Should rice be washed or not????

in #english5 years ago

Should rice be washed or not?

arroz.jpg

As you know me, you know that I'm very curious and that I don't stay still until I get a scientifically based explanation of these practices that we pass from one generation to the next. That's how I discovered that the custom of washing rice began several years ago in order to clean the grain of impurities coming from the harvesting process. In the past, there was not as much technology around packing, so the rice could reach the kitchen with remains of weeds and dirt.

So on the other hand, it does not really seem necessary to wash the rice before cooking it, because nowadays the regulations of the food industry oblige companies to avoid risks due to the presence of elements other than the cereal itself.

However, by adjusting the revision to the culinary issue and with emphasis on nutrition, there are good reasons to decide whether or not to wash the rice before cooking it, and here intervene the type of rice and its main ingredient: Starch, which is nothing more than a group of polymers made up of glucose units, which make cereals the main donor of energy in the diet of children and adults. More than 60% of the constitution of cereals is starch, fully digestible in the human system.

Starch is stored in granules within endosperm cells and is insoluble in cold water, however, when heated with water, these granules absorb, swell and burst, releasing it and making it available for absorption during digestion.

With this in mind, I can now explain to you that when you pass the rice grains through a sieve and abundant water, they give off part of the starch layer that covers them, losing part of their ability to reach greater density, which is convenient when you want to cook the rice as a garnish and whose science lies in the fact that the grain is loose, al dente and without liquid.

In contrast, if you want a thick, creamy rice, for example, for an asopado, risotto or for traditional rice pudding, washing it before cooking will be a tragedy that you will surely want to avoid.

Depending on its shape, rice can be classified in this way: Short, medium and long grain. As it gets longer, such as basmati or jasmine, they have a moderate amount of starch that is good for dry rice, while short grain rice such as arborio or carnaroli have much more starch and are ideal for preparing risotto. In these cases, it is essential not to rinse them so that the result is optimal.

More recently, we can classify the type of rice according to the industrial treatment it has received. Thus we find the steamed rice, from which the bran has been removed by cooking it lightly in water. This is more nutritionally complete and does not break when cooking and pre-cooked rice that has been previously cooked to reduce cooking time at home. It is the typical one that we find seasoned in boxes.

With this information, I think it's worth thinking again about whether or not to wash the rice before cooking it. And you, how do you prepare rice at home?

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 69965.85
ETH 3540.49
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71