Hello I love you.
Confession: I am a person who makes steam-in-bag rice. (This should not be a major surprise to you, as I am also the kind of person who has been known to make spaghetti sauce with a Prego base. Hush, Prego is delicious.) I’m a steam-in-bag rice kind of girl because I have a memory dating back to when I was fifteen years old and burned a pot of rice and decided that rice is a pain in the ass to make…but I mostly because I don’t care, and because to me “steam-in-bag rice” is rice. Like, the same rice that real rice is.
Then, a couple of months ago, my friend Alisa – who is apparently my go-to friend for making me realize that I need to step up my game – came over for dinner and asked me what she should bring, and I said, “Oh, nothing, just yourself!” Except then I told her what I was making, and when she discovered I was making steam-in-bag rice to go with my lovely Korean BBQ she said “Stop. No. I will make real rice.” And okayyyy fiiiiine, what she made was way better than steam-in-bag rice.
And then last week I got a Blue Apron delivery (did you know that this blog has turned into a 24/7 advertisement for Blue Apron?! It has) that called for me to make something called garlic rice, which is really just the addition of minced and sautéed garlic to real – a.k.a. non-steam-in-bag – rice. And oh man, it was SO GOOD. I am a soy sauce lush, and this rice didn’t even need any. It didn’t need anything. It just needed to be eaten, immediately and all of it. (I don’t even know who this person is who is typing these words right now, because “doesn’t need soy sauce” is not in my vocabulary, but FOR REAL.)
Anyway, now this is what I am making when a recipe calls for rice forever and for all eternity.
Here is the basic equation:
Steam-in-bag rice is to garlic rice as Cheez Whiz is to aged manchego.
Which is to say: Cheez Whiz is a totally acceptable thing to eat, IMO…but it is also not exactly real cheese. Steam-in-bag rice may be quite tasty, but it is also not exactly real rice. This recipe is like real rice, except it’s like real rice that has been aged and made more spectacular (assuming that we lived in a world where aging rice made it delicious as opposed to moldy and terrifying).
TL;DR: If you have never made garlic rice before, please go make it. It is heaven on toast.
Garlic Rice (adapted from this recipe)
What You Need:
- 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
What You Do:
- In a medium pot, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and then add the garlic.
- Season with salt and cook, stirring frequently, about 30 seconds (or until fragrant).
- Add the rice, a big pinch of salt, and 3 cups of water. Heat on high until boiling, then cover and reduce heat to low.
- Cook 12 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Set aside in a warm place until ready to serve.
