I was doing some research and I found some info about freezing rice. As I was following some directions I still found there were directions that could of been added, so I decided to blog about how to freeze your own rice.
As I am posting this my Little Cupcake is in the kitchen playing with the leftover frozen rice LOL
One thing I found important is to make sure you use the right size of pot with the amount of rice you are cooking. If you put to much rice in a small pot, I persoanlly find my rice may get more mushy. So I choose a large size pot, or dont cook as much rice at one time. I grabbed my large stock pot for this once I looked at my smaller pot. I am cooking 4 cups of uncooked rice. If your pot is smaller, only cook 2 cups of rice.
Measure out 7 & 1/2 cups of cold water and place in your pot. I normally follow a 2cup of water to one cup of uncooked rice. However I typically under measure my cups and over measure my rice. Therefor that is why I am saying 7 & 1/2 cups instead of 8 cups. This just allows for a proper cooking process, at least this is what works for me. On a high heat boil your 7 & 1/2 cups of water, then once at a boil add the uncooked rice, butter, olive oil and salt.
7 & 1/2 cups of water
4 cups of uncooked long grain white rice
2 tBs butter (I use salted)
1 tBs of salt
1 tBs of olive oil
I don't have a 6 cup measuring cup, so I just measured out using my one cup and placed in a bowl for proper accuracy. You don't have to do that, that just how I do it.
After I add the rice I let the water continue to boil for 3 minutes then turn the heat down to low, then stir rice with a spoon, place lid on my pot and turn timer on for 25-30 minutes. After 30 min and it appears all water has evaporated turn off heat. Then set timer again for another 30 minutes. One important thing to remember when making rice DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF OF POT until after the total cooking and wait time. After the 30 minutes you now may lift the lid and let any steam escape for a two minutes. Then take a fork and lightly scrap the rice and fluff. After that its up to you which step you want to go to next. If I dont have time, I just put the lid back on and leave rice out. I left my rice out for a couple hours. Once I was ready I followed the next step.
 | |
| letting rice boil for 3 min before lid goes on |
 | |
| rice has cooked for 30 min on a low heat, turn off heat and keep covered for another 30 min |
 |
| rice after 1 hour. |
 |
| fluff rice with a fork |
Take a edged cookie sheet and line with plastic wrap (I used both foil and plastic, I prefer plastic). Then evenly layer out cooked rice onto the cookie sheet. Don't pile high, you want a thin layer. I had to use 2 cookie sheets and I only used half of my cooked rice from my pot.
Place cookie sheet's into freezer. Now I recommend you check on the rice after 30 minutes and mix the rice around, this will keep the rice from freezing into one big log. Do this twice the 1st hour. Then you can leave your rice in the freezer for another 3 hours or overnight like I did.
 | |
| rice frozen and tossed twice every 30 min |
In the morning I measured out 3 cups of rice and placed in a quart size freezer bag.
 | |
| place rice in freezer bag and lay flat into freezer |
My 4 cups of uncooked rice equaled 17 cups of cooked rice (if I counted correctly). I had 4 freezer quart size bags with 3 cups of rice in each bag, then I had about 5 cups of cooked rice and I placed in a plastic container. That rice is for the rest of the week for side dish or to use in a casserole or make fried rice.
I had bought a 5lb bag of rice for $3 and I still have a half of bag left...That's a great deal!
When you are ready to use frozen rice. Grab a bag dump it into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 3 minutes.
Do you need to add any water/broth when you reheat it?
ReplyDelete