Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Cook whole grains like popcorn (2018)

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315 pointsbrudgers107 comments

Time to share my recipe for dry roasted pressure cooked brown rice.

I make this using a stainless steel stovetop pressure cooker. I do not recommend aluminum.

The ingredients are two cups brown rice (long or short grain as you wish), two cups of water or a little less (yes, the rice:water ratio is just 1:1), and half a teaspoon of salt or less. You can scale this up or down easily.

Put the rice in the pressure cooker without the lid. Turn the heat on. You can use high heat for the first minute or two, but then turn it down so the the rice does not burn.

Every minute or so, pick up the pan and swirl the rice around so it heats and browns evenly. It will take about ten minutes to be nicely roasted.

Now here is where this relates to the article and discussion. As the rice browns, a few of the grains will pop just like popcorn. You can leave them in the pan or pick them out for a crunchy snack!

When the rice is nicely browned, add the salt and swirl it in, then slowly pour in the water and give it one more swirl.

Put on the lid and let the pressure come up to high (the second ring on my Perfect pressure cooker). Turn the heat way down at this point to maintain the pressure, and keep an eye on it.

Set a 20 minute timer and release the pressure when it is done. Use a steel spatula to gently mix the rice and scrape the crispy bits off the bottom of the pan.

Enjoy!

sounds a bit like a pilaf, but with less water for the final step. What is the final product like? normal rice or something else?

It comes out a lot like conventionally cooked brown rice, but with more of a toasty flavor from the roasting step.

https://global.11st.co.kr/glb/products/307248392

maybe it's something like this?

btw you can put this in ramen

edit:

this seems to be a better match ('grain popcorn') https://global.11st.co.kr/glb/products/4169934568

Would aluminum not work as well because it conducts heat better than steel so it might burn the rice? Asking because I have an aluminum pressure cooker and I'd like to try it still.

Give it a whirl! I was only recommending against aluminum because I use a steel spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan after cooking, and I would worry that the steel would scratch up the softer aluminum. But you could use a sturdy plastic spatula instead, should work fine.

Update: I just finished stuffing my belly with half the rice I cooked using your recipe, it came out delicious, thank you for that!

The reason why I left the other half outside of my belly is not due capacity limitations of any kind, but rather because I suspect this kind of rice will lend itself really really well to food-dehydration as it's already almost dry (in a good crunchy way!). I do this sometimes with leftovers pasta and rice and later use it as backpacking meals (either by cold soaking or super quick boil).

I mean sure ... but why not just get a rice cooker?

Rice cookers are great. But they don't roast the rice.

The roasting gives another flavor dimension, just as roasting spices changes their flavor.

Each approach has its place.

I mean sure ... but why not just use the pressure cooker you already have?

That's pretty much how I cook white rice normally - just usually add a little oil rather than dry roast to stop it sticking (since I soak it first and certainly don't bother to re-dry it) and only for about a minute before adding the water (1:2). Cook at pressure 2min, leave off heat to continue cooking (but also cool and release lid itself) for another 8m.

Compare with traditional pressure cooker rice "Kabul rice".

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/231795/afghani-kabli-pulao...

This is, as the kids say, cap.

Popcorn works because the outer hull is strong enough to hold together until a critical mass of pressure builds inside to rupture it. At that point the starches, which have liquefied under pressure, explode and unliquify rather suddenly.

White rice and pearled barley have their hulls removed. You can see in the picture that the barley has split, but not popped, and the rice just looks a little blistered. These will never pop like popcorn.

It is possible to pop some other grains like popcorn, but none of the ones listed here, at least not using the methodology described. Puffed rice and wheat are done in machines that lower the air pressure to create the same conditions as popcorn.

I've seen rice done in videos by (I believe?) heating them under pressure and then releasing the pressure suddenly, causing max puffage.

An example: https://youtu.be/ZyJoqS__7O0

I've seen this device in videos before, I wonder why I never see them at like Farmers markets here in the US. They'd probably make a killing.

I think safety may have something to do with it, it's pretty much a bomb

I… don’t think that’s it.

I’m tempted to find and buy one a pressurized popcorn popper like that, and set up at my local farmers’ market. It might be popular, or it might not - but it would definitely be fun.

You inspired me... I went ahead and ordered one.

Let me know how it goes! I recognize your name, and I’m only a couple of hours north of you. I might drop down there sometime and check it out if you don’t mind.

Sure thing! Message me on twitter or email me at gmail so I can contact you back.

