Breakthrough in Home Dehydration

> to have nice individual grains of rice put small amount of oil in pan then add rice.

I shared accommodation with an Indian guy at uni.  He introduced me to basmati rice.  He insisted that you should never, ever stir rice, as it's the stirring that causes gloopiness.  Provided you put in the right amount of water to rice, you simply simmer it until there's no water left.  His rice was perfect, and, when cooled, glorious just on its own; basmati, queen of rices...

I've never managed the knack...

I can't say that I've ever felt the need for individual grains of rice; good lumps of fragrant basmati is perfect for me.  I know that's how it usually comes in Indian restaurants, but all the Indian home cooking I've ever experienced has had clods of rice.  Traditionally, rice is the staple, and the sauce is merely flavouring; you mush up a lump of rice in your fingers, dip it in the sauce, and then pop it in your mouth.  You couldn't do that with individual grains of rice...

Thanks again guys, I'd really like to crack it. I must look out for Jamie Olivers spaghetti bolognese recipe. With regard to cooking rice normally I'd add 2 measures of water to 1 of rice and let it soak up the water, spaghetti I cook untill there's just a trace of white core remaining then drain. CP, sounds plausible regarding over drying the sauce, I'll go for leather/rubber (hmm, ought to be careful who I say that to )

I quite like cooking but nothing too exciting, I think swedish meatballs and sauce with fresh carrots, green curly cabbage and baby spuds would be my limit. That might be quite nice modified for dehydrating, pork & steak mince in swedish meatball sauce dehydrated with some carrot & cabbage (or mushrooms), served with smash or rice.

to cook basmati rice to follow "tradition" it should be washed until the rinsing water is clear and then soaked before cooking which then takes about one and a half water volume. personally i've never really noticed that much difference for the faff.

however, rice should never be stirred whilst it's cooking as it breaks up the starch - just what you want it to do when making risotto for example. stirring just after reaching the boil gets rid of any grains that have stuck to the bottom of the pan.

stirring whilst it's boiling will make it gloopy and you've then made congee - chinese breakfast dish.

another rice method is to boil it in lots of water until cooked, drained then rinsed in boiling water and drained. gives a slightly different end result - an indian method but i suspect may be a raj version.

leave rice until nearly dry, add oil and add heat to fry the bottom of the rice for a crispy layer - a chinese variation.

needless to say there are innumerable variations based upon rice variety, culture and cooking skills and requires various degrees of faff.

try a pint of extra cream jersey milk - or whatever they want to call it - with basmati rice and a cardomon or two for heavenly rice pudding. erm..not outdoors though unless you have a petrol can full of meths!

So for dehydrated rice you need to use energy to cookit ,energy to dehydrate it ,and then energy to re constitute it .

 This is why i eat noodles in the field .

LOL !

at 70C you are definitely cooking it further - think tin of condensed milk in a pan of simmering water - banoffee pie here you come.

60C for the first hour or so is ok but turn down to 50C for the rest of the time or it's cooking again.

r_mac - try cooking the mince separately on a medium heat to get the water out of the mince; the mince will vigorously boil in its own water rather than fry. drain on kitchen paper (to get rid of as much fat as possible) then dehydrate and then mix with the dehydrated sauce when rehydrating. if it's not beefy enough a bit of oxo cube works wonders.

If you're eating rice as a staple, I think you'd probably want to try to ensure that you get all the value out of it.  Which is why pre-washing, using excess water and draining, or washing afterwards are sub-optimal; you're washing away a lot of starch that you could be cooking and eating...

I think it's only when you have abundant resources that you can start to enjoy the luxury of individual grains of rice (probably served to you by lithe, dusky-skinned beauties)...

> Just looked at a value pack of noodles .not seeing much chemicals

I've noticed that Tesoc and Sainsbury's 8p noodles don't mention MSG, sodium guanylate or disodium inosinate.  This made me think that they didn't contain such things.

The do mention 'flavourings', and I've recently read that, following pressure form the food lobby, they are now allowed to use that description for flavour enhancers.  I've yet to confirm whether this is the case.