19 Aug 2007, ST
By Chris Tan
Q How do I go about making a good baked rice? It is either too dry or not cooked. What type of cheese goes well with it? I used mozzarella cheese but it was too hard and dry.
Theresa Tan Cheng Huay
A A good Hong Kong-style baked rice (below) rests on three elements: rice, sauce and cheese topping. The rice must first be cooked until fluffy and just tender, not mushy and overdone. It's often tossed with a little butter to help the grains stay separate, yet moist.
The sauce is usually based on pureed tomatoes, milk or cream, or stock. Ideally, it should insulate the rice from the oven's heat, preventing it from drying out, without actually soaking all the way into it and making it soggy.
For this, it should be fairly thick, though not so thick as to coat the inside of your mouth like molten lava. You can thicken dairy or stock-based sauces with cornstarch or potato starch, while tomato sauce should be full-bodied enough from the tomato pulp. To pump up a dairy sauce's flavour, whisk some softened cream cheese into it.
As for the cheese topping, try using a blend: Cheddar for depth of flavour, mozzarella for milkiness, Parmesan or Pecorino for pungency. Mozzarella that's hard to begin with - that is, cheap long-life versions - will be unpleasantly dry once melted and cooled, so use fresh, moist mozzarella balls.
Spread the rice in a baking dish, top with ingredients (meat, seafood and so on), then the sauce. Sprinkle liberally with the coarsely grated cheese, then cook on the oven's top shelf at around 190 deg C. This should ensure the cheese melts and browns before the other layers overcook. And finally, eat promptly.
By Chris Tan
Q How do I go about making a good baked rice? It is either too dry or not cooked. What type of cheese goes well with it? I used mozzarella cheese but it was too hard and dry.
Theresa Tan Cheng Huay
A A good Hong Kong-style baked rice (below) rests on three elements: rice, sauce and cheese topping. The rice must first be cooked until fluffy and just tender, not mushy and overdone. It's often tossed with a little butter to help the grains stay separate, yet moist.
The sauce is usually based on pureed tomatoes, milk or cream, or stock. Ideally, it should insulate the rice from the oven's heat, preventing it from drying out, without actually soaking all the way into it and making it soggy.
For this, it should be fairly thick, though not so thick as to coat the inside of your mouth like molten lava. You can thicken dairy or stock-based sauces with cornstarch or potato starch, while tomato sauce should be full-bodied enough from the tomato pulp. To pump up a dairy sauce's flavour, whisk some softened cream cheese into it.
As for the cheese topping, try using a blend: Cheddar for depth of flavour, mozzarella for milkiness, Parmesan or Pecorino for pungency. Mozzarella that's hard to begin with - that is, cheap long-life versions - will be unpleasantly dry once melted and cooled, so use fresh, moist mozzarella balls.
Spread the rice in a baking dish, top with ingredients (meat, seafood and so on), then the sauce. Sprinkle liberally with the coarsely grated cheese, then cook on the oven's top shelf at around 190 deg C. This should ensure the cheese melts and browns before the other layers overcook. And finally, eat promptly.
No comments:
Post a Comment