Hello everyone! This is @lorelei.cortes, a newbie. I am a Physical Therapist by profession. I love to doodle and share my thoughts about anything. This is a form of socialization for me as I am a homebody. I am a nature lover so if I get that extra time I love to visit our farm where we do a little farming like rice cultivation and other crops. We have two rice varieties such as the usual white variety and the black rice. The latter is quite expensive as it is highly recommended by medical doctors for people who are on diet. Moreover, it has numerous benefits in terms of nutritional value. It contains more proteins compared to other rice varieties and it is filled with antioxidant properties. One can also get an immune boost for the heart's health from black rice. Indeed, black rice is one royal staple food!
A week ago, the couple who worked for our family in the rice fields delivered 5 sacks of rice grains after a day of harvest. It was raining most of the time and I was loaded up with work so I never really minded the five sacks until a friend told me that the rice grains if not dried under the heat of the sun after harvest can lead to grain discoloration and will possibly result to formation of molds. Hence, its palatable taste might be affected. Normally, it is my mother who does the sun drying using very old rattan mats. But since she was under the weather at that time, it had to be me. With the imminent threat of the Covid pandemic looming, it is quite impossible to hire someone to dry the rice grains for us.
Why black rice when you simply can have the white long rice grain which is so edible to everyone’s palate? Tell me about it. I started to adapt to the “healthy way of living” when my husband got sick. I have a family to feed so I could not afford to be sick too. So black rice it is!
So with a hooded jacket, face mask, and cloth gloves on, I started the drying process of the rice grains. Oh, I forgot to tell you that since these rice grains are not just plain white as usual but the black ones, I made a lot of effort in looking for the seeds to be used for planting as black rice is not everybody’s liking. Well, it took me three sunny days to dry the rice grains and after that, they were ready for milling.
Unfortunately, the milling machine failed to produce perfect rice kernels so it is hard to appreciate the crude rice in black color. But you can still see the hue of black on the bran layer of every grain.
I eagerly waited for the rice cooker to switch to warm mode as I was hoping that the color of the bitumen would surprise me. But when I opened the cover, the rice was purple in color! Never mind though. Black rice is also called "purple rice". I have to say, even the smell of the steam was enough to convince me that what I am going to eat is yummy.
The black rice has anthocyanin which is a pigment filled with antioxidant properties. Due to its uniqueness and nutritional value, it was called the ‘forbidden rice’ in ancient times and was only intended for the royal families. I find it chewy and flavorful. Google says it has more nutritional components compared to any other rice variety so I got lucky. I even thought of convincing my friends to taste it and enjoy the good nutrition it offers. I have been eating it for two weeks now and so far, I have not thought of switching to the usual white rice.
What about you? Give it a try!
This is all for now. Thank you for taking a peek and hope to share more stories with you soon.
Thank you ASEAN HIVE community for making me part of your circle.
Your new ASEAN HIVE subscriber,
@lorelei.cortes