Purple Rice

[Ellyn]

I found a grocery store that sells 800g zip-resealable bags of purple rice.

I've seen other varieties: red, brown, short grain, long grain, Japanese, Indian, Thai, fragrant, and sticky. But this is the first time I caught sight of a package of purple rice, so I'm naturally intrigued and want to use it as an ingredient.

I probably wouldn't eat it every day, though. I only used to eat it before as maybe a sprinkled additive to white rice so that it looks interesting, so I don't even know if it would taste good enough for me to have with every meal.

Unless you've got recipes!

It's glutinous, by the way. I can't seem to find non-sticky purple rice... The other two recipes I can possibly think of, when I look them up, say that they used to be made out of purple rice flour (which apparently stays purple after grinding? sure that's not just the chaff?) but is now made by mixing white glutinous rice flour with purple yam powder...which is appealing, because I don't even own a millstone. Although I wonder why the switch really came about.

The sticky rice porridges that I like so much are usually made with glutinous white rice, to better show off the color of whatever I'm adding. Since I cook by sight, smell, and taste (and my taste is more influenced than I'd like by how something looks), then substituting purple rice might throw it off...and, it seems they're less absorbent than chaff-stripped white glutinous rice, having to be soaked all night before being cooked.

No, I can't find any 1/4 kilogram bags to just try it out. Sigh.

What do you think? Should I get it anyway?

 

[Food4thought]

I sometimes cook red rice, which comes from the Camargue in the south of France. I wonder if it's the same as your purple rice? It is chewier than white rice and has a slightly nutty taste, similar to brown rice. It's also a healthier alternative to white rice.

 

[Ellyn]

I sometimes cook red rice, which comes from the Camargue in the south of France. I wonder if it's the same as your purple rice? It is chewier than white rice and has a slightly nutty taste, similar to brown rice. It's also a healthier alternative to white rice.

Purple rice would definitely be a healthier alternative because it has anthocyanins that make it purple, and that's an antioxidant.

I doubt that it's anything like red rice or brown rice, however, because it's advertized as glutinous.

Unlike the nutty, chewy red and brown rice varieties that tend to stay separate and can be difficult to overcook, the thing about glutinous rice is that the starchy bits seep out of the grains and into the water that it's cooking in. This creates a glue-like porridge, the consistency of what you get between cooked oatmeal grains.

I would suppose that this also means that the rice is soft, or it should get completely soft when cooked the whole way through.

But then again, I haven't tried it yet... maybe the non-glutinous varieties are somehow closer to red rice.

 

[firelily99]

I have never seen or eaten purple rice but it certainly sounds like something that I would want to try. I wasn't much of a rice eater until the past few years and I find that I like it better than pasta or potatoes.