Topic: advice about rice

[Borlotti]

Didn't I hear that rice had bugs in it when reheated.   Yes I have been to the Guildhall many times, as I worked for the City Police at Wood Street (only as a  typist/later word processing operator), opposite the Guildhall and as staff we could go for lunch in the canteen (not the main hall) and when I left the police worked for the Institution of Structural Engineers (as word processing/desk top publishing supervisor for 10 years) until the clever university students overtook my knowledge and I went back to being a Secretary.  The Institutin had their annual dinner at the Guildhall and as staff I handed out the seating plan and smiled.  Also slipped out through the speeches and had a quick ciggie.  Very enjoyable, apart from the last one when I had retired and had a free ticket (as a civilian police pensioner) and then got food poisoning, or perhaps it was the free alcohol.

[Sinbad7]

So, where does that leave the frozen/chilled rice you buy in the supermarket?  Do they do something differetn to it then?

Sinbad

[Solorn]

I check the fridge every day. It helps me decide what to cook for dinner! Today we had Fridge Fritatta. I found a few onions, just starting to put out shoots, 3 mushrooms, a packet of bacon with a use by date of today, 2 tomatoes that were just going soft and a wrinkly yellow pepper. All fried up in a pan, covered with eggs and cheese, 15 minutes and done. The family loved it. Daily fridge checking is the way to go. 

[tim]

Displayed temperatures? I'm sure you know your onions, but D-n-D's fridge read out seems to have little to do with reality.

[grawrc]

Ah that's in hand! It gets checked independently on a regular basis. Mind you I suppose that could be wrong too!

[honeybee]

Still to this day people are unaware of the dangers of rice.

My belief is that its not necessarily a problem to reheat rice.

The danger lies within the storage of rice prior to reheating.

It is paramount that rice is never left at room temp. My Mum always taught me as a little girl never to use a cold rice dish on a buffet, but unfortunately I still see this happen to this day.

Personally I would not reheat rice myself as having once had food poising in Egypt and thinking that I was going to die, its just not worth the risk.

Tim, I am glad you brought up awareness of fridge temps too. I have an display on my fridge and moniter it closely, ideally the food should be below 5c but legally you can sell cold food stored up to 8c.

Fridge designs are a huge bee in my bonnet, you still see fridges sold with the salad compartment at the bottom of the fridge and no doubt people will place raw meats above those compartments.

I have a drawer at the bottom of my fridge for raw meat that keeps the meat lower than the reg fridge temp and then the salad boxes are above that and hope to see the day that all fridges are designed in that manner.

[Pesky Wabbit]

Im sure you are all aware that uncooked meat should never, Never, NEVER be stored on the same shelf as ready to eat foods, nor on a shelf above.

Uncooked meet contains all sorts of bacteria esp. bad strains of E.coli that are fatal -which is why you have to cook them. By placing prepared food next to, or under this you are risking contamination.

Numerous times I have seen this happen on the supermarket reduced/bargain counters; at which point I demand to see the manager - who always tells me he knows its against hygiene standards, but then I see it again a few weeks later. The trouble is they don't teach the shelf stackers.

[Looby Loo]

My OH says my rice is always perfect (unless I've had too much wine whilst cooking).  I boil it until it's not quite done and still has a slight chalky bite to it.  Drain it, put back in the saucepan with a squeeze of lemon and leave with the lid on for 5 minutes.  Fluff it up with a fork and hey presto - perfect rice!  Saw it on the tele but I can't remember who.  Wasn't Delia or Nigella (look-at-my-wonderous-bossom) Lawson, as I find them both equally annoying.

[caroline7758]

Have only skimed this thread so sorry if this has been mentioned already, but a useful site for checking on how much to cook, to avoid waste, is this one:

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions

And the measurements are in cups or mugs, so it's easy.

[flossy]

     When running a restaurant many years ago, pre - prep was vital to ensure all ran well.

      All un cooked meat was wrapped dated and kept in a seperate fridge,  --  idealy all
      domestic fridges should have a raw meat section.

      The rice was cooked then ran through cold water until it was clear, drained very well
      then turned into a dry colander which was placed on a plate and covered with a clean teatowel- then
      refridgerated on the top shelf.   Would not reccomend storage in plastic sealed containers, only
      for freezing maybe.

      We were regularly inspected by Health and Safety and they were OK with with our system.
      Glad to say, we didn't have much leftover - not enough to fridge or freeze.

      floss