My day of starch, with variations on rice and grains

Today when I left the cave for my long day of wandering through the forests and visiting hunters in Pennsylvania, I realized all I had packed for lunch were grains and starches. That inspired me to write up some of my basic rice, grains, and grass seed (read: wild rice) recipes that I will refer to in future posts. I'll put my most heavily used sushi rice and long grain rice in this post, and save my wild rice and brown rice recipes for another day.

My basic sushi rice that I use for all sorts of sushi, stir fries, fresh fish dishes, and general eating:

1 cup sushi rice
water for washing, plus 1 cup water for cooking
Rind of 1 lime, without any pith
1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar or juice of 1 lime
Optional: toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro leaves

Take 1 cup of sushi rice and wash until the water runs clean. Place the wet washed sushi rice in a saucepan and add the 1 cup of water and lime rind. Put over high heat until the water begins to boil. Place a tight fitting lid on the saucepan and reduce the heat to low. Allow to slowly cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the lid on for 5 more minutes. Remove the lid and pour in the rice wine vinegar or the lime juice. Stir through with a wooden spoon or a rice paddle. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro if desired. You can also substitute lemon for lime in both the rind and juice, but I prefer lime in this case.

This will make about two big yeti fistfulls of rice, or enough for 2-3 sushi maki (rolls) or enough as a side dish for 3-4 people with maybe some nice seared tuna, or broiled salmon, or wildebeest steaks.

My basic jasmine rice. You can substitute the same amount of any long grain rice for the jasmine. Other long grain rice using this recipe will turn out just fine but will taste a little different than the jasmine.

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, preferably canola or peanut
1 cup of jasmine rice
2 cups of water or your favorite stock of hand-picked wild mushrooms or whatever you found at the grocery
1/2 tablespoon of butter
1 pinch of salt, unless you use stock and it's really salty already

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or pot, put the rice and vegetable oil. Place over medium high heat and stir frequently until the rice is turning white to slightly golden. Carefully add the stock to the saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Put the butter on top of the liquid and cover. Reduce the heat to low and allow to cook for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the rice mixture from the heat and stir in the pinch of salt. Serve with some nice peas, or, my favorite, asparagus, or maybe a big hunk of red meat and a red wine reduction with morels and cracked black pepper and...

Serves 1 yeti as a snack, 2 people as a main dish with some veggies and a nice salad, or 4 people with the veggies, a nice salad, some thing else, and maybe a nice slice of cake.