Three-Toed Sloth

Ginger Rice

This blends my memories of three or four different recipes from various Asian cookbooks (Singaporean, Vietnamese, etc.).

Cooking oil
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 inch ginger root, chopped fine
2 cups white rice

3 cups chicken stock

Warm the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Fry garlic and ginger until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the rice and stiry-fry very quickly, until all the rice has just been coated in oil (say half a minute), then add the chicken stock. Stir thoroughly to keep the rice from sticking to the pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook 15 minutes, or until the water is aborbed, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and let sit another fifteen minutes. Fluff.

Notes. Oil: Basically any sort of vegetable cooking oil will do; olive oil is not very authentic but it is tasty. Rice: This works really well with long-grain basmati. With medium-grain "Calrose" rice, the results are still pretty good; I suspect it needs a somewhat lower ratio of stock to rice, but I haven't found the optimal one, and 3:2 still turns out nicely. Most of the recipes I've seen enjoin you to wash the rice multiple times in cold water until it runs clear. I've tried that, and neither I nor my guests can really taste any difference.

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