Ideas on flavoring rice

tetrinetsshimmy, Apr 13, 6:41am
What herbs and spices or sauce can I add to rice to give it good flavour to go with chicken etc. thanks

bisloy, Apr 13, 6:47am
garlic and lemon, curry and chicken stock, coconut .

pauline999, Apr 14, 6:03am
chinese five spice

punkinthefirst, Apr 14, 7:12am
Chop onion finely, sweat it in butter til it is clear, but not browned. Add your uncooked rice and stir until it is coated in the butter. Put in a casserole dish, and cover the rice with well-flavoured chicken stock, to the depth of the rice plus the depth of your index finger to the first knuckle. (Sounds weird, but works, whatever size pot you use). Cover and bake at 180 degrees C, stirring from time to time, and adding more chicken stock as needed. Result is a flavoursome, tender, moist Pilaff.
Make plenty, because you can jazz it up with parsley, grated fresh ginger, cashews, or whatever. You can use leftovers to stuff a tomato and bake for lunch or as a side dish. You can use it to make fried rice. It's always handy to have cooked rice in the freezer as well. It thaws quickly in the microwave and can be used as a base for many a quick meal.

huntlygirl, Apr 14, 1:37pm
I buy Mac Cormacks fried rice seasoning it is in a shot glass at the supermarket it is nicely balanced.

lythande1, Apr 14, 7:06pm
Rice should be either fried rice - or you serve it with things that have a sauce. as curry does.

Never just bung rice on a plate with a piece of chicken or something.

sampa, Apr 14, 8:31pm
Chicken cooked how tetrinetsshimmy? Different flavours/seasonings suit different dishes. Also different varieties of rice have different flavours and some are considered more suitable as accompaniments to certain cuisines than others. For example Jasmine Rice (sometimes referred to as 'fragrant rice') is great with Thai/Asian dishes, Basmati Rice goes well with a lot of Indian dishes. and so forth. If you're talking about plain white rice though you could try adding a teaspoonful or two of instant stock (depends on the quantity you're cooking and don't forget that instant stocks are quite salty) to the water that you cook it in and see if that helps the flavour. Green herb is a good one to start with, it more or less goes with anything you want to serve alongside the rice.

beaker59, Apr 15, 11:32pm
I cook a fair bit of rice sometimes I will add a pinch of turmeric to white rice for the colour but rarely anything else as the rice is really flavoured by the sauce of what you are serving it with.

However I eat allot of brown rice lately and I like to flavor that a fair bit. I will add to a 2 cup rice 4 cup water batch at least 1/2 tsp turmeric, 4 cloves, 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, and pinch allspice. really nice with almost everything including chicken.

juliewn, Apr 16, 10:57am
I use turmeric too Beaker. makes a lovely yellow colour.

I like the tangy flavour of apple cider vinegar either on its own or with a little soy sauce.

buzzy110, Apr 16, 9:45pm
Interesting but I'm not sure it "should" be anything of the sort. Traditional Asian cuisine (Chines, Japanese, Indian, Thai, etc usually serve their rice plain boiled and in a separate bowl. It is eaten separately as well.

That is not to say the Western way of serving rice combined with a well sauced food is not a great idea. The recipe given by pumpkinfirst is the absolute best imo. I had a dish similar to that served to me a few years ago and I still remember it fondly. I think he used a Rick Stein recipe.

Once again flavoured rice requires that the correct rice be used for the dish. For the dish I was served I'm sure he used a short grain rice. Risotto is nothing if not made with proper risotto rice. Sticky rice is best for Sushi, etc.

tokotoru1, Apr 17, 10:08pm
We cook our rice with a can of coconut cream/ milk instead of water, so nice.

ritebuy, Oct 4, 10:04am
add fresh tarrogon