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Cooking with rice

For me it matters not how I cook rice (ANY rice) it spikes me immediately and requires insulin. I rarely have it now because it's tricky to dose for. I actually think rice affects everybody the same way whether you have diabetes or not, ie it spikes glucose levels and the only difference after that is how quickly it comes down again. Even if you can get your levels down quickly I'm not sure it's worth the effort personally. Carb wise you get a tiny amount for your money, I'd rather eat a Magnums with a lesser spike. Bread on the other hand........
 
copilost said:
I found that I actually prefer the reduced carb version of many of my standbys. The current "good carb" promotion meant I'd adjusted upward for things almost without realising. (I feel a tad bit brain washed :eek:)
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Likewise. I always thought I was being good cutting down on the meat and bulking up on the bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. And I suppose if you aren't diabetic/pre-diabetic, then that's probably still good advice.
 
Just a note re a US rice brand-- Uncle Ben's Converted Rice. It's already parboiled. I checked my box, and sorry it's not in grams, but 1/4 cup dry (about 1 cup cooked, it says) has 77g carbs and only 1 of that is fiber. I'm not carefully following everyone's calculations, but hoped to contribute a "pre-parboiled" rice to run numbers with for you. I don't eat rice but DH loves it.
Whoever posted the Uncle Roger video-- that's funny!
 
Nicole T said:
A spin off from my paella discussion on 'what have you eaten today?' I didn't want to derail that thread with it, though.

I've been doing a little bit of Googling, and finding some suggestion that you can significantly reduce the starch in boiled rice by par-boiling it and rinsing it before continuing with cooking.

https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/ingenious-ways-to-remove-starch-from-everyday-foods-from-rice-to-potato-and-more-1767563#:~:text=All you need to do,for two to three minutes.

I've actually been cooking it the worst possible way, for the last few years. My mum taught me to boil rice in far too much water, pour away the excess, and rinse with boiling water afterwards. But more recently, I've been using a rice cooker and making paellas, both of which rely on evaporating all of the water, and leaving all of the starch behind. Or I've been using microwave rice, which is probably no better.

I know rice is never going to be truly low carb, but I'm just wondering what people's thoughts are on this as a carb reducing strategy. Has anyone experimented with this before? If I could halve the levels of starch in my paella, I could have the same size portions without spiking my blood sugar by 2.7mmol/L.
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The only way to know is to test it - I cook both rice and pasta, rinse in cold water and reheat with little effect on my BS. I just eat smaller portions than I used to.
 
xfieldok said:
My Granny who was born in India, and a darned good cook, always insisted on rinsing the rice until it ran clear.

Having said that. I have tried all the tricks, cooking and reheating, it just doesn't work for me.
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I used to have an Indian cookery book that was my curry bible, it said to pre rinse rice until the water ran clear. It always amazed me how cloudy that water started off as being!

Having said that I've not used rice since I was diagnosed over six years ago, and while I like cauliflower, I don't really care for cauli rice, but I had a recipe for dry curried cauliflower that I've used sometimes in the very infrequent curries I now cook.
 
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Well my son's here tonight, and I just tested a 5.1, 2 hours after lunch. So tonight might be the '3 minute pre-cook' experiment night. If I can start out well below 6, then even another spike of nearly 3 shouldn't result in anything worrying.

Though I am planning to be wilfully naughty tomorrow night (another meal out, plus drinks, with friends.)
 
Rather than try to find a solution I just gave up rice-based dishes. No more risotto, paella or rice with curries. Easier than tempting fate.
 
So I made the paella exactly the same as last time, except that I boiled the rice for 5 minutes, drained and rinsed with cold water until it ran clear. Adding everything into the pan, I overdid it on fluids and ended up slightly overcooking the rice boiling away the last of the liquid.

I was a 6.2 pre-meal (only tested once.) 2 hours after, 7.0, which I didn't believe (too low) only to test twice again and get 6.1 and 6.2 respectively.

I'm calling this a success. Even if the first was a misread, I'd be very surprised if I started above 5.
 
Antje77 said:
Wow, I'd call it a success as well! Especially if it tasted good too :)

Still, a one off is not proof, but definitely worth repeating the experiment!
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Well I enjoyed it, in spite of the rice being slightly overcooked. I'm sure I promised the recipe (somewhere, though it doesn't seem to be this thread) if it worked out, so here goes. This makes 2 large portions, but would probably more sensibly make 4 reasonably sized ones. You could halve the rice and/or the seafood mix. Maybe chuck in some chorizo if you have some handy.

250g Iceland precooked seafood mix (I don't bother to defrost it first, but others may prefer to.)
250g (uncooked weight) Morrisons basmati rice
Turmeric (for colour)
1 Fish stock cube

Boil plenty of water in a saucepan, add the rice, bring to the boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Shortly after putting the rice on to boil, put a small amount of boiling water in a tall sided frying pan, and dissolve the fish stock cube into it. Add a good sprinkle of turmeric (maybe around half a teaspoon) and seafood mix.
When the rice has cooked for 5 minutes, strain and rinse thoroughly with cold water. Collect the resulting water with each rinse to check for clarity. Repeat rinsing until the water is completely clear.
Add the rice to the frying pan.
Boil/simmer, stirring regularly. Periodically sample the rice to check cooking progress. If it's close to boiling dry and the rice isn't cooked, add a small amount of hot/boiling water. Otherwise, boil/simmer until all of the liquid is gone and the rice is cooked. It's always better to add too little than too much extra water.

Kinda hopeful that while some of the reduction is down to cooking technique, part of it might be my body responding better to carbs now that it isn't totally overwhelmed by them on a daily basis. Fingers crossed, eh? I might make a couple of slices of toast tomorrow's experiment.
 
Nicole T said:
250g (uncooked weight) Morrisons basmati rice
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wow that's a lot of rice :) no judgies from me just an observation based on my own "normal' so not universal any-which-way.

Pre T2 diagnosis I'd be doing 150g dry for three meals. Although thinking back I could have been doing 150g for two meals which now seems like a lot (perception).

which leads me to....
Nicole T said:
Kinda hopeful that while some of the reduction is down to cooking technique, part of it might be my body responding better to carbs now that it isn't totally overwhelmed by them on a daily basis.
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yeah this is interesting and mirrors my own experience (maybe why interesting?;))

From my meter readings I could probably up my carbs as clearly my body can process them from a BG perspective, what I don't know is the strain I'm putting on my body from an insulin resistance perspective. So how much harder is my body working to deal with the carbs so that BG is OK?
 
Not just the carbs, it is also deficient in nutrients. Modern rice is a similar story to processed wheat used for white bread. But you go for it, little bit won't hurt I'm sure
 
Antechinus said:
Not just the carbs, it is also deficient in nutrients. Modern rice is a similar story to processed wheat used for white bread. But you go for it, little bit won't hurt I'm sure
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The Japanese have the longest lifespan in the world and white rice is a major part of their diet, so it can't be that bad, at least if you are not diabetic.
 
Mr_Pot said:
The Japanese have the longest lifespan in the world and white rice is a major part of their diet, so it can't be that bad, at least if you are not diabetic.
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Well sort of. They have increasing obesity and diabetes as well, but that's because they are adopting western type diets. But if you have traditional Japanese diet then Ok. But you will find rice is only a small portion of the calory intake and the diet is high in protein. Those long live Japanese had a very frugal calorie intake and worked like Trojans.
 
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