Foodie 101

This is the 101st blog post here at "Cooking a Book". In the spirit of the site's thirst for exploration and experimentation, I've decided to write about my latest discovery: flat rice.

Depending on which culture or region you consult, it's called rice flakes, flattened rice, beaten rice, Aval/Avval (Malayalam), Poha/Pauwa (Hindi), Atukulu (Telugu), and so on. Whatever you call it, it is popular across India, Bangladesh, and apparently Vietnam -- the packet of sweet green flat rice I purchased at my local Chinese grocery was a Vietnamese import. I had no idea what it was; I just liked the look of it, so I bought it.

Flat rice is essentially rice grain that has been de-husked and flattened into flakes. All recipes that I've seen for it start by soaking the flakes in liquid, usually water or milk. It can then be boiled (which turns it into a gooey mush that can be molded into dumplings, or made into a porridge/soup) or fried along with other ingredients. Flat rice is also apparently a highly digestible form of grain and frequently recommended as a means of combating dysentery -- when you're traveling through India, for instance, and have trouble adjusting to the local food and water. It is also lower in carbs than regular rice, so dieters take note.

Just for fun, I threw a handful of these flakes into my rice cooker along with my generic calrose rice. I was expecting to see plump green grains speckled across the white rice, but instead I was surprised to find dissolved green spots on the calrose, as if someone had dribbled green food coloring onto white rice. It's easy to see how flat rice can be used to make doughy dumplings when soaked in enough liquid.

I can't wait to fry up a batch and see how it turns out. Stay tuned.