about five minutes, then add basmati or jasmine rice to make up the remaining 1/3 of the total rice. Allow the combined rices to simmer, and start checking it for doneness after seven minutes.
Here are links to both of the rice brands I have tried for black/purple and red rice. I have not purchased from these websites and therefore do not endorse them, but you can see what the package looks like and generally what pricing would be for these items.
Forbidden Rice from Lotus Foods:
Alter Eco Purple Rice and Ruby Red Rice: You probably know that serving a range of color in our foods is more appealing to the eye and therefore makes the food more appetizing. More recently, scientists are telling us that the natural, bright colors of foods contain anthocyanins that our bodies need, and serving a combination of colors can be quite good for us.
But have you ever tried colored rice?
Personally, I’m a big believer in the idea that kids are more likely to try and like new foods if you keep them interesting and fun, and that includes using color. No, green eggs and ham don’t count: too monochromatic, and totally artificial. Sorry, Dr. Seuss.
So in the warm summer months, I raid the farmer’s market for purple potatoes, red carrots, multi-colored bell peppers—anything to capture the colors of summer and put them on the plate. But since these options are most readily available only in a short period of time, colored rices offer a nice year-round source of healthy color on the plate.
One of our favorite restaurants in town, Koreana (www.thekoreana.com), serves a dish called bi bim bahb which consists of several different stir-fried vegetables over rice, with purple rice as one option. Kim, one of the sisters who owns and runs Koreana, explained to me that the purple rice is actually black rice cooked with brown and/or white rice. The color from the black rice bleeds into the cooking water and turns everything purple. In digging further, I learned that the black rice is a whole-grain rice and contains similar health benefits to brown rice.
This led me to search for and experiment with different colored rices. I had to look beyond our local grocery store to find these unusual varieties, but at Whole Foods and at Sendik’s in Whitefish Bay (WI) I was able to find black rice under the name “Forbidden Rice” as well as packages of mixed black and white rices that were marketed as “purple rice” and a different variety altogether marketed as “red rice.”
These rices require slightly different techniques for cooking from one to the next. In general I prefer cooking my rice using the pasta method (boiling it in a large quantity of water and then draining it) as opposed to the pilaf method (cooking the rice in a precise amount of water and stopping when all of the water is absorbed). I have been told repeatedly that the pilaf method is the “proper” method, but I have had much more consistent results using the pasta method and am not about to change anytime soon.
In using the premixed packages of black/white and red/white rices, I heat a 2qt. pot of water to a boil, reduce the heat, then stir in about 1 tsp. of salt. Next, add the amount of rice you want to make, increase the heat until the water returns to a simmer, and cook until the rice is al dente or slightly firm when you bite into it. This usually takes 10-15 minutes, so start testing it at 10 minutes so it doesn’t become a pot of purple mush. Drain the water and let the rice rest on the stove, lid on, until you are ready to serve.
With the “straight” black rice (the Forbidden Rice), I start with the same 2 qt. pot of boiling water and add the 1 tsp. of salt. Then I add black rice to comprise about 2/3 of the total amount of rice I want to cook. Let the black rice simmer for about five minutes, then add basmati or jasmine rice to make up the remaining 1/3 of the total rice. Allow the combined rices to simmer, and start checking it for doneness after seven minutes.
Here are links to both of the rice brands I have tried for black/purple and red rice. I have not purchased from these websites and therefore do not endorse them, but you can see what the package looks like and generally what pricing would be for these items.
Forbidden Rice from Lotus Foods: http://www.lotusfoods.com/Forbidden-Rice/p/LOT-00210&c=LotusFoods@All
Alter Eco Purple Rice and Ruby Red Rice: http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=688899&cgrfnbr=773890