I've been contemplating using a pipe-bomb shaped vessel to cook things in super-heated water, which would require very high pressures. Imagine getting water to 400F and how golden brown and moist things would be that cook that way! It would be like deep frying food in water.

Looking at the temperature/pressure chart on the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking) any plant or animal tissue, perhaps even bone, would maybe be reduced to a thin sludge long before reaching 400F.

The Wikipedia page mentions pressure ovens, though, which seem designed to achieve the effect you're looking for--fast cooking with browning (Maillard reaction). Personally, this is why I love the Kuhn Rikon fry pan pressure cooker. It has a tri-ply, dimpled bottom for excellent browning; then you can just deglaze, add remaining ingredients, and slap a lid on for pressure cooking. It only holds 2.5L, though, so in practice limited to dishes of about 8-10 servings at the very most (typically more like 4-8 servings).

Dave Arnold tried this and was not impressed: https://cookingissues.com/2009/06/11/maillard-pipe-potatoes/

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As you can see from the photo, the potato turns a dark mahogany all the way through (cause it is 355° all the way through). Even the water turns mahogany.

This experiment taught me that not all Maillard reactions produce good flavors. The Maillard pipe potato tastes awful and smells acrid. Damn it’s bad—but it’s instructive.

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Puffed rice is made differently in India. They use a hot pan and black sand with no pressure release. Example: https://youtu.be/36GKVfo5PUA

To be clear, it’s black salt which is possibly in sand sized particles not black beach sand. So he doesn’t need to worry about leaving grit in the puffed rice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

Great link. Watched the whole thing! Fascinating!

Last year I got into a bit of a habit of eating bhel puri for breakfast - took a while before I realised probably why it occurred to me as something to do, that bhel is basically 'Rice Krispies' or similar. So for someone who doesn't like milk, (on its own/in large quantity like that) but loves spice, bhel puri is the ultimate breakfast cereal. :)

So, a pressure cooker would do?

Home pressure cookers tend to be safeguarded against instant release. Some models of the Instant Pot of an optional accelerated quick release using an ice pack, but its still much more gradual that what seems to be used for this purpose.

You can run cold water over the lid of a pressure cooker, and it will release abruptly. Most modern cookers include this in the instructions. Old cookers may not be safe to do this, if they don’t have a geometry that directs a sudden blast of steam downward.

> Puffed rice and wheat are done in machines that lower the air pressure to create the same conditions as popcorn

Maybe for commercial production but it isn’t necessary in general. I make puffed rice all the time with hot salt in a skillet. It’s a lazy way to use leftover rice since you need to cook it first anyway.

High tech: https://youtu.be/Rlh_7xzXwtc

Low tech: https://youtu.be/Oq4H3awS5iA

Leftover rice? I'd assumed this process required whole grain, or does it work with regular white rice?

Perhaps puffed is a better word than popped.

While it is true that puffed rice is currently made using large pressure swings, people online claim rice has been puffed using "hot salt frying" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_salt_frying) for hundreds of years (https://nitter.net/whetstone_mag/status/1564282053025210368?..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice) and supposedly there is a secondary source dating this practice to 1886 at the absolute latest, about two decades before the invention of the modern production method.

This method seems like a reinvention of hot sand frying. They would probably expand better if they were soaked in water prior to puffing.

Puffed oats aren’t as popular in breakfast cereal but they also exist.

[edit] looks like Arrowhead makes puffed everything cereal. Rice, oats, corn, millet, kamut…

> While it is true that puffed rice is currently made using large pressure swings, people online claim rice has been puffed using "hot salt frying"

Cook-and-then-fry (with various frying methods) seems to be the commonly-documented method for home puffed/popped rice.

In fact, putting rice in hot sand to puff it is sometimes thought to be the world's oldest cooking technique. Still done in places in India.

> as the kids say

actually this is as black folks say, appropriated by youth culture, much like anything else

Wether or not it is popped, is it ready to eat ? From a prepper perspective it would be great to have an alternative way to prepare rice without having to boil away water that might be in scarce supply. It's also attractive to cook rice in 2 minutes as opposed to waiting for a pot of water to boil.

Edit: If no one replies, I'll try tonight and report back by tomorrow morning.

Where do you live that water would be in that short supply? It only has to be a reasonably fresh and clear, not necessarily drinkable given it's going to be boiled for several minutes.

Since the GP said "from a prepper perspective", I assume he's thinking of conditions after some catastrophe has disrupted normal services.

