3 Techniques to Instantly Upgrade Your Rice
Summary
TLDRThe video shows three rice dish recipes that go beyond basic sides to become flavorful main courses. The first is a rice pilaf made nutty and toasty by frying pasta and rice in butter before simmering in stock. The second is a vibrant Sofrito rice, packed with onions, peppers, and cilantro, baked to impart richness. The third is an Iranian crispy saffron rice, soaked and parboiled before being fried into a crunchy golden brown dome with intense popcorn-like texture and flavor.
Takeaways
- 😋 Makes 3 rice dishes - rice pilaf, Sofrito rice, Persian tadig
- 🧅 Uses lots of aromatics like onions, garlic, cilantro to add flavor
- 🍚 Rices include Jasmine, angel hair pasta, Basmati
- 🌾 Rinsing rice removes excess starch for better texture
- 🍲 Frying raw rice in fat helps separate grains
- 🥘 Sofrito rice gets flavor from fresh salsa-like mixture
- 🔥 Bakes Sofrito rice for added flavor
- 🌷 Saffron gives great flavor and color to tadig
- 🧺 Boiling and brining helps make tadig rice sturdy
- 🍿 Flipping and frying makes crispy tadig
Q & A
What are the three rice dish recipes presented in the video?
-The three rice dish recipes are rice pilaf, Sofrito rice, and Persian tadig.
Why does the recipe boil the rice like pasta before making the tadig?
-Boiling the rice like pasta before making the tadig helps hydrate the rice grains so they can stand up to being stirred and fried when cooking the tadig.
What gives the rice pilaf most of its signature nutty flavor?
-Frying the angel hair pasta in butter toasts the starch inside, which gives the pilaf most of its signature nutty flavor.
What does the recipe use instead of a food processor if you don't have one?
-If you don't have a food processor, you can use a knife to break down the Sofrito ingredients. It will take about 5 minutes of elbow grease but can be done.
Why does the recipe soak the rice in salt water before cooking the tadig?
-Soaking the rice in salt water helps achieve the proper texture for the tadig. The brine also removes the brownish tint from the raw rice.
Why is evenly browning the tadig crucial when cooking it?
-Evenly browning the tadig is crucial to prevent burnt or undercooked spots. You must move the pan every 3-5 minutes while cooking.
What kitchen tools are best for cooking these rice dishes?
-A heavy-bottomed pot like a Dutch oven transfers heat slowly and evenly, which is best. Non-stick pans are also useful for getting crispy textures.
How does baking the Sofrito rice in the oven impact flavor?
-Baking imparts nice roasty, Maillard browning flavors into the Sofrito rice that you can't get from just stovetop cooking.
Why squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice over the finished rice dishes?
-The acid from citrus juices brings brightness and lifts the flavor of the rice, cutting through the richness.
What role does butter play in cooking these tasty rice dishes?
-Butter adds rich flavor and allows you to fry or toast the rice and other ingredients, developing deeper nutty tastes.
Outlines
🍚 Making rice pilaf with toasted pasta for nutty flavor
The first paragraph describes making rice pilaf by grating onion and garlic, frying angel hair pasta in butter to toast it, adding rinsed rice to fry, then adding chicken stock. This process gives a nutty flavor and chewy rice texture. Lemon and parsley finish it.
🌶️ Cooking Sofrito rice with aromatic veggies and tomatoes
The second paragraph makes Sofrito rice by processing onion, poblano, garlic, cilantro and cumin. This is fried with rice then tomato paste, chicken stock and tomato sauce are added to simmer and bake, developing rich flavor. Lime and cilantro finish it.
