Duguid Naomi - Seductions of Rice

seductions of rice

Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid

ARTISAN NEW YORK

Copyright 1998 by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
All black-and-white and travel photographs copyright 1998 by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

The following photographs are individually copyrighted by the photographers:

COLIN FAULKNER

BEATRIZ DA COSTA

EVAN SKLAR

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher.

Published by Artisan
A Division of Workman Publishing, Inc.
225 Varick Street, New York, New York 10014-4381
www.artisanbooks.com

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE.
eISBN 9781579655662

THE RICE DICTIONARY

CULTIVATING AND HARVESTING

THE CHINESE WAY

THE THAI WAY

THE JAPANESE WAY

THE INDIAN WAY

THE CENTRAL ASIAN AND PERSIAN WAYS

THE MEDITERRANEAN WAY

THE SENEGALESE WAY

THE WORTH AMERICAN WAY

Our favorite way to eat rice is out of a bowl, the way it is commonly eaten in China. We also like eating rice from a small dinner plate using a dessert spoon to pick it up, Thai style. And when we are in South India, we eat it from a banana leaf with our hands, and then we think that is the best way.

But at home we like to use a bowl, a largish one the size of a caf-au-lait bowl. We scoop out a generous helping of plain rice from our reliable rice-cooking pot using a wooden rice paddle, and then reach for something flavorful to eat over it: chopped fresh tomatoes from the garden mixed with basil and Vietnamese coriander, or roasted sesame seeds ground with coarse salt, or spicy Sichuan tofu left over from the night before, or a hot Thai curry. We always have on hand a few different condiments to pull out from the refrigerator: nam pla prik from Thailand, Japanese pickles, a Chinese la jiao jang.

This big bowl of rice is our everyday lunch; occasionally its dinner, sometimes its even a midmorning snack. Its our comfort food, and we never get tired of it. It is, in many ways, what this book is most about.

We didnt grow up with rice, we came to know it through travel in Asia, like people who travel to France for the first time and there discover good cheese and good wine. But it took a while for this discovery to happen. We were without all the little sensibilities that people have when they grow up eating rice as a staple food. It took years for us to really appreciate the smells and textures of different varieties, and to have a sense of why one should be cooked one way and another a different way.

Somewhere along the line we found ourselves hooked on rice, on good rice, that is, and on rice as a way of preparing meals. Just like in millionsmaybe hundreds of millionsof homes all around the world where rice is a staple food, we fell into the habit of putting rice on to cook first thing in the kitchen. Its effortless. Then we would start thinking about what to serve with the rice, but wed already be well into preparing our meal.

If you werent raised with rice, this might sound a bit monotonous. But good rice is just like good bread. It always tastes real and it always sparks an appetite. In fact, this is even truer of rice, as it goes so well with a staggering number of different foods, from Senegalese peanut stew to Yunnanese spicy ground pork. And unlike bread, which requires a grain that has been ground into flour, and that flour transformed into bread, rice is simply cooked!

This, then, is a book about rice, and flavored rice dishes, and eating with rice as a staple food. In the chapters that discuss the foods of China, Thailand, Japan, and India, you will find many recipes for dishes where rice is not an ingredient. These recipes are for dishes to serve with riceplain rice, rice in a bowl, rice on a plate, rice on a banana leaf. From Thai Grilled Beef Salad or Spicy Chinese Greens Salad, from South Indian Lentil Stew to Kerala Coconut Chicken Curry or Kyoto Grilled Peppers, these are some of our favorite foods in the world. Each of these chapters moves from plain rices to dishes to serve with rice, then finally to flavored-rice dishes such as fried rice, sushi, and rice pudding. They are all good home cooking: easy, affordable, and fun.

In subsequent chapterson Persian and Silk Road rices, the Mediterranean, Senegal, and the Americasthe focus shifts from the Asian tradition of rice being served unflavored to the wonderful world of pilaf, chelo, pulao, risotto, paella, diebou dien, perloos, and more: flavored rices. Many of the recipes in these chapters are for rice dishes, with only the occasional side dish or accompaniment. Only in the case of Senegal have we departed from this pattern, wanting to give a more complete picture of a fascinating and too unfamiliar culinary tradition.

Entire cookbooks are written on risottos, paellas, and pilafs, so we have tried to concentrate on the tradition of each dish, its essence. When faced with an elaborate version versus a rustic version, we usually gravitate toward the rustic version, as it more often seems to embody the original tradition.

The world of rice is so huge, it would be presumptuous to think that we could include every rice here, or discuss every important rice tradition. Instead weve tried to give an introduction to the world of rice. We hope this book will help you navigate that world with ease, finding your own ways, bringing dishes to your table with confidence and pleasure, day in and day out.

We sometimes laugh when we think about the food we eat at home. Its as unlike the food we ate growing up as any could possibly be. We eat curries from India and tofu dishes from China, seaweed from Japan and little dried fishes. We eat tiny bird chilesand have a fit if we run out. We have a pantry that looks like a United Nations banquet. But the most exotic food is rice. Without it, none of the other ingredients would be there in our kitchen. Its the great facilitator, unrivaled.

INDISPENSABLE CONDIMENTS TO HAVE ON HAND

, THAILAND

, THAILAND

, CHINA

, JAPAN

ON A HOT SUMMER NIGHT

, ITALY

, MEXICO

, with rice, JAPAN

, with rice, THAILAND

, with rice, TURKEY

, THAILAND

, with rice, CHINA

, UNITED STATES

, with rice, INDIA

, with rice, CHINA

, TURKEY

ON A COLD WINTER EVENING

, with rice, SENEGAL

, UNITED STATES

, ITALY

, TURKEY

, SOUTH CAROLINA

, with rice, CHINA

WHAT TO COOK WHEN YOURE ALMOST TOO TIRED TO COOK

, with rice, INDIA

, with rice, JAPAN

, with rice, CHINA

, with rice, CHINA

, with rice, CHINA

, with rice, INDIA

, with rice, THAILAND

VEGETARIAN FAVORITES

, ITALY

, JAPAN

, with rice, INDIA

, with rice, INDIA

, PERSIA

, JAMAICA

, with rice, CHINA

, with rice, INDIA

FEAST FOODS

, with rice, INDIA

, THAILAND

, with rice, CHINA

, with rice, CHINA

, SILK ROAD

, PERSIA

, SENEGAL

TO PLEASE GUESTS WHO LOVE EXOTIC FOOD

, SPAIN

, SPAIN

, SILK ROAD

, SENEGAL

, JAPAN

, SENEGAL

, THAILAND

AND TO PLEASE THOSE WHO ARE JUST THE OPPOSITE

, with rice, THAILAND

, PERSIA