Rinsing rice and boiling rice “pasta style” with a ratio of 6 cups of water to 1 cup of rice, and then draining the excess water can remove up to 30% of the inorganic arsenic in the rice. Good to know!
If you still insist on eating rice despite the arsenic scare from Consumer Reports, be sure to cook it this way. I had never heard of the “pasta method” for cooking rice until the Consumer Reports meeting I attended the other night.
Have you cooked rice like this before?
I had to look up a video to believe it wouldn’t clump together all gummy at the end. I found the video above and thought it was really clear and short, just ignore the endorsement for the brand.
Evidently, this is the traditional way to cook rice in Asia. It turns out that the mainstream American technique I’m familiar with, where you allow all of the water to be absorbed by the rice, was promoted so that you would get more nutrients from the rice. Especially if it has been fortified.
Some other things to keep in mind if you continue to eat rice, is that California rice has less arsenic than rice grown in the southern United States. Why? The old cotton fields have retained arsenic from pesticide use.
And white rice has less arsenic than brown rice. *sniff*
I predict the new gluten-free food trend will be “rice-free” and someone is going to patent a process for removing arsenic from rice that is going to be made into rice products.
More info coming soon on the Consumer Reports meeting.
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Julia Child’s 1961 version of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” says to cook rice in copious amounts of water until not quite done, then to drain and steam it until done. IIRC, she said to steam it in a bundle made with cheesecloth or some such piece of fabric. Seemed like an awful lot of work! I always rinse rice though since that is was Asians and Indians (from India) do. I figure they must know something. Thanks!
Thanks for this tip. I eat so much rice as a celiac that this info will come in handy. Really enjoy reading your blog. Please check out mine: http://www.top6withasideofgluten.com.
Very important aspect that many gluten allergy and celiac disease sufferers are not aware about. In fact, i would think most people are unaware of the dangers of arsenic from rice.