🍿 Crispy Persian tadig rice with saffron and fried crust
The third paragraph makes tadig rice by brining and boiling basmati rice with saffron. This is fried in olive oil and butter to create a crispy crust in a pan on the stove. The result has a texture like popcorn with robust saffron flavor.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡rice
💡technique
💡aromatics
💡crispy
💡flavor base
💡texture
💡cook times
💡saffron
💡starchy
💡steam
Highlights
Recipe for rice pilaf that redefines how good rice can taste
Frying rice in fat pre-gelatinizes starch for more separate, chewy grains
Puerto Rican Sofrito rice uses lots of fresh aromatics and cilantro
Baking Sofrito rice adds nice roasty Maillard browning
Persian tadig rice has crazy crispy texture like saffron popcorn
Soaking and boiling rice hydrates grains to stand up to frying
Blooming saffron intensifies flavor and color
Frying tadig rice low and slow develops texture and flavor
Wrapping pan lid in towel absorbs steam for crispy tadig
Pan choice and movement are critical for evenly crisped tadig
Rice pilaf has signature nutty flavor from fried pasta
Sofrito base is quick way to add flavorful broth
New culinary flavors expand better than bouillon range
Brining rice before tadig improves texture
Recipes and techniques to inspire cooking rice at home
Transcripts
what's up today I'm going to show you
three well-tested recipes for perfectly
cooked delicious rice dishes that aren't
just sides but are the main event the
last of which has both the craziest
texture and the deepest flavor of any
rice dish I've ever had oh baby look at
that
it smells like movie theater popcorn too
first up is a deceptively simple rice
dish that will redefine how good you
thought rice could be I'm talking about
rice pilaf to get started I'll grab a
whole peeled onion and then grate it on
the largest whole sides of my box grater
this gives the onions a super small form
factor that essentially melts them into
the background of the dish next I'll
grab four to five large garlic cloves
and then smash those through my garlic
press these should have just about the
same meltable texture as the onions and
in total I need 100 grams of onion and
20 grams of garlic next I'll need some
pasta I've got angel hair here because
it's cook time is roughly equal to that
of the rice you could go for spaghetti
as well but you'll need a touch more
liquid and maybe a couple extra minutes
of cook time now I'm going to take 75
grams of this angel hair and snap it in
a roughly one inch pieces the pasta part
of this pilaf is surprisingly what gives
this dish most of its signature nutty
flavor mainly because of how it's cooked
but more on that in just a second once
I've got all 75 gram terms of this pasta
snapped down I'll grab the main event
the rice for peel off I prefer a classic
Jasmine style rice because it's fragrant
it Cooks evenly and it Cooks in a
predictable amount of time now to prep
this rice for the pot I'll rinse it
thoroughly with cold water to remove as
much of the excessive starch on the
outside as possible for this dish extra
starch is mucho bad it will lead to a
gluey mushy result and once the water is
running clear like this I'm good to go
now let's cook this thing my cooking
vessel of choice for this dish is a
heavy bottom pot I'm using a six and a
half quart dutch oven here but anything
that transfers heat slowly and evenly to
food will work totally fine and once
it's hot it goes 75 grams of butter I'll
let that melt then in goes my broken
angel hair pasta from here I'll fry it
in the butter for about two to three
minutes over medium heat I'm looking to
toast the starch inside this pasta until
it's taken on a light chestnut color
this toasted pasta and lightly browned
butter are going to team up to provide
the backbone of flavor for this dish
next I'll add in all of my rinsed rice
then stir to combine and Fry this for
another two to three minutes making sure
not to take this pasta from deliciously
Brown to burnt and bitter by the way
frying the raw rice in fat like this pre
gelatinizes some of the exterior starch
that gives us more individualized rice
grains that stand out in the final dish
and have a denser slightly chewier
texture now once this rice is fried
until translucent I'll add in my onions
and garlic 12 grams of salt and then
I'll jump in and give everything a quick
stir to get things cooking from here
I'll give these aromatics another three
to four minutes to soften them over a
gentle medium heat now once these onions
are sweat like this I'll come back and
add in 20 grams of better than bouillon
roasted chicken base because the 650
grams of store-bought chicken stock that
I'm adding in right now doesn't have
very much chicken flavor at all it's
mainly useful as a vegetable stock it's
kind of like a mirepoix flavored tea
next I'll bring things up to a gentle
simmer then turn the heat down to low
pop on a lid and then set a timer for 15
minutes and after a 15 minute simmer
over low heat I'll come back kill the
Heat and set a timer for 10 more minutes
at this point do not open the lid once
the lid is down it needs to stay down to
allow the rice to swell slowly and
