We love rice. It is an inexpensive food that can be fixed many ways.
However, when it comes to rice I like variety. Right now in my kitchen I have long grain rice, short grain rice, arborio rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, and probably one or two other varieties.
The one rice you will not find in my kitchen is brown rice of any kind. Brown rice is one of the few foods that my husband really does not like, and after seventeen years of marriage I have given up on trying to convince him how good it is.
But besides the different varieties of brown rice, we have tried many different rices over the years. You will almost always find five or six different kinds of rice in my kitchen.
Now I am curious about what kinds of rice you like. Am I the only one that has so many varieties of rice in my kitchen? Do you just keep it simple and use only one kind of rice or do you keep several on hand?
And is it strange that I like this much variety in my rice?
I usually have brown, long-grain and one other random type. A rice our family really enjoys (but haven’t been able to find recently) is brown Basmati rice! How do you cook your short-grain rice?
@Lisa Marie, I usually cook my short grain the my rice cooker, but I have done it on the stove also. I like short grain for many Asian dishes, but because it is stickier than most rices I do not like it for things like fried rice.
I have converted rice, short-grain rice, and basmati rice. We are not fans of brown rice, either, so we don’t have any of it in the house.
The only rice I have in the house is basic short grain white rice… I like to prepare lots of it and then freeze in 2 cup containers for nights when I don’t have the 20 minutes needed for making rice.
I have Jasmine because we LOVE cooking Thai and then basmati brown rice. I really like the sturdier brown for dishes like mexican rice bowls.
Our go-to rice is Lundberg’s organic brown rice, which we can purchase in large quantities from Costco. We also always have short-grain white rice in the pantry (which I used to make delicious yellow rice to go with Mongolian Beef last night). We also usually have a wild rice mix that includes brown, red, and some other types – my husband really likes this.
I have white and brown. Not much variety at our house. Wild rice is a no go at our house, as anytime I’ve had it it was always too crunchy for my taste. You’ve peaked my interest though about the different varieties of rice. Why so many? Is there really that much difference between different kinds of rice? Is the taste and texture different with each? How are they cooked and used differently?
@Sharon, My husband does not like wild rice either. I should have mentioned that we did not keep that on hand either. 🙂
@Sharon, And I am going to put together a post for later this week or next on the different variates of rice and what they are best used for.
I just love rice – no matter what kind or how its prepared. Right now, I have a texmati/wild blend, regular long grain white, and half a box of Uncle Ben’s brown.
We are big fans of rice (and loving owners of a Zoji rice cooker), so we have several different kinds on hand. At the moment I think we have regular long-grain white, sticky, sweet, arborio, basmati, jasmine, and wild rice (though I think I read just recently that wild rice isn’t actually rice?).
I wish we were fans of brown rice, and occasionally we’ll buy a bag and eat our way through it, but… blech. Hubby can’t stand it, and I’m not a fan either.
@Rebecca C., I think my next rice cooker will be a Zoj. rice cooker. I have heard from so many people that love them.
My favorite is Jasmine, but I also have on hand: short & long grain white, instant (bleh), sweet rice, arborio and wild. My kids were Chinese in their previous life, so rice is cooked almost ever-other night. We love a lot of thai and chinese food too (so maybe I was Chinese in my past life LOL). Hubby L.O.V.E.S. brown, but I don’t–so he gets out voted, unless thats what he decides to cook on the one-night-a-year-he-gets. =D
I have brown and white. I am the only one in the house that like brown rice. I usually make a batch for me when we have chinese food. I make mine with chicken broth instead of water and it is so much better. It almost gives it a creamy texture.
I prefer to cook with either jasmine or basmati. My kids love the aroma and texture. I also have short and long grain brown in my cabinet and Kashi 7-Grain. I use either arborio rice or pearled barley (great substitute) when I make risotto. But when I want to splurge I cook wild rice in guava nectar for myself. I toss it with caramelized onions and mushrooms, some dried orange peel and toasted edamame. It looks like heaven but is so expensive I only do it once or twice a month. I always look forward to it.
I have long grain rice, short grain rice, arborio rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, brown long grain, brown short grain, brown jasmine, instant brown, instant white, and wild rice too. Whew! And we are a Caucasian family lol It’s all about variety!
We prefer jasmine. Basmati just sits here; it’s never used. We have a rice cooker that is used every day for rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and homemade Mac n chez. I double rice so we have it in the fridge for fried rice or lunches.
basmati rice that’s it that’s the only one I have I buy it in 17 lb bags at sams takes about 18 mos to eat.
