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The
Absorption Boiling Method
Ingredients:
1 cup rice
1 teaspoon salt
1¾ cups water
Sufficient to serve six.
Preparation:
- Wash the rice carefully in cold
water and add it to the medium, heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting
lid. Add 1¾ cups of water and salt. Mix to combine.
- Bring to a boil over
high heat. As soon as the water start boiling,
lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
Cook rice at a gentle simmer until the water is completely
absorbed and the rice grain is tender enough and can be easily
crushed between the fingers (usually for about 11 to 13 minutes.
- Remove the pot from
the heat and let it sit, undisturbed with the lid on, for at least 5
minutes and for as long as 20 minutes. Remove the lid, fluff the rice
gently with a chopstick or fork and serve immediately.
TIPS: For absorption method always use heavy-based pot to prevent
scorching on the bottom.
A tight-fitting lid
is very important part of the cooking process, it keeps the steam in
and helps in cooking rice more evenly. If your lid fits loosely, put a
clean tea cloth between the lid and the pot.
NOTE: It is good idea to lift
the lid after ten minutes and check to make sure the rice is fully
cooked and all the water is
absorbed. Just make sure to put the lid back quickly if rice is not
cooked enough.
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Did You Know?
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In
1694, rice arrived in South Carolina, probably originating from
Madagascar.
In the United States, colonial South Carolina and Georgia grew and
amassed great wealth from the slave labor obtained from the Senegambia
area of West Africa and from coastal Sierra Leone. At the port of
Charleston, through which 40% of all American slave imports passed,
slaves from this region of Africa brought the highest prices, in
recognition of their prior knowledge of rice culture, which was put to
use on the many rice plantations around Georgetown, Charleston, and
Savannah. From the slaves, plantation owners learned how to dyke the
marshes and periodically flood the fields. At first the rice was milled
by hand with wooden paddles, then winnowed in sweetgrass baskets (the
making of which was another skill brought by the slaves). The invention
of the rice mill increased profitability of the crop, and the addition
of water power for the mills in 1787 by millwright Jonathan Lucas was
another step forward. Rice culture in the southeastern U.S. became less
profitable with the loss of slave labor after the American Civil War,
and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century.
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