Disguising rice?

bestpud

Ok, I'm having a good go at meal planning! :eek: There is soooo much info on here it'll take until Christmas to get through the existing stuff, let alone new stuff being added.

But I've taken the plunge and have various things in the oven/slow cooker/saucepan as we speak, and I am very nervous about it all, if I'm honest - goodness only knows why!

Anyway, DD2 doesn't like rice, but we have quite a lot of it, and of course, it's cheap!

So, I was wondering if anyone has managed to disguise rice or persuaded someone to eat it somehow?

I've considered putting it in her sauce (whatever we are having with it) and gradually increasing the quantity...

I'm guessing it can't be liquidised and added that way? I feel a bit bad giving her just the sauce part of the meal but don't want to start cooking pasta or the like at the same time.

It's getting to the point where I just avoid things with rice and that's just daft!

We can't be the only family with this issue, can we?

Pink.

Hi bestpud,

You aren't the only one. There's an earlier thread that may help:

Need recipes to "hide" rice in!

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

bestpud

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi bestpud,

You aren't the only one. There's an earlier thread that may help:

Need recipes to "hide" rice in!

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

Ooops, sorry, I missed that one!

Thanks Pink, I'll have a gander now!

gairlochgal

Has your DD explained what she doesn't like about rice? Mine, now 11, went through this and her point was that plain rice tastes bland. Nowadays she'll happily eat it if it's cooked with stock or veg, or served with a sauce it can be thoroughly mixed into

bestpud

No she hasn't, and tbh I haven't asked - I will though, thanks for the idea.

Actually I have a feeling it may have been curry that put her off rice.

She and her older sister seem unable to tolerate anything hot/spicy. It seems to literally burn them and it has made them cry (literally) - a pain cry, not a 'I'm not going to eat it because I don't like it cry'. DD 16 is a little better now but she still can't cope with anything more than a mild spice to it.

I haven't really thought about it until now but maybe if I try giving her rice with something I know she loves....? :think: I wonder if she associates it with curry (which she hates)?

Saying that, my dad doesn't like rice as he says he can't swallow it - it kind of sticks in his mouth and he can't do anything with it, he says!

But yes, I will investigate further.

meester

Are you steaming it or boiling it?

What kind of rice are you using?

bestpud

Long grain white or brown and we boil it.

meester

bestpud wrote: »

Long grain white or brown and we boil it.

My wife's family come from the back of beyond in rural Indonesia, and they'd look on brown rice with abject horror. It seems to be some sort of Western health thing. Personally, I'd recommend Thai jasmine rice, steamed.

It should cost less than £1/kg from a Chinese grocers.

If you really want to eat rice, then a rice cooker is an excellent buy, about £15, and they cook rice (STEAMED, not boiled) perfectly in about 15 minutes (you can cook rice in a vegetable steamer, but a rice cooker to me is better, as they can also steam vegetables, and to me cooking rice is a more essential function).

Jollof is a nice thing to make with rice (red African rice). Lots of oil. Any recipe with butter or oil in it will make rice more palatable.

nanokitten

how about pressing it into some kind of mould to make a fancy shape stars, princessess etc (do this when its hot and sticky and let it cool a bit to get it to hold together. DD2 could even choose the mould (the possibilities are endless). you could also try colouring it, say with saffron or turmaric (or pink food colouring!).

Sometimes its about rebranding with kids (my brother wont eat 'pasta' but will eat 'noodles'). I saw a great observation in a covent garden soup cook book once -"in general children do not like spinach soup, however they do like green snot soup"

Toonie

To be honest, some kids just don't like the texture of it and its something they may not grow out of (I'm a case in point). As a child I wouldn't eat more than a teaspoon of it and now I'm the same, there is just something about the texture which I'm not fond of.

Having said that, I have successfully managed to get a few kids to eat rice who said they didn't like it, I did this by introducing it with a different meal. I chopped a hard boiled egg, add mayonnaise, cooked sweetcorn and peas and then a couple spoonfuls of rice, all of the children I have nannied for have enjoyed this meal (but I don't).

bestpud

Thanks for all the suggestions - one of them is bound to work!

Meester - I have to agree about the brown rice - I think it's disgusting too tbh! We don't have anything like a chinese supermarket here unfortunately though!