- [Narrator] This episode is sponsored by Thrive Market.
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that is here to make healthy living easy
and affordable for everyone.
They carry everything from essential groceries
to supplements, to nontoxic home products,
to the subject of today's episode, brown rice.
Go to thrivemarket.com/BingingWithBabish
to get 25% off your first order
and a free gift when you join today.
The link is in the video description,
let's get down to basics.
(energetic music)
(gentle music)
All right, so the first thing
we gotta tackle is the best method
by which to cook brown rice.
Generally speaking, you're gonna be best served to follow
the manufacturer's instructions printed on the package.
Simply combine the specified amount of rice
in boiling water,
cover and cook for the specified amount of time.
If your pot has a steam hole like this one
you're best to block it up
with something like a clean kitchen towel
so that you do not lose too much moisture.
Then we're gonna cook without stirring
for the specified amount of time,
briefly fluff with a fork
and then most packages don't call for this,
but then I like to kill the heat,
cover it with a clean dish towel, replace the lid
and let it steam for like 10 minutes.
The is gonna allow it to soak up any excess moisture
and it's gonna give you a nice, well separated grains.
Then there's the matter of seasoning
if we're just serving this as a simple side,
I like to hit it with some fresh chopped parsley,
for this amount of rice maybe like a quarter cups worth,
a half teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme, salt
and freshly ground pepper to taste,
about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.
This both adds flavor
and helps prevent the rice from clumping.
And then it might seem strange
but I like the juice of one small lime.
When paired with the nuttiness of brown rice,
it adds a really nice neutral flavor.
Give that a mix and it's ready for immediate consumption
or your meal day prepper kit.
A method that's more time consuming
but has a higher success rate
is oven baked brown rice.
In an oven safe saucepan,
we are combining the specified brown rice in boiling water,
giving it a perfunctory mix, covering
and placing in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven
for anywhere from 35 minutes to one hour.
This is gonna depend on
what kind of rice you are cooking
but it's gonna give you
the most consistently perfect results.
As you can see I've got some nice short grain rice here,
which I'm gonna give
the same sort of steam treatment after cooking.
And for this one, I'm just gonna season
with olive oil, salt and pepper
so that it plays more nicely
with our leftover recipes down the line.
And I gotta say in most contexts
I prefer the short grain rice.
It's stickier and it's got a nice chew to it
almost like a sushi rice.
But that's just gonna come down
to your personal preference.
Now, what to do with this stuff,
as I mentioned before it makes for a lovely
and healthy side for your standard Sunday meal prep.
Some a marinated grilled chicken,
some sesame roasted broccoli.
It's nothing fancy, but it's healthy
and it'll get you through the week.
But what if you want to judge things up a little bit
especially if you have leftovers.
Well, the first and most obvious use
for leftover rice of any kind is fried rice.
As you can see, I'm starting with an optional step here
of searing some baby bok choy
and some smoking hot vegetable oil,
setting those aside, wiping out the pan,
applying some additional vegetable oil
and beginning to saute some of the vegetables of my choice.
I'm going with what's leftover in the fridge.
I got some sliced baby bella mushrooms.
I'm sautéing these first and lightly salting them
because they have a lot of moisture
that needs to cook off.
Once that's done
and they are starting to brown
I'm gonna add some enoki mushrooms
that I honestly can't believe I had in my fridge.
Saute those for a minute or two
until they start to crisp up
and then I'm gonna add some diced white onion
and a very small diced carrot.
Sautéing those together for three to five minutes
until softened and starting to brown.
Then I'm going to grate in both
about a half inches worth of fresh ginger
and one clove of fresh garlic.
Tossing together and sautéing for like 30 seconds stops,
so we gotta move fast
cause this is all happening over very high heat.
Then we're scooting everybody to the outside of the pan,
adding about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the center
and dropping in our leftover short grain brown rice.
Then I'm going to drizzle two teaspoons
of toasted sesame oil around the outside,
toss about a half cup of frozen peas on top,
add one tablespoon of dark soy sauce,
one teaspoon of mirin
and one tablespoon rice wine vinegar.
At this point, hopefully the rice
is crisped up a little bit on the bottom.
So we're gonna toss everybody together,
make sure that everything is well and evenly combined,
taste for seasoning.
Hit it with a little bit of kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper to your taste
and then final step we're scooting everybody
to the outside of the pan again,
hitting it with a little bit more vegetable oil
and cracking an egg in the center.
Scoot that around a little bit with fork or some chopsticks.
And once it's cooked completely
toss it in with the fried rice.
