Where's best to buy basmati / risotto rice?

Wizwoo

OK - OH and I love basmati rice but it ain't that cheap. We've tried many own brand but nothing comes close to the Tilda brand (really fragrant). Please note if my OH doesn't like it (as much) he'll just not eat it
Can anyone suggest where to buy it a little more cheaply? Or has anyone else found a brand that they can really recommend that's cheaper? (At the moment we buy the Tilda Basmati Rice 2kg at £4.79 from tesco - it does last us though).

Plus - I love making risotto but find the rice and porcini mushrooms (:heartpuls) pretty expensive - anyone found a good cheap source for these?

bigup

I buy 10kg bag from sainsburys, think its about £14 (has extra free in the bag at the moment). Quite a good price.

kethry

i buy my basmati rice from Aldi - i think its 79p for a kg. its not bad, i like it, and its better than the own value range. They also sell thai fragrant rice for about the same price which is pretty good, but i try not to buy it at the moment (basmati is best for the GI diet, which i'm trying to stick to).

hope that helps..

keth
xx

Wizwoo

Thanks. The sainsbury's web site only lists a 5Kg bag at £9.49 - but that's still a good saving. I'll have a look to see if our local store has a 10 Kg bag.
At 79p per kilo I'll give the Aldi ones a go - the thai rice may do the job.

Anyone got any ideas on the risotto and the dried porcini mushrooms?

RacyRed

If you have any Indian supermarkets localy they are usually great for basmati rice.

Mine does 10K bags of Tilda brown basmati for about £12. White Tilda is cheaper, but I can't remember the price just now, but I think it was under £10 for a 10K bag.

mah_jong

I use Lidl, they have a 10 kg bag. Its around the tenner mark.

HTH

seraphina

Another huge Tilda basmati fan here - it's the only rice we use. I think it's worth the extra expense.

It varies between a local asian grocer and tesco's as to who's the cheapest - I think we usually pay £13 odd for a 10kg bag. If we had the space I'd buy the 20kg bag!

npsmama

For the risotto you could ask your local healthfood shop if they would be willing to add to their next order from Infinity Foods and get in a big sack of arborio rice for you. I'm about to do this, it's orgnaic and about £29.50 for 25kg or £27 for 25kg of brown arborio. As far as I know rice doesn't go off so long as you keep it dry. You can also get 5kg bags but the savings are less.

They also do basmati rice (organic brown fair trade, £32.59 for 25kg; or white, organic fair trade £42 for 25kg)). I get Thai rice from an oriental food specialist. It's much cheape rthan this but it's thai, not basmati)

HTH!

ETA to add prices

jobbingmusician

Indian supermarkets are definitely the cheapest for Tilda.

DON'T be tempted to buy 20kg bags unless you are a really large family or VERY heavy rice eaters (or like your food mobile!) - rice normally comes complete with weevil eggs, which hatch and start to move around if you don't eat it up pretty promptly. :whistle:

npsmama

- rice normally comes complete with weevil eggs, which hatch and start to move around if you don't eat it up pretty promptly.

YUCK! Didn't know this! Would freezing it for 24hrs deal with the problem like it does with wheat?

jobbingmusician

DH says that weevils are so and so's to kill (he used a ruder word than that ) and the eggs would probably survive freezing, sorry!

How big is your freezer, if you can fit a 20kg bag of rice into it, anyway?:rotfl: