RICE

Filipinos CANNOT live by bread alone. Uncooked rice is called bigas (bee-gus) and cooked it is called kanin (kah-neen.) I could write an entire blog just on rice. Filipino food must always be served with rice, yes, even pancit. Pure carbo-loading. There was a time when the Philippines was known for rice, and was a major rice exporter, such that the International Rice Research Institute was established in Laguna, Philippines. Alas, today, the Philippines has to import rice, mainly from Thailand. The most common kind of rice you will find on a Filipino table is boiled white rice, and the favorite in our home is the jasmine variety. Not as sticky as Japanese rice, or dry as Cal-Rose, or oily like Latin rice. White rice is simply rice and water, no oil, no butter.

Any Filipino worth his shoe collection is a rice eater. I wish I had statistics to tell you how many Filipinos have failed on the Atkins diet because they could not stand not eating rice anymore. Tonight we served you garlic fried rice, a breakfast staple. Fried because the cook used the leftover rice from the night before. You got fresh rice tonight, not leftovers but the best kind of rice to use to make good fried rice is “old” rice called bahaw (bah-how), not freshly boiled rice or it will be too sticky. Day old rice is perfect. In a pinch with no old rice, you can throw fresh cooked rice in the freezer for a couple of hours to dry it out, then it will make better fried rice.

WHITE RICE: Rule of Thumb: one cup rice to 1.5 cups of water. Bring to a boil uncovered. At the boil, turn the fire to low, and cover. Keep checking rice until soft and fluffy and cooked through, about 20 minutes for two cups of rice, 3 cups water. (To make it even easier, buy an automatic rice cooker. Use same proportions, switch on, and forget about it until it’s time to eat.)

GARLIC FRIED RICE: Peel garlic and mash. I leave amount to you, I would use half a head for 3 cups cooked rice. Heat up about 3 tbsp oil. Fry garlic until it starts to get brown, then throw in rice and toss. Sprinkle rock salt to taste. Toss about 5 minutes until done. Variation: pour in some soy sauce, to make brown fried rice, Skip the salt in this case. Can also toss in an egg. Toss vigorously to break egg up and end up with fried rice with egg bits. Yum.