"Instant" Rice

[Toddy]

Not higher, the "60 min" is what I remember for std brown (bran intact) rice cooking time.

Brown rice just gets simmered for half an hour and then boiled hard for the next five minutes. Works fine.
I don't know if our brown rice is your brown rice though.
We get black grain stuff called wild rice, and we get Red rice too. Red rice takes about half an hour too.

 

[Herman30]

Ben´s Original 3min rice. Does not even have to bee cooked. Soak in cold water for about 15-20 min and it is ready to be eaten. I have done it several times so it is no guessing, it´s a fact.

 

[ONE]

Nearly twenty quid a kilo ???

Cheaper than most of the offers I've had on US imports! It's insane.
When the commercial gods are smiling on me, I can turn the rat-pack retort pouched stuff for about 50p a pouch (about 150g) - That's with bulk buying admittedly, but it beggars belief that the 'instant' stuff can be so much more expensive.

 

[Toddy]

Scary prices for such a common commodity. It seems like such a rip off.
At that price though, I'd just have a go at making it myself.
It does need to be 'cracked' though, so boiling water over it, and then steam it hard and fast, then spread it out to cool down quickly, then dry it.
It's been a loooong time since I had a go at it. I did get a lot of broken grains

I wonder if the Asian supermarkets might have something similar. I know they have the rice flake stuff, and it's pretty quick to cook, but it's not rice grains, iimmc ?

 

[ONE]

I wonder if the Asian supermarkets might have something similar.

I use our local one a lot and I've not found anything. Oddly, unless you're buying 10kg sacks, I find that they're not that competitive price wise on rice generally.

 

[Jared]

Nearly twenty quid a kilo ??? I buy ten kilos of Basmati from Sainsbury's for under twelve.
Twenty quid ? what have they added ? gold ?

M....with housewife hat firmly on

Yeah, think buy 4kg bags from Tesco for around a fiver.

 

[Toddy]

@ONE
No, I think you're right, and the major supermarkets are already catering to that market. However, for the not so common stuff, the Asian supermarkets do have a lot more variety.
It might well be worth a look, or maybe an email to one of the online ones ?

 

[Jared]

3x 600g tins of white rice ... £125.

Freeze dried White Rice Tin — The Bug Out Prepper Shop & Survival Supplies

Bulk out your meals with a portion of white rice. Our White Rice Tins can be instrumental in helping to stretch meals further and allow you to provide meals for more people. Each tin benefits from BBE date of 2045 or longer

www.thebugout.co.uk

Definite pass on that.

 

[Hammock_man]

This "rice" stuff some folk are quoting 12 quid a kilo..... is it another name for Wago Beef I have not heard of!!!

 

[Jared]

It is "enriched" rice, just in more ways than one it seems.

 

[Woody girl]

The rice harvest has taken a big hit this year weather-wise. Its going to get expensive, and scarcer. I've just been adding 1kg bag of rice to my stores each week from liddel. Its still relatively cheap there, but you can buy huge bags from tesco. About a tenner. I'd never eat that much on my own, so I've not looked too hard at them. But if you eat lots of rice, it's worth buying.
I like the bags of precooked and flavoured microwave rice for quick meals. Own brands are cheaper than Ben's. I don't microwave them, as I don't have one, but add a bit of water and heat through on the stove top. Expensive way to go about rice realy, but its very quick, easy, and great for camp meals, and still cheaper than the real camping meals.

 

[Toddy]

If you are really trying to save energy then the microwave is excellent.

It'll steam cook (put them into a pyrex caserole dish, one with a lid) vegetables in minutes.
No loss of nutrients either.
It re-heats food quickly and efficiently. 2 minutes and those bags of rice and really hot.
You can bake a cake in a mug in two minutes as well, and it works well for gluten free ones

It'll make a quick omelette, again in a pyrex dish, that comes out clean with no added oil, in two and a half minutes, and it'll bake a big spud in six.

I didn't want a microwave, thought they were just a gimicky gadget, but Himself bought one, and I got used to it.
Then I realised that it's a really good way to cook food.
It's not the only way I cook food, but it's far more useful than just for 'Ding Dinners'.

 

[1 pot hunter]

Does anyone know of a source for plain "just add water" rice in the UK? It's called Minute Rice in the States, and you can get that here in international grocers for silly money. But I'm looking for a UK/Euro source at "normal" prices. There are various flavoured snack pack things that fit the bill, but I'm after just plain long grain rice.

Smash up wheatabix into powder reconstitute with hot water n add peanut butter this is v energy dense and quick

 

[Hammock_man]

Smash up wheatabix into powder reconstitute with hot water n add peanut butter this is v energy dense and quick

...or add milk and sugar like it says on the box. This has the advantage of tasting nice.