RICE – the widely consumed cereal grain

"Rice is a beautiful food. It is beautiful when it grows, precision rows of sparkling green stalks shooting up to reach the hot summer sun. It is beautiful when harvested, autumn gold sheaves piled on diked, patchwork paddies. It is beautiful when, once threshed, it enters granary bins like a (flood) of tiny seed-pearls. It is beautiful when cooked by a practiced hand, pure white and sweetly fragrant.”-Shizuo Tsuji, Japanese chef

                                                          

While the world debates which is healthier - the polished White Rice or the unpolished Brown Rice, let us get to know more on the different varieties of this super grain – the aromatic basmati; nutritious parboiled rice;  iron-loaded black rice; the healthy whole grain brown rice; the Thai jasmine rice, samba red rice from Tamil Nadu; and the parboiled red matta rice from Kerala.    

The grain is boiled or cooked to give us an endless list of rice dishes - from the humble gruel (kanji) to the sumptuous biryani – and the in betweeners - fried rice, pulao, lemon rice, curd rice, payasam, kheer etc, etc, etc   

The powdered form of this grain is also used in many cuisine.  More on this later.