Hi Everyone, Taken for granted though indispensable for many meals, plainly cooked-rice is content and secure in its supportive role. Although rarely viewed as an equal contributor to a meal – because of its physical appearance or taste – many stews, curries, sauces, gravies and cooked vegetables would become like people that get all dressed up to go to parties but never get asked to dance.
In its raw state, we find perfect, uniform grains. When light catches the rice, the dull shine lights up like the colour of pearls. Run your fingers through a bowl of rice and feel it gently caressing your fingers. Take a fistful and pour it back onto itself, 
it cascades making the sound of gently falling rain. Play with it by rubbing and stirring it while washing in preparation for cooking. Marvel as it tames the roaring boiling water when added to the pot. Can you tell? I love rice.
Cooked, rice increases to three times its size and volume, awakened from its state of slumber, whether by boiling or the absorption method of cooking. It is a starch that goes with almost anything; however, it is perfectly matched for a hot curry or stew. When spooned onto a bed of rice, the gravy coats and clings to the rice and meanders like rivulets through the rice. Mixed together, the rice and gravy provide the perfect counterbalance for each other when eaten, in terms of taste, texture and mouth feel.
When eaten with dhal it becomes a meal on its own. Actually, it takes very little to make a plain ole plate of rice into a meal if you have nothing else to eat with it. A drizzle of oil, a sprinkling of salt, thin slices of hot pepper and onions makes a mean plate of oil and rice. Must be mixed and eaten with your fingers please (smile). A pat or two of butter or a dollop or two of ghee on hot cooked rice melts quickly and easily. Mix together and dig in! Eat as is or with a scattering of wafer thin slices of the purple-head shallots. Yum!
Rice is such an easy absorber of flavours added to it, therefore, cooking it with a few whole spices such lightly bruised cardamom, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks can turn it into something truly special.
And finally, when we’ve done our eating for the day, the leftover rice makes perfect fried rice the next day. Oh rice! You most versatile of foods how I love you so.
Cynthia
