Classic rice recipes APPROXIMATELY THREE out of five people in this world live on rice, the main item in their diet, and the ways in which they have learned to cook it are wonderfully creative. It is served in the form of noo- dies, made into soup, roiled in feaves and vegetables, fried, steamed, made into sausages and, finally, into sweet desserts. You can eat rice three times a day. In China they do just that. The Greeks roi! it in erape leaves, and the Itaiians prepare creamy risotto, but the rice is generally seen as a side dish, even though the Italians do eat more Fice than any other European na- on. FRIED RICE (serves 6 as part of a Chinese meal} . In Hong Kong, even at a formal meai, the last course is very often a wonderful fried rice. The Chinese must be sure you are ab- solutely stuffed before you leave the table. If by chance you should still have the least bit of roo teft in your tummy you are to fill it with fried rice. Y pound pork steak, chopped MARINADE 1 teaspoon light soy sance 1 teaspoon Chinese ice wine or dry sherry Ye teaspoon freshly grated ginger 3 tablespoons pezaut chowing Additioaal meats, ail optional: Ad@d aay or si? of these in any amount you wish: Chinese sweet pork sausage, sliced; cooked chicken; cooked skeimp; bam, cut oi) for 2 cess, beaten 1 enp dry long-grain rice, cooked and cooled 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine 2 ribs celery, sliced thia 1 mediaz yellow onion, peeled and chopped 1 cup chopped Chinese celery cabbage 8 water chestnuts, sliced thin 1 cup defrosted frozen peas 3 Chinese mushrooms, soaked for 2 Sours, drained and sliced thin 4 greea onions, slivered SAUCE 1 tablespoou light soy sauce Vs teaspoon MSG (optional) V4 teaspoon salt Pinch of sugar aa aX THE FRUGAL GOURMET 2 cup fresh bean sprouts Marinate the pork for 15 minutes. Heat a wok and add % tablespoon of the peanut oil. Chow (stir-fry) the pork until done to your taste, then add the remaining cooked meats. Chow all for a few minutes and remove to a large serving bowl. Heat the wok again and add another ¥% tablespcon of peanut oil. Pour the beaten eggs into the wok and tiltthe wok in circles over the heat, causing a thin egg pan- cake to form in the wok. Using the metal wok paddle, cut the pancake into pieces and chow for just a moment. Remove to the serving bowl. Add the last tablespoon of the peanut oil and chew the garlic. Add all the vegetables, except the bean sprouts, in the order given, chowing the celery and onions a moment before you add the re- maining items. Add the mixed sauce and chow vatil ali is hot, Return the ingredients in the serving bowl to the wok and chow until very hot. Stir in the bean sprouts, test for salt and serve. STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES WITH EGG-LEMON SAUCE {serves 6-8 as an appetizer course) There was time in Greek history when certain people were so hungry they took to eating the leaves from the grape vines. From that time of destitution comes this flaveurful dish. 1 16-once jar grape icaves FILLING lcup rew lonz-prain rice Ys cup olive oil lenp chopzed yellow onions Ys cup chopped Italian parsley 1 tablespoon gried dillweed Juice of lemon I pound = Ican ground or chopped 1 teaspoon allspice 2 cloves garlic, crushed Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste lamb, coarsely BROTH 2 cups fresh or canaed chicken broth Juice of i femon SAUCE 1 batch Egp-Lemon Sauce (recipe below) Mix all the ingredients for the filling. Pick out the smallest leaves in the jar and set aside. Use some of these leaves to place a single layer on the bottom of a 2-quart heavy-lidded ketile. Cut the stems off the grape leaves. . Spread a leaf on the counter, bettom side up, stem side toward you. Place 1 teaspoon of the fill- ing in the center of the leaf. Fold the stem end over the filling, then fold the sides over to secure the filling, then roll from you toward the tip of the leaf, forming a small cigar or cylinder. The size should be approximately 2% in- ches long and 3/4 inch wide. Do no. wrap these too tightly; the rice needs room for expansion when it cooks. Place the rotied leaves on top of the single layer in the bottom of the pot. Place the rolls up against each other rather tightly so they will not come undone while cook- ing. Place a medium plate over the top of the leaves as a weight. Mix the chicken stock and lemon juice for the broth and pour over the leaves in the pot. Cover and bring to a light sim- mer. Cook | hour. