Rice, It's Not Just For Dinner Any More
My Mom, being the good mother that she was, sometimes got up early to make us hot cereal for breakfast before packing us off to school. It wasn't her fault that those hot cereals triggered a strong gag reflex in me.I'm not sure why, as the flavors are mild and mostly inoffensive, but I simply can't face most hot cereals, even when loaded with butter and brown sugar. Oatmeal seems positively slimy, Wheatena has that weird husk thing going on and Cream of Wheat - well, let's just not go there. Mom even tried pouring hot milk over Grape Nuts - gag me with a spoon!
I'm perfectly okay with cold cereals and I'm especially fond of the crispy ones, but hot cereal - uh, no.
Until on the joyous blog, Gluten Free Girl, I read that Shauna's friend, Sharon Anne Jensen, likes hot rice for breakfast. Rice? For breakfast? Well, I guess it is a cereal...okay, gotta try it!
So, I bought a bag of that incredible Massa brown rice at the farmer's market one day and cooked it up for dinner, leaving enough to try for breakfast the next morning. Sharon suggested treating it like oatmeal, adding a little warm milk and brown sugar or raisins or fresh fruit, but I thought I'd try it first just plain, with a little butter, as my Mom used to serve those other unmentionables.
Success the first try! The rice has a great nutty flavor, the butter added just enough richness, and there was no slime anywhere. I may even work up the courage to try the milk-and-brown-sugar routine tomorrow. At last, a hot cereal for those of us who hate hot cereals.
Thanks, Sharon and Shauna!
Labels: rice
posted by Zoomie at
5:25 AM
9 Comments:
It's funny the different things that can make us queasy in terms of texture. I like hot cereals but I was always armed with a strainer as a kid to strain out floating pulp in citrus juice.
Glad you found a hot breakfast cereal you like. I'm curious, tho'. Do you like warm rice pudding?
Are you partly Norwegian? Part of their cuisine is hot rice cereal in the monring - with lots of cream and sugar..
I am completely with you on the hot cereal thing. I even bought some steel cut oats and could not gag them down. I ended up using them for filler in meat loaf. But I love hot brown rice and have had it for breakfast, topped with Siracha and a spoon or two of grated Parmesan cheese for a real cross cultural treat.
Rice, milk & sugar, Mr Brown's absolute favourite dessert in the world. I'm under a standing order (on pain of death) to cook a bit extra rice, so he can pour milk over it, sprinkle sugar on it and slup it up with a spoon.
I can't face the stuff :)
Your description of the cereals you hated is spot on. But I liked a couple of others as a kid.
"I Want My Maypo!"
"Winners Warm Up With Malt-O-Meal!"
Hell, remember Zoom? Ralston?
(Maybe too husky for you.)
Rice is nice. Can't wait to get a bag of that Massa.
Chez moi, we even eat polenta for breakfast, with cheese and jalapenos.
Pale up that polenta Cookiecrumb and you have GRITS! Put some cheese on them, and I'll bet jalepeno's too for a good break-the-fast!
Nerissa, rice pudding, no, thank you.
Anna, no Norwegian blood. My farthest north is Ireland.
Nancy, I can only face oatmeal in cookies and such...
Morgan, I'm not sure about the milk and sugar part - sounds too much like rice pudding. But, I should try a tiny bite before passing judgment.
Cookiecrumb, I haven't heart of Ralston, Zoom or Malt-O-Meal and Mom would never buy popular stuff like Maypo, deeming it too sugary. I expect she was right but she missed a chance to persuade me to like hot cereals...
I never thought about rice for breakfast, but the photo makes it look absolutely scrumptious. Brown rice with butter sounds so good.
Rice pudding is okay, but kheer is just astounding. Maybe it's the saffron, or that it's served warm ...
Estefanita, kheer, huh? That's a new word to me - I looked it up but I'm doubtful. Maybe, when I'm feeling daring...?
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