Brown Rice

Once upon a time, my husband shared his recipe for brown rice on his blog. He worked very hard and did a lot of research to get it just right. Fluffy brown rice -- can you imagine?

Well, although his recipe makes very tasty rice, it takes upwards of an hour to complete. And friends, I just don't want to wait that long for dinner.

So these days, I make brown rice a little differently.

I follow one of the recipes for brown rice from the book Nourishing Traditions, which I've mentioned many times before. It's pretty much the traditional food bible.

You take some brown rice and equal parts butter and olive oil. Cook it until the rice gets creamy.

[bubble bubble]

Then you add chicken stock (and/or water), bring it to a boil, and let it boil until the liquid reduces to the level of the rice (or until you get bored or your baby gets fussy).

Then turn the heat down to the lowest it will go, put the lid on, and leave it there for at least 1.5 hours, up to 3.

When it's done it will look like this:

[Fluffy!]

Now, when I do this, I make sure to make a whooooole bunch at once, because it takes almost the same amount of time to make a lot or a little.

I did some research online and found that you can freeze cooked brown rice successfully if it has oil mixed in with it. Hey! This rice already does! Cool!

I let it cool and measure it into 2 or 3 cup portions, put it in ziplocks, and freeze.

Just pull a bag out to defrost on the counter for a couple hours before you want to use it! Precooked rice and precooked beans mean I can throw together fresh beans and rice for dinner in under 20 minutes!

[The rice is on the bottom.]