TIP OF THE DAY: 5 More Uses For Rice
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We overdid it recently, purchasing a jumbo bag of white rice that we’re not likely to make a dent in anytime soon (we try to eat whole grains like brown rice, which we especially enjoy in rice salads).
So we searched for other ways to use the rice, and found five more ways to employ uncooked rice in the kitchen. 1. BAKING You can buy pie weights to blind bake your crusts, or you can use the rice or beans you have on hand. In this case, reserve the “pie rice” for this exclusive purpose; you don’t want to cook with it after it’s been dried by oven heat. 2. COFFEE GRINDER Clean your coffee and spice grinders—every month, if you use them daily. Beyond brushing out leftover particles, clean the undersides of the blades and absorb other buildup with a “rice treatment.” |
Too much rice? Beyond cooking it, we’ve got five ways to use it in the kitchen. Photo courtesy United Rice Mills. |
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Fill the cavity to the blades with rice, and run it through the grinder. Leading coffee roasters use this trick, and some say it works even better with instant rice. |
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 A grain of rice tells you when the oil is ready. Photo courtesy TastyAppetite.net. |
3. FRYING
How do you check if your cooking oil is hot enough? If you don’t have a deep fryer with a temperature dial, you could use a thermometer. Or, just drop a grain of rice into the oil. If the rice rises to the surface of the oil and begins to cook, the oil is ready for frying. 4. RIPEN FRUIT Want to ripen fruit faster? If you don’t have an apple*, store the fruit in a container of rice. Check on the fruit twice a day so it doesn’t over-ripen. The rice is still good for cooking. *A favorite trick is to place the unripe fruit in a paper bag with an apple. The ethylene released by the apple ripens the fruit overnight. |
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5. SALT SAVER
If you live in a humid climate, your salt make clump. Rice comes to the rescue: Add a few grains of rice to your the salt shaker to prevent clumping. For open boxes of salt, put the rice in a tea ball or tie it in a piece of gauze or cheesecloth like a bouquet garni. BONUS You can also make rice milk from scratch (other than rice, of course!) is water and salt. Here’s the recipe. Here are more ways to use rice, for non-kitchen tasks in your home.
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