Burned Rice Soup

Ah, rice.

When I was 18ish, our family friend from Thailand bought me a rice cooker. I carted my blue microwave, 1980s-era hand mixer, and the cooker to college and made rice often. Brown rice, jasmine rice, saffron rice, red rice...all perfectly cooked, every time.

I couldn't believe the ease with which that machine cooked rice. Put in rice, pour in water, hit button, rice is done! Not only did the cooker make perfectly cooked rice appear in just 40 minutes, but it made cheery burps and farts and hisses during the most furious while it boiled.

Sadly, after five or six years, my cooker got plum wore out from all the use. The plastic lid popped off the glass top; I had to use the tines of a fork to remove the (hot! hot!) glass. Plus, the no-stick became scratched, and no matter how diligently I cleaned, I could not remove some of the rice water film from the cooker's surface.

I gave up and learned to cook rice using a pot. On the stove top.

Though it requires slightly more attention, the stove top method worked well for me. As long as I remembered to pre-wash my rice and to not stir while cooking, my rice always turned out fluffy and soothing, 40-50 minutes after I set it to boil.

Well. Last night, I left it to boil for 50-60 minutes. Whoops! I blame Myspace, the time sucker.

I tried to salvage the burned brown rice by cooking some onions and walnuts and making a pilaf of sorts, a-cream-of-mushroom-soup affair, in the oven. Which would have worked, had I remembered that I set the pilaf in the oven at 350 degrees. I forgot the rice and went to bed around 11, only to wake at 11:30 to a burning smell.

Oops again.

I had to throw the whole mess away, and I am not looking forward to scrubbing the blackened mess from the saucepan which is now soaking in the sink.

Maybe I should have made burned rice soup, instead, like this person.

See? Migi turned her rice fiasco into a pretty dish. The next time I burn rice, I'll consider this soup. Maybe with some fried green onion slices. Mmm.