We always have white long-grain, basmati, arborio and brown rice in the house and we get brown basmati, brown, wild and jasmine when its available for a good price or we really feel like it. We often get the brown and wild rice mix and use it for rice salad or pilaff.
We usually only have brown-I’m a bit of a health food nut and its by far the best for you.
Lets see… I have Brown Jasmine, B rown Batsmati, White Jasmine, Instant white and brownLundgren Family Long Grain Brown, Lundgren Family Short Grain Brown, SooFoo Brown Rice Lentil Blend, and a texmati blend. Wow- I didn’t realize I had so many. Yay for my rice cooker!!!
We have several types in our house. Basic white rice (short grain and long), brown rice,wild rice, jasmine rice, white basmati, brown basmati, and arborio rice for when I make risotto.
We love brown rice cooked in the oven, a la Alton Brown for our basic rice!
I keep long grain jasmine; basmati; brown; short and sticky on hand (and arborio and wild when I can afford it). I used to live in a village of rice fields in Madagascar where we grew red rice — it was the only rice we ate, three meals a day, seven days a week — well, I can’t say “we” grew it, I mostly just took pictures and wrote about it, but I did thresh it (very itchy), pound it (great for the biceps) and shake out the stones (child’s play — but way too tricky for me, the three year olds inevitably inervened to save me further embarassment). Couldn’t eat rice for a year after all those meals of rice rice rice!
@The Chocolate Covered Kitchen, I have never had red rice, but it sounds very interesting and good. But I am not sure I could eat rice every day three times a day.
If you count the “rice-a-roni” type mixes, we have three different kinds here. Minute, long-grain and the mix. I plan to buy some yellow rice on my next shopping trip, although that’s not a “kind” as much as a flavoring, but I’m also hoping to find some Basmati on sale and pick up some of that as well. Love Basmati rice!!
Left my comment on Facebook since this site wouldn’t allow me to leave the one I wanted to leave.
We are big rice fans here. Love its versatility. I probably have 6 or 7 kinds. Brown Basmati, Jasmine, Japonica, Arborio, Red, Black and a converted.
@Karla, Where do you buy the Red and Black rice? I am not sure I have seen it before. And Japonica I have never heard of that kind either. They all sound very interesting.
@Lynn,
Most of the time I can get them at our local Asian market, but you can find all of them online at Amazon. Lundberg Farms also has sells Japonica and Red, but I dont think they have the Black rice, which is also called Forbidden Rice.
@Karla, Thank you! I am going to have to look at the Asian food store I go to and see if I can find some.
I keep white and brown and occasionally Arborio. When my husband and I got married 6 years ago he told me he would not eat brown rice so I never cooked it. I was used to white anyway and liked it. About a year ago I decided to make brown rice and just see if my family would eat it. The kids did not know the difference and my husband actually liked it! I do use white in a few recipes because we prefer it, but more often I’m making brown. 🙂
Oh let me see…regular ole white, jasmine (yum!), wild grain mix, brown (I try, really, but do NOT like it) and then a few of them bag (yellow) and box mixes for the just in case times 🙂
I usually buy the biggest bag that works out to be the best price I can find. So most of the time it’s long grain white rice. Occasionally, however, I get a 1 lb bag of brown rice as a treat. Or sometimes jasmine, or arborio, or wild. But it has to be on sale!
My new absolute FAVORITE rice is purple sticky rice! I can get it at Williams Sonoma and it’s a gorgeous color…and it has a lovely taste.
It is part of their new artisinal grain/legume collection. Fabulous…
Such a shame as brown rice is much healthier. The white rice has the best part stripped away.
S
@schroeder, I know and I have tried all the various ways and tricks that are recommended for making brown rice better. But I have pretty much given up, he just does not like the taste and texture. Overall he is not a picky eater so I can not complain. I love it. I think it is much more flavorful, so sometimes I cook both but I usually just stick to the white rices.
We absolutely adore rice! Like your husband, brown hasn’t won mine over. But I do have brown rice (jasmine when I can find it) on hand, as I love it for breakfast. Besides the brown, we currently have long grain, jasmine, short grain / sushi (not sure the exact one I have right now), arborio, wild, and red rices. I’m out of basmati 🙂
The rices do differ, so it’s important to enjoy the variety!
I love basmati rice, but I’m kinda cheap. We only actually have regular white rice that I get cheap in bulk. It’s not as wonderful as basmati, and probably doesn’t make risotto as well as arborio rice, but our budget prefers it…
I have short grain, long grain, brown, and arborio. My favorite is short grain, but we mostly use the white long grain because of the cost, and in our household of three can go through 5 lb/week.