Rice, a very healthy food with a thousand uses

Rice is a very common food in our homes. The origins of rice are ancient. Some say that rice was born on the slopes of Himalayas, others that it was born in south India, and from there it got then gradually in all other countries of the world.

Several uses can be made with rice because it is not only an absolutely complete food talking about it from a nutritional point of view, but it is also a good ally for other uses, not very “common”.

For example, if ever a mobile phone drop out into the water, just put it in an envelope full of rice, obviously raw, for about 30 minutes to remove all the residual moisture from the phone and get it back to work as new !

With rice you can also create some nice and very helpful ice packs or hot water bottle  (where the rice is used instead of water): Take a sock and fill it completely with rice, sew the ends and depending on the use you like to employ it, you can put it over the radiator heat or inside the freezer.

Rice is also a good ally for “white” or “blind” tarts cooking: in fact you can just use rice as a weight to cook your bases perfectly. When used for this purpose, the rice can no longer be cooked, but it could again be useful for other types of blind cooking.

If you prefer to prevent rust on your work tools, put in your toolbox a small container (opened) with a handful of rice inside: it will serve to keep the tools newer longer.

There are lots of quality of rice around the world: Arborio, Carnaroli, Venus, Basmati, Thai and many others, and is a food easy to recycle: in fact, when you have some leftover rice, will be very simple to employ it in other recipes. With some rice I advanced from a Chinese takeaway dinner few evenings ago, I prepared these tasty rice “donuts” with mixed vegetables.

Let’s see how to make them, first of all the ingredients for 4 people:

500 g leftover rice with vegetables

60 g grated Parmesan cheese

2 medium eggs

4 tablespoons of chickpeas flour

Sunflower or peanut oil for frying, as required

A clove of garlic

Preparation

Put the rice in a large bowl together with Parmesan cheese, two eggs, and four tablespoons of chickpeas flour. Stir well until the mixture is fairly easy to manipulate. Put on medium heat a little vegetable oil in a non stick pan along with a clove of garlic, which you need to remove when golden.

With your hands, take a little of the mixture and formed a ball not too big big, then you you need to flatten it a little bit between your palms.

Take a small round shaped mold cookie cutter and take out the dough from the center of your croquette. Pay attention to compact the edges with your hands very well, and with a silicone spatula take the “donut” from the counter into the pan and then fry for about two minutes per side. Once golden brown on all sides, remove from the oil and let it drain on a plate covered with paper towels.

@Angelinaincucin