And there you have it, a super easy dinner
that takes like 15 or 20 minutes to make,
uses stuff that you probably have in the fridge
or in the freezer
and can be garnished with all kinds of fixings.
Baby bok choys, scallions
sesame seeds or my personal favorite,
some tongue numbing sichuan chili crisp.
Maybe not the healthiest thing in the world
but still pretty healthy.
Vegetarian packed with tons of fiber from the rice
and can be gleefully served as a side or a main course.
But what if it's been a really long day
and it's the dead of winter
and you want a rich, comforting but healthy soup.
Well, lemme tell you about my favorite soup
that's very hard to pronounce,
avgolemono.
In a large saucepan
we are bringing four cups of chicken stock to a bare simmer.
While that comes up
we are beating together two large eggs in a large bowl
using a large whisk.
Once the eggs are nice and frothy
we're gonna add one third of a cup
of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Sometimes I do more like half a cup
if I want it to be extra agvolemony.
Then once the chicken broth comes up to a simmer,
we're gonna treat this very much the same way
we would custard,
slowly ladling in about a cup's worth of the hot broth
while whisking constantly to temper the eggs.
This is eventually what's gonna make
our soup thick and rich,
but first we have to heat up our leftovers.
Set the egg mixture aside while to the remaining broth
we add one cups worth of leftover brown rice.
You can see I'm using the Arby one here,
that's gonna be fine.
And maybe a cup and a half's worth
of leftover shredded chicken breasts.
Then additionally, I'm gonna add maybe two teaspoons each
fresh chopped parsley and dill.
Then we're gonna kill the heat
and as soon as the soup stops bubbling
we're gonna slowly stream in our tempered egg lemon mixture.
Whisking constantly because even after tempering
you can still curdle your eggs
and no one wants scrambled eggs soup.
Once all that's added
you can stop right there
or if you want your soup to be thicker and richer.
You can put it back over medium low heat
whisking constantly until it reaches
your desired consistency.
As always give it a taste for seasoning
hit it with some kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper and that's it.
In like 15 minutes
you've got the richest and most comforting soup imaginable.
I might be biased because it's my favorite
but I really think that this stuff cures sadness.
It's rich and savory and lemony
but it's also pretty healthy.
If you think about it, all that's in this bowl
is an egg, some chicken, some chicken stock,
lemon and herbs.
Which you can tell your taste buds all you like
but they will staunchly refuse to believe you.
Next step of brown rice version of a dish
that I'm going to purposefully mispronounce.
Larb, a Thai meat salad that I do not know
how to say correctly.
One of the key components of this dish
is a toasted rice powder
traditionally made from sweet glutenous rice.
I thought I'd try making it with some brown rice
just to see what happen.
Toasting it up in a dry pan for about 15 minutes
before cooling and grinding into a powder.
And the results I gotta say were pretty, not very good.
It brings the desired texture of the party
but the flavor is very earthy in
and I'm gonna say borderline undesirable.
So try it at your own risk.
Now to make the actual meat salad
we're gonna saute a pound of ground pork
in about two tablespoons of vegetable oil,
breaking it up into pieces
and cooking until lightly browned
and no longer pink in the center.
Then you could just serve this with brown rice as a side
but I kinda like to add a cup right to the mix,
so picks up all the delicious flavors.
First up some optional grated lemon grass
that we're gonna saute together with the rice for
I don't know, a minute.
Then we're killing the heat
and adding two teaspoons of fish sauce,
half teaspoon of brown sugar or muscovado sugar,
a little or large pinch of Thai chili powder,
depending on how spicy you want it
and about two tablespoons of our toasted rice powder.
Again, the brown rice version is not ideal
but it'll get the job done.
Give everybody a little mix together
and then we're gonna add
five or six large freshly torn mint leaves,
two large scallions
and one small shallot thinly sliced,
the juice of one to two limes,
depending on how limey you like it.
And of course, season to taste
with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
Give it a taste for seasoning,
add more lime if you are a lime freak like me
and serve in lettuce wraps.
Then traditionally you are supposed to pile these guys high
with the most dreaded of herbs, at least for me cilantro.
So once you've done that for camera
then picked it right back off,
grab yourself a wrap and tuck in.
The whole time cursing your defective genetic markers
that make you hate what should be
an inoffensive, even pleasant herb garnish.
But no matter what's wrong with your taste buds,
they are sure to enjoy this quick, simple
and healthy weeknight meal.
Thanks again to Thrive Market
for sponsoring this episode
and for inspiring me to tackle some healthy meals.
Thrive Market provides its members with thousands
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(upbeat music)