evenly and after 25 minutes of cook time
I'll come back and take a quick look oh
my God that smells so good now I'll just
flip this rice a little bit so that I
can cool it off and slow down the
cooking then I'll finish by adding in a
long squeezer of fresh lemon juice then
a couple dashes of chopped fresh parsley
finally I'll just fold all that together
gently making sure not to smush up this
perfectly cooked rice it's tender but
too some and just a little bit chewy
it's so toasty and nutty but it's still
bright you got the parsley and a little
bit of lemon in there and dude it's just
shockingly delicious tasting rice it's
perfect
um okay up next is a vibrant sharp edged
Puerto Rican dish that uses a ton of
fresh aromatics and cilantro it's called
Sofrito rice to make it I'll grab my
food processor and combine 250 grams of
very roughly chopped onion 75 grams of
chunked up poblano pepper 20 grams of
garlic 20 grams of cilantro and then 5
grams of cumin next I'll just spin that
up for about 20 to 30 seconds or until
the veggies are chopped down into a
small but coarse texture it should look
almost like a fresh salsa but bruh I
don't have a food processor what the
heck bro well you could definitely use a
knife to break this down it will take
about five minutes of elbow grease in
you can do it now once my Sofrito is all
chopped up I'll grab 400 grams of rice
for this dish I'm using a chunky medium
grain rice because I really like its
creamy starchy texture I find it absorbs
the tomatoey cooking liquid a lot better
than longer thinner rice that stuff gets
kind of brittle and breaks down when
cooked in a thicker broth like we are
for this dish next same as before I'll
just give this rice a quick rinse to
remove any excessive starch now to cook
this thing I'll grab my Dutch oven yet
again and drop it over medium heat once
it's hot it goes 50 grams of olive oil
then all 400 grams of my rinsed rice now
for the same reason as I did for the
pilaf I'm going to fry this rice in the
fat to help establish separate singular
grains that stand out texturally from
one another in the final dish this is
especially important for this starchy
medium grain rice it can get a little
bit clumpy next in goes all of my
chopped Sofrito and then 12 grams of
salt from here I'll stir in the Sofrito
and then cook it down for five to six
minutes I want to soften the onions and
peppers here and cook off some of the
raw edge of the herb and garlic I also
want to cook off excessive onion water
because there's a lot of it and that
will make our rice soggy and overcooked
next in goes 30 grams of tomato paste
I'll stir that in and then fry it with
the aromatic so that I can open up its
flavor that'll take about 2-3 mins it
and once the paste has reached this
beautiful Rusty color I'll add in 550
grams of chicken stock then one small
can or 225 grams of tomato sauce of
course if you don't want to make your
own fresh Sofrito from scratch you can
sub in this Sofrito base from the
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free shipping back at the stove I'm
gonna bring this stock and tomato sauce
up to a simmer then I'll pop on a lid
lower the pot into a 350f oven and bake
it for 20 minutes the oven is going to
impart some nice roasty my art Browning
into this rice dish that you just can't
get when you're cooking on the stovetop
and after 20 minutes I'll pull this pot
out of the oven and let it sit no don't
open the lid bro just let it sit cover
it for 15 minutes so the rice can finish
cooking and after 35 minutes of total
time I'll pop the lid and take a look oh
as you can see this rice has a beautiful
dark reddish orange color the grains are
distinctly separate and aren't broken or
most at all to finish I'll drizzle in a
little squeezer of fresh lime juice then
I'll add in roughly 10 grams of chopped
fresh cilantro the acid and the herbs
here are going to bring some brightness
and Life to an otherwise pretty dark and
very intense dish and there we go this
may look like a humble Latin rice dish
but this stuff is sharp spicy and has an
intensity to it that you rarely see in
rice dishes
you can taste every single granule of
rice it's tomatoey and it's also a
little bit spicy and is way better than
anything you've had at Taco Bell or a
Mexican restaurant it's so fresh
now the last rice recipe uses some
pretty weird techniques that I've
actually never used before and the final
result is texturally the most
interesting rice dish I've ever eaten oh
my God that is so crispy of course I'm
talking about the Persian dish tadig
this dish starts with 400 grams of long
grain Basmati style rice bonus points if
you go to the international grocery
store and get some of the imported
Iranian stuff that's what I have here
and it's what I call extra long grain
rice once it's cooked it holds itself
together really well for being so skinny
now to start I'll give this long grain
rice a quick rinse to remove the
excessive starch then I'll cover it with
a fresh layer of water about a liters
Worth or a thousand grams then I'll add
in 10 grams of salt and stir everything
to combine and then I'll brine this rice
for one hour that's right I said brine
