The Iranian Rice Revolution

Ever had one of those ah-ha moments that radically undoes all of your basic assumptions about the order of the world? No, me neither. But I have had moments that completely make me change how things are done in our soul food kitchen. I’m talking about rice.

I grew up learning to cook rice probably the way most of you did: Absorption Method. A certain quantity of rice (say, 1 cup) is mixed with a multiple of water (say 1.5 cups) and then cooked at some combination of boil and simmer until all the water had been absorbed and the rice was done. Absorption Method. Rice cooked this way might hold its own for perhaps a day, after which it’s either used for something like rice pudding or tossed.

Enter the Iranian Method. Soaked, parboiled, then steamed in its own wetness. The process takes about 2.5 hours from start to finish but so what. No concerns about the ratio of water to rice. No concerns about the rice being burnt or getting too dry, etc. etc. Each grain of rice comes out beautifully articulated, sharp tasting. Nothing mealy about this dish. And best of all, perhaps, because you don’t have all this water embedded in the cooked rice, it has a much longer shelf life.

This is the only way I cook rice these days, unless I’m in a dreadful hurry, which happens, um, never. Because I can cook my rice in advance of when I need it, and the result is by far superior.

So this question becomes: Why does anyone in his or her right mind cook rice that other way? Habit? Lack of awareness? The tendency to cook the way we saw our parents’ cook? Indifference? Skepticism that there might be a better technique for cooking something so seemingly pedestrian and familia? A combination of some or all of the above? I dunno.

I just know that I can’t fathom going back to cooking rice the way I once did. Makes no sense. And this chapter in our soul food kitchen reminds me once again that cooking is all about lifelong learning.