question about soaking rice

[Rikki Jean]

i want (need) to start soaking my rice, but i have a problem- i use chicken broth to cook my rice, not water. how can i make that work for soaking? i have always understood that the grains need to soak at room temperature, and i can't really do that with chicken broth...:

[Rainbow2911]

I soak rice in salted water then drain and rince before cooking in chicken stock. Hope that helps!

[Mrshawwk]

In Nourishing Traditions she says that the need for soaking when cooking rice in broth is greatly reduced. I believe that recipe says to just slow cook the rice in the broth for an hour and a half.

[Metasequoia]

I've never soaked my rice, but I've always, always cooked it in bone broth.

[Rikki Jean]

Originally Posted by Rainbow2911

I soak rice in salted water then drain and rince before cooking in chicken stock. Hope that helps!

i thought about this, but do you think that any nutrients will be getting dumped out with the water?

Originally Posted by Mrshawwk

In Nourishing Traditions she says that the need for soaking when cooking rice in broth is greatly reduced. I believe that recipe says to just slow cook the rice in the broth for an hour and a half.

yeah, that's what she says...however, my rice always starts to get a too toasty quite a while before 90 minutes. i normally only cook my rice for about 45 minutes (after it starts to boil). also, i can't figure out what would be the neutralizing agent in this recipe, since there isn't even lemon juice in it...

[sunshinestarr]

I have the same question; I can never cook my rice past 45 minutes.

[pampered_mom]

I've had some mixed results when cooking rice using SF's unsoaked rice recipe. IME it's been a combination of a few things:
-the pan I cook it in (it seems that a wider pan is better than a narrower pan and it definitely needs a heavier bottom to it)
-the amount of time I cook the rice before putting the lid on (SF's recipe says to do so for 10 minutes or until the level of the liquid is just at the level of the rice. I tend to go for less than 10 minutes and have better results)
-how warm the lowest setting on your stove is (if you try adjusting the above two items and still have difficulty you may want to consider putting the pot 1/2 on the burner and 1/2 off to see if that will help)

[Magelet]

Now, I'm not a rice cooking genius, however, I do know a few. One trick my bf taught me for cooking rice in general (relevant to TF or not) is to cook it in a really big pan. Mine would always get weird, dry or sticky or something, until I tried it. So I cook it in a pot thats a size or two bigger than I think I need for the amount of rice.

I never worry about losing nutrients in soaking rice, because I figure, I don't worry about it with soaking other grains and nuts, and because your supposed to rinse most rice anyways. I'd definitely just soak it in water, then drain and cook in bone broth.

My problem was always, how much water do I add now that its taken on a tad liquid, and a trick a TF lady I work with (at Three Stone Hearth, a TF community supported kitchen) said to cover the rice and then have the water level the length of your first thumb joint covering the rice. Haven't tried it yet.

[Rikki Jean]

thanks for all of the input!

Originally Posted by Magelet

My problem was always, how much water do I add now that its taken on a tad liquid

i thought about this too, but something just dawned on me- i could measure how much water gets drained out, and then adjust the additional liquid accordingly. i would think that would work.

[Rainbow2911]

With unsoaked rice I use 1 1/2 parts liquid to 1 part rice. After soaking I reduce the liquid to 1 1/3 parts to 1. I then cook the rice in a well sealed pot on the lowest heat I can for about 40 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave it for another 10 minutes. No peeking and no stirring! If the lid isn't so good then I seal the pan with some foil under the lid to keep all that steam in.

HTH!