rice that's something that I've actually
never done before but I found out that
it's essential for getting the texture
of this rice right you'll see why in
just a second one hour later this rice
has absorbed some of that brown line and
now it's white not that brownish tint
that we started with next I'll drain off
all that starchy salt water then grab a
large pot of water and drop it on the
stove to bring it up to a boil while
that comes up I'll prepare the main
seasoning ingredient for this dish
saffron I'm a huge fan of the earthy
sweet delicate floral pretty flavor of
saffron yes that's a lot of adjectives
but saffron is freaking complicated and
it needs all of them to get started here
I'm going to grab the better part of a
gram and then drop it into a mortar and
pestle from here I'll grind that down
into a saffron powder this is going to
open up the aroma and help it dissolve
into the hot water that we add in just a
second over at the stove this water is
up to a ripping simmer so to bloom out
this saffron I'll scoop about 100 grams
or about a half cup of water right out
of the pot and then drop it into the
mortar I'll let this Bloom out for about
five minutes while I cook my rice now
over at the pot of water I'm gonna add
in a lot of salt I want this water to
taste pretty freaking salty like not
quite ocean salty but like the level of
salty that your wife gets when you
accidentally drop chocolate on the couch
and then smush it in with your butt once
salted in goes all of my brined rice
from here I'll boil this rice like pasta
for three minutes boiling this combined
with the soak hydrates this rice in a
way that gives us super strong grains
that can stand up to being stirred and
fried now after three minutes of boiling
this rice like pasta I'll drain off all
of the water then flip the rice into a
medium bowl from there I'll add in my
saffron water and then gently fold all
of that together at this point the rice
is like 95 percent cooked and is
saturated with that beautiful vibrant
saffron Flavor now to crisp it up I'll
grab a 10 inch non-stick pan and drop it
on the stove over medium heat once
that's hot in goes a long squiggle of
olive oil then 75 grams of butter next
in goes all of my saffron rice I'll come
back and spread that out in the pan
making sure to get that Rice spread as
flat as possible once the rice is all
spread out I'll come back and poke it
with the button of my spatula to make
about 10 three quarters of an inch holes
these allow steam to escape and helps
keep this rice from overcooking and
getting mushy once I'm all poked up I'm
going to take the lid of this saute pan
and wrap it tightly with a tea towel
this is going to help keep the rice from
drying out and it's going to absorb the
steam that comes off the rice so it
doesn't drip back into the pan ruining
the crispiness so once I got this tea
towel secured like this I'll drop the
towel lid on the pan then lower the heat
to low and Fry this rice for 25 to 30
minutes crucially every three to five
minutes you need to come back and move
the pan so that you can get even
Browning I learned this the hard way
more than once you gotta keep it moving
you guys also if you're wondering hey
Bry can I do this in a heavy bottom pot
like a dutch oven yes you can
technically but it's much harder to get
right I did this three times in a dutch
oven and two of them did not work
ah if that's all you got though give it
a shot and after 30 minutes of slowly
patiently moving the saute pan around my
stove it's time to check on the rice I
like to determine doneness here mainly
by smelling the rice should have a
distinct toasty smell that is verging on
popcorn also the edges should have
separated from the pan a little bit and
you should be able to see some Browning
there that's also a good barometer now
we go for the Moment of Truth to see if
I did this correctly the third time I'm
going to put something flat over the pan
here and then I'm going to press it down
as hard as I can and flip this over
keeping that pressure the whole time so
that it doesn't fall apart be really
careful for this part
okay it flipped out cleanly oh baby okay
I'm so nervous did I get it right is it
brown but not burnt oh
yeah and that's a beauty of a rice dish
you guys we've got a crispy Dome and
some nice golden brown color
oh my God
that is so crispy it tastes like
saffroni movie theater popcorn and the
crunch is actually very similar to like
a partially popped popcorn kernel I've
spent the better part of a day figuring
out this recipe so I'm very confident in
this technique I tried three other ways
that didn't work super great this is the
way anyone can make this and it's so
delicious so that's three very good
tasting rice dishes along with some
special techniques that I hope give you
the confidence to make great tasting
rice let me know in the comments which
one of these dishes you're gonna make
sometime soon and if you want to see
another video packed with tested recipes
and interesting techniques check out
this video for pan sauces it'll really
change the way you think about cooking
fancy dinner at home see you there
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