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool for | more hour. Do not remove the lid or the leaves will darken. Serve warm with Egg-Lemon Sauce on top. EGG-LEMON SAUCE i cup fresh or canned chicken stock 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tabie- spoous flour cooked to form a roux 2 eggs Juice of } lemon 2 tablespoons water Salt and pepper to taste Heat the chicken stock and Wednesday, May 20, 1992 ~ North Shore News - $4 WORK: le NET SOLBS. T7 tay, CONADA MICE RVING O72 5, NEWS photo Pru! MeGrath THREE OUT of five people worid-wide live on rice as the main item of their diet. prepare the roux. Thicken the stock with the roux. In a separate bowl whip the eggs, lemon juice and water together until frothy. Add the egg to the thickened stock, stirring constantly. Bring to temperature but do not boil, stirring all the time until thick. Sait and pepper. RISOTTO WITH MUSHROOMS (serves 4-6 as a first course) This is a classic and a favorite of the Milanese. 1 ounce dried mushrooms, soaked in 1 cap water, the water reserved 3 tablespoons butter - 2 tablespoons olive oil “™ meduim yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chapped 14 cups raw Italian Arborio rice 2 cups fresh or canned beef stock 3 cups water (include in this the water from soaking the mushrooms) Y, cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Safe and freshly ground black pepper to taste Soak the mushrooms until very soft, about | hour. Drain, reserv- ing the water for the dish, and chop the mushrooms. Heat a 4-quart heavy saucepan and add the butter, oil, onions and mushrooms. Cock until the onions are clear, then add the rice. Stir carefully so each grain is coated with the oil. In a separate pan bring the stock and water, including the mushroom water, to a simmer and add | cup of this liquid to the rice. Stir as it cooks to ensure a nice creamy dish. Continue adding broth as it is absorbed until the rice is tender but still a bit chewy. Stir in the cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Remarkable rhubarb adds tang to many desserts inquisitive OUR GRANDMOTHERS knew rhubarb as the ‘‘pie plant’? because it was the easiest of the fruits avail- able for pies cach season. And indeed, what tang it adds when mixed with strawberries or custard in a plump pastry tart or double-crust pis. But rhubarb also makes a re- matkable sauce and a_ fine chuiney. And of course, simply stewed and sweetened, it's a dessert that smavks of spring. The curly leaves of the rhubarb plant are among the first greens to appear in the sunny part of the garden. Though they miay took enticing, beware: rhubarb leaves contain a toxin formerly suspected to be oxalic acid, and not yet pos- itively identified. Chopping and cooking rhubarb leaves has caused many cases of poisoning. Thus, rhubarb has earned its less flattering tie of “bachelor’s folly.” Rhubarb’s striking — celery-like stalks contam = strong natural acids, yiving rhubarb its charac- teristic bite even when tempered with a considerable amount of sugar. The anthocyanin family is responsible for rhubarb’s eloring. This is the same family of pig- ments that colors many summer fruits. As anthocyanins are water-soluble, the ceds from highly colored rhubarb tings cooking water and leave pie fill- ings blushing. At times in cooking, rhubarb pieces soften but stay whole. And sometimes they disintegrate to a puree. The consistency of 2 thubarb dessert depends not only on the !ength of cooking, but also upon sugar. Sugar attracts water as ir- resistibly as bees are drawn to pollen. So you can manipulate the consistency of cooked fruit dishes according to whether sugar is ad- ded at the beginning or the end of cooking. Ina pie filling, chunks Gf raw rhubarb are heavily coated with agar, As the filling heats, water tram the rhubarb migrates to the surface toward the sugar, forming a syrup, Thickeners such as flour, corn- starch and tapioca absorb the syrup and swell, bathing the thubarb in a Mavorful thickened sauce. Stewing breaks down rhubarb’s fibres to a rough puree. Raw rhubarb is heated with just a little water and no sugar. As cocking begins, heat and water dissolves the glues that fold cel! walls together, softening rhubarb’s fibres. Water is drawn into the plant cells, now attracted by the meagre nauyral sugars in the rhubarb stalk. Adding water to already full cells pushes the fibres apart. Soon chunks become a thick rosy tangle of stewed rhubarb. Only after cooking is extra sugar added.