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Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

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Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#61

Time to share my recipe for dry roasted pressure cooked brown rice. I make this using a stainless steel stovetop pressure cooker. I do not recommend aluminum. The ingredients are two cups brown rice (long or short grain as you wish), two cups of water or a little less (yes, the rice:water ratio is just 1:1), and half a teaspoon of salt or less. You can scale this up or down easily. Put the rice in the pressure cooker…

Would aluminum not work as well because it conducts heat better than steel so it might burn the rice? Asking because I have an aluminum pressure cooker and I'd like to try it still.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#62
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps puffed is a better word than popped. While it is true that puffed rice is currently made using large pressure swings, people online claim rice has been puffed using "hot salt frying" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_salt_frying ) for hundreds of years ( https://nitter.net/whetstone_mag/status/1564282053025210368?... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice ) and supposedly there is a secondary source da…

> While it is true that puffed rice is currently made using large pressure swings, people online claim rice has been puffed using "hot salt frying" Cook-and-then-fry (with various frying methods) seems to be the commonly-documented method for home puffed/popped rice.

In fact, putting rice in hot sand to puff it is sometimes thought to be the world's oldest cooking technique. Still done in places in India.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#64
post #59

This reminds me of my childhood in India where my grandma and mom will "fry" everything whole and it used to be delicious. Little but chopped onion, cilantro and lemon makes it even yummier. I said fried for lack of better word but the way it gets done is - just stir and toss them with hot sand in a wide mouth clay pot. When it is done, just use a sieve to separate sand and the grain. It is pretty wholesome snack. Co…

I read where that is the world's oldest cooking technique!

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you could do the same in an Instant Pot... I just tried the stovetop technique with wheat berries (hard white), and they just expanded very slightly. But unlike a raw wheat berry, they tasted okay!

To do the same thing on an instant pot, you'd have to remove the entire lid all at once. It's the explosive decompression which fluffs up the grains. For this reason, the asian merchants usually open the devices into a bag made of sturdy material.

Gotcha—so probably not going to end up in the official Instant Pot cookbook. Ha

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wether or not it is popped, is it ready to eat ? From a prepper perspective it would be great to have an alternative way to prepare rice without having to boil away water that might be in scarce supply. It's also attractive to cook rice in 2 minutes as opposed to waiting for a pot of water to boil. Edit: If no one replies, I'll try tonight and report back by tomorrow morning.

Where do you live that water would be in that short supply? It only has to be a reasonably fresh and clear, not necessarily drinkable given it's going to be boiled for several minutes.

Aside from the other responses, the second biggest city in Mexico just had a drought for months.

Not to say people are going to begin experimenting with popping whole grains over it, but water goes into short supply all over the world. And in those cases the water you can get has things like heavy metals and runoff that don’t just boil out.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#67
post #59

This reminds me of my childhood in India where my grandma and mom will "fry" everything whole and it used to be delicious. Little but chopped onion, cilantro and lemon makes it even yummier. I said fried for lack of better word but the way it gets done is - just stir and toss them with hot sand in a wide mouth clay pot. When it is done, just use a sieve to separate sand and the grain. It is pretty wholesome snack. Co…

I am assuming, you are talking about something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kokO6XqJvAE. If so, it's not sand, it's salt.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live that water would be in that short supply? It only has to be a reasonably fresh and clear, not necessarily drinkable given it's going to be boiled for several minutes.

Can't speak for anyone else, but here in Phoenix, if the municipal water stops pumping for whatever reason, options are very scarce, and hope you have a good multi-stage filter + UV setup with at least an OK source of water. You should generally have 15 gallons of clean drinking water per person on hand, which should last a couple weeks. In addition to a larger supply of water for washing/flushing. TBH, I don't have…

Assuming you have sunny days could you leave the (river? rain?) water all day in clear containers for the UV? You might need to do a lot at once to save for non sunny days.

Assuming no industrial pollution.

Probably want some resorts before this last resort though.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#69
post #67
post #59

This reminds me of my childhood in India where my grandma and mom will "fry" everything whole and it used to be delicious. Little but chopped onion, cilantro and lemon makes it even yummier. I said fried for lack of better word but the way it gets done is - just stir and toss them with hot sand in a wide mouth clay pot. When it is done, just use a sieve to separate sand and the grain. It is pretty wholesome snack. Co…

I am assuming, you are talking about something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kokO6XqJvAE . If so, it's not sand, it's salt.

I am pretty sure it used to be sand. Comments on same youtube video:

> Sand is also used in a similar process, but only for roasting groundnuts/peanuts, which can be cleaned easily afterward.

Re: Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

#70
post #35
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen rice done in videos by (I believe?) heating them under pressure and then releasing the pressure suddenly, causing max puffage . An example: https://youtu.be/ZyJoqS__7O0

Puffed rice is made differently in India. They use a hot pan and black sand with no pressure release. Example: https://youtu.be/36GKVfo5PUA

To be clear, it’s black salt which is possibly in sand sized particles not black beach sand. So he doesn’t need to worry about leaving grit in the puffed rice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

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