Author Notes
For many years, I never gave much of a thought to how rice was grown. When I did think about it, I imagined it growing white - the color of the rice usually found on my dinner plate. Oops. Wrong! Rice comes in a lot of colors, but white is surely not one of them.
My children are currently in love with the purple sticky rice we get from Clyde Valley Farm in Morganton, NC. The rice is milled when we order it and it is unpolished so it retains all the natural vitamins and minerals.
I was initially hesitant to buy a rice cooker because I like to have complete control over my rice. Some people have issues with cooking rice. I do not. Ever. Why mess with a good thing? With much hesitation, I gave in and let Santa Mimi buy me a rice cooker this past year - I have used it almost daily! What a fabulous gift this has been.
After I realized that I could combine my old school style of rice cooking - sauteeing the onions, garlic, etc. and toasting the rice grains in the oil before I add the water or broth - I could continue the preliminary steps and just add the rice to the rice cooker at the moment when I would normally add the water to the saucepan. - And_she_cooks
—and_she_cooks
Test Kitchen Notes
If you are looking for a great basic recipe to cook purple Thai rice, then this recipe is perfect for you. And_she_cooks gives us a great walk through using a rice cooker or traditional stovetop method. But I have to confess that my rice cooker must be more primitive because I do not have a brown rice water line or setting on mine, as and_she_cooks suggests you follow. But I used 2 3/4 cups of water with the 1 cup of rice in my rice cooker and that worked out just fine. Because I used all water rather than broth, I opted for more shallots in the recipe. You won't go wrong with this. Purple sticky rice has a nutty texture as well as its intense dark color. It makes a great side dish and goes really well with salmon encrusted with pistachios as just one example. You can embrace this side dish without any fear. I recommend it! - Sagegreen —Sagegreen
Ingredients
-
1
shallot
-
4
garlic cloves
-
1 cup
purple rice
-
2 cups
water or broth
-
1 dash
kosher salt
-
1 splash
olive oil
Directions
-
Rinse the rice and set aside. (You can let it soak for a few hours but I always forget and it turns out fine!)
-
Heat olive oil and add chopped shallots and garlic. Cook for about a minute or two.
-
Drain the rice and add it to the hot pan. Stir to evenly coat the rice in the olive oil. Cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.
-
If you are using a rice cooker, add the rice, shallots, and garlic to the rice cooker. Add your water or broth to the brown rice line. Cook using the brown rice setting.
-
If you are cooking the rice on the stove, add about two cups of water or broth to the lightly toasted rice, garlic, and shallots. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook on very low for about 30 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed.
-
Season as needed! Enjoy!
See what other Food52ers are saying.