CULINARY INFO
Rice

RICE
How and where it is grown
For the cultivation of rice, a hot, wet climate is required, which is why it is chiefly grown in India, China, Far east, South America, Italy and the southern states of America. In order to grow, rice requires more water than any other cereal, hence rice or paddy fields are almost always in a foot of water.

Types
Believe it or not there are approximately 7000 different varieties of rice (oryza satiea), though we only generally use a very small fraction of these. Rice is divided into three main groups:

Long grain:
A narrow, pointed grain which has had the full, bran and most of the germ removed so that it is less fibrous than brown rice. Because of its firm structure, which helps it to keep the grains separate in cooking, it is suitable for plain boiling and savoury dishes such as kedgeree, fried rice and curries. It is 5 times longer than it is wide.

Medium grain:
All the properties of short grain rice but slightly longer in shape

Short grain:
A short, rounded grain with a soft texture that is well suited to sweet dishes and risotto.

From these three main groups comes all the different varieties, the main types are :

Arborio:
An Italian short grain rice.

Basmati:
A narrow long grain rice with a distinctive flavour suitable for serving with Indian type meals and dishes. Basmati rice needs to be soaked before cooking, so as to remove excess starch

Kome:
A short grain rice preferred by the Japanese

Brown grain:
Any rice that has had its outer covering removed, but retains bran and as a result is more nutritious and contains more fibre. Brown rice takes a lot longer to cook than white rice.

Whole grain rice:
Any rice that is the whole unprocessed grain of the rice, extremely high in fibre.

Wild rice:
Not really a rice at all, only a relation of the rice family. It is in fact a seed of an aquatic grass (Zizania aquatica), native to North America it is long grained, grey-brown in colour with a nutty flavour. Normally used for stuffing game and poultry.


Rice by products

• Precooked instant rice

• Ground rice

• Rice flour

• Rice paper