Broken Rice
Submitted by Stuart Broz on Mon, 08/31/2009 - 11:11pm
Image by Andrew MagillAs we settle in to our new home, Angela and I are exploring the local cuisine. We live very near a large Latin American and Caribbean population. On one of our first days here, we stumbled into a Caribbean market on New Hampshire. Among other things, we needed a bag of short-grain rice. That was not to be had, sadly. While the market had a lot of rice is was all long grain - and much of it was parboiled. We did, however, find a bag of broken rice. Neither of us were familiar with it, so - of course - we took it home with us.
The texture of the broken rice was definitely not what we expected. It reminded Angela of couscous, and I can understand that. It was starchy and a little nutty. Its use will require some experimentation, but I suspect it could be used in place of couscous. I wonder whether it is starchy enough for a risotto? If so, that would be awesome, as it is far less expensive than arborio.
Broken rice is simply long grain white rice that had been damaged. It is a lower grade of rice that, in the US, is mostly used in pet food and beer. Broken rice was originally peasant food in Vietnam, but it is now more widely often used in Vietnamese cuisine.
