My husband, Speedy, buys rice at the local market. Two kilos every time. And it takes us two weeks, on the average, to consume those two kilos. We didn’t really have any complaints before but, recently, we noticed that something was off.
There was a lot of broken rice mixed with what was supposed to be premium jasmine rice. Worse, the pieces of broken rice seem to be older than the rest of the grains. Since aged rice (i.e., the grains have had a chance to dry longer) contains less moisture, it also needs more water to cook in. So while the rest of the grains were already perfectly fluffy, the wayward broken rice bits were still undercooked. I added more water but by the time the undercooked rice grains were done, the rest had turned mushy.
Broken rice is a term used for fragmented rice grains that were broken during drying or milling. Nutritionally, broken rice is the same as regular rice although much cheaper.
The last time it happened was really a bummer. It was Hainanese style chicken rice. The rice was cooked in the liquid where the chicken was poached. So aromatic. So flavorful. Sadly, the experience of biting into still-hard rice grains was not pleasant. We didn’t finish all the rice (we would have had it been evenly cooked) and the leftover was too much to throw away. Here’s how I saved it.
I put the rice in a pot, poured in chicken broth, shredded the remaining Hainanese style chicken and simmered everything together with occasional whisking.
Yes, I cooked it into congee. I thought it was just going to take a few minutes. You know, give those undercooked grains just enough liquid to cook in and everything should be okay. But I had to add broth two times more until the congee was smooth.
While the congee was simmering, I heated oil in a wok and dropped in store-bought prawn dumplings. Then, I took out the onsen eggs from the fridge. When the congee was ready, I ladled it into bowls, topped the rice with egg, dumplings and scallions and served the dish for our first meal today. We finished all the rice this time. No leftovers.
