Medium-Grain Rice
This is another all-purpose rice. Kernels are shorter and a bit wider than long-grain varieties. This rice type is useful for making rice porridge and cooks up soft with a slightly sticky texture. It is also good as an everyday plain rice.

Short-Grain Rice
The most popular rice in Korea and Japan, often called sushi rice, is the variety used, mixed with sugar and rice vinegar to make sushi. Kernels are stubby with a plump almost round shape. Short-grain rice is slightly stickier than long-grain, making it easier to eat with chopsticks. When properly cooked it tends to form clumps of soft grains that cling together and have a shiny texture. Short-grain rice is commonly used for making rice porridge (congee) or enjoyed as plain table rice.

** Asian Recipes **

This is by far the most popular rice eaten in China and throughout Southeast Asia. The kernels are about five times as long as they are wide. Long-grain rice is the least starchy of all rice and cooks up dry and fluffy with grains that separate easily. It is the best type for making plain steamed rice, pilaf, and fried rice dishes.

There are many brands and varieties to choose from including naturally fragrant jasmine from Thailand called khao hom mali, aged basmati from India, and American labels such as Carolina, Patna, and Louisiana Pecan. Other good Thai jasmine brands are Ba Con Nai with a blue and red deer head logo on a white bag. Alternatively, you can also buy cartons of fresh-cooked rice from the deli counter to take home when you don't have time to cook your own.

An aromatic long-grain type with very slender kernels, this rice is grown in India, Iran and Pakistan. It is aged for at least a year after harvesting to let it develop its full flavor. Both brown and white types are available and they have a nutty aroma and taste. Basmati rice expands greatly, especially lengthwise, as it cooks, creating distinct, dry, fluffy grains. Ideal for Persian and North Indian dishes as well as an excellent everyday rice.

Look for brands from India and Pakistan in brown burlap bags, often with colorful lettering and sewn-up handles. Royal Basmati in 11-pound burlap bags is good. Texmati is a Texas grown type of basmati, similar in character to the ones from Northern India.

** Asian Recipes **

A bivalve mollusk (similar to scallops, oysters, as well as clams), mussels consist of a variety of species. Two of the most well-known types are blue-black mussels, located across the Pacific, Atlantic, in addition to Mediterranean shorelines, plus the considerably less common New Zealand green mussels, shipped in from New Zealand. Both varieties have the identical taste, however the green varieties can be a little bigger and also significantly more costly.

(continue here...)

Appearances usually are not everything. On first glance, a truffle seems similar to some sort of irregular, warty, coarse, as well as lumpy formed mass. However the actual taste can be smooth just as velvet. Truffles mushrooms are actually highly valued fungi which grow subterranean, most abundantly underneath some specific oak and also hickory trees in Italy and France. They tend to be very costly for the reason that it normally takes keen pigs and canines to sniff out their natural undercover position during the fall and winter. Typically the common truffle is the size of a walnut, however they can easily grow until up to 6" across. Lots of varieties can be found, however white and black truffles are usually the most significant.

Black truffles (also known as black diamonds) come from the Perigord region in France. The color is in actual fact a dark brownish or even grayish purple-black. They possess an amazingly earthly fragrance and abundant, delicate taste together with nutty undertones. Moderate cooking gives away the finest flavor. White truffles are usually much more aromatic as well as pungent, tan or slightly brownish in shade, and thrive generously within the Piedmont location of Italy. Their musky, natural aroma along with flavor contains nuances of garlic and aged cheese, having an occasional peppery bite.

White truffles are generally almost often introduced raw into Italian cuisine, typically shaved into wafers over pasta, risotto, and also cheese gravies. When buying truffles, choose by means of scent. To keep them, bury the truffles within rice grains and then refrigerate up to 10 days. Make use of the truffle-flavored grain as well. For an inexpensive approach to delight in the flavor of truffles, purchase truffle oil, keep it inside the fridge, but finish it within one year. Truffle oil can be splendid drizzled over bread, salads, pasta, risotto, polenta, seafood, or vegetables.

Processed truffles are also readily available, however they possess significantly less flavor as compared to fresh and reduce to half their actual size, forming a more dense consistency and darker color.

** Asian Recipes **