Can't speak for anyone else, but here in Phoenix, if the municipal water stops pumping for whatever reason, options are very scarce, and hope you have a good multi-stage filter + UV setup with at least an OK source of water. You should generally have 15 gallons of clean drinking water per person on hand, which should last a couple weeks. In addition to a larger supply of water for washing/flushing.

TBH, I don't have this much, have about 15 gallons of fresh drinking water for 2 people, and a pool in the back with enough chemicals to keep it treated for a few months (flushing/cleaning use)... I could probably rig something with my RO and a UV light with a tank pump and a few other bits if it really came down to it though.

Have thought it might be cool to build a trailer with a generator, portable filtration system and water tank... The reality is, if things went bad, generally would only be for a couple weeks where I am, or would be bad enough that migration to another area would be necessary and at that point, who knows.

Assuming you have sunny days could you leave the (river? rain?) water all day in clear containers for the UV? You might need to do a lot at once to save for non sunny days.

Assuming no industrial pollution.

Probably want some resorts before this last resort though.

I'm in Phx, so all sun... too much even. Not enough water, so mobility to get to water and transport is much more critical.

Aside from the other responses, the second biggest city in Mexico just had a drought for months.

Not to say people are going to begin experimenting with popping whole grains over it, but water goes into short supply all over the world. And in those cases the water you can get has things like heavy metals and runoff that don’t just boil out.

Rice (or any other cereals) can be cooked in a microwave oven in between 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the amount and on the oven, and without using more water than will be absorbed by the rice, which is typically about 4 times the mass of the rice (e.g. 125 g of rice + 500 g of water).

There is no need for a pot of water or for fuel, but electricity is needed. Bread can be made with much less water, but that does not save anything, because in that case you must drink more water.

I tried this with quinoa today. It did not puff, but it tasted fully cooked with a nice carmelized flavor similar to popcorn. It worked really well on top of a salad. Here's my recipe:

- Heat one cast-iron or heavy bottomed pot under medium heat.

- Add 1/2 cup quinoa (work in batches for more)

- Stir consistently for 1-2 minutes, until quinoa turns medium-brown or smoke begins to appear

- Remove immediately from heat.

- Add 2 tsp oil. Mix in pinches of salt, garlic, onion powder, paprika.

- Let cool 3-4 minutes and serve.

To follow-up: I heated a skillet until water sizzled when dripped on it, then added long grain basmati rice and kept it at medium high heat for 2m30s. The grains moved, crackled, and browned.

Since they didn't pop or puff the result doesn't provide much food volume and it's about as crunchy as crushed pecans. Given its neutral flavor, which is unsurprisingly like Rice Krispy cereal, it would function well as a topping but definitely not like the main carb portion of a meal. Probably won't make it again.

> White rice and pearled barley have their hulls removed.

I haven't read the article, but the title says "whole grains", which to my knowledge do not have the bran ("hull"?) removed. Maybe the corn hull is uniquely strong enough to withstand that inner pressure and pops the way it does? But as far as I know, a "whole grain" should have little-to-nothing removed from the seed.

The parent is right; not every single one the author tests is a whole grain, and they even talk about it in the article in the section about Arborio rice, for example.

> Puffed rice and wheat are done in machines that lower the air pressure to create the same conditions as popcorn.

You mean raise the air pressure. They cook them at very high pressure, and then suddenly release the pressure and they all explode. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_grain

Yes, you're right.

> It is possible to pop some other grains like popcorn, but none of the ones listed here, at least not using the methodology described.

I didn't read the article as asserting that any of the grains popped like popcorn? There's a picture that makes this quite clear.

It's literally in the title.

No it isn’t? It says cook them in the same way that you cook popcorn, not that they actually pop

Would you settle for the first sentence then?

"Barley, rice, quinoa, amaranth – you name it – can be quickly popped like corn. I just did this and it's delicious!"

Yes

edit: oh god never mind

I'm black and your comment is demeaning in a way I can't put my finger on.

Kids do say "cap" all the time now, acting like we have so few wins that we need to get credit for it or something feels insulting.

I dunno I have some genmaicha with roasted rice and a good number of the grains look like downsized oblong popped corn

This reminds me of my childhood in India where my grandma and mom will "fry" everything whole and it used to be delicious. Little but chopped onion, cilantro and lemon makes it even yummier.

I said fried for lack of better word but the way it gets done is - just stir and toss them with hot sand in a wide mouth clay pot. When it is done, just use a sieve to separate sand and the grain.

It is pretty wholesome snack. Cooked wheat, corn, rice, chickpeas. U name it.

EDIT - Here is a video of it https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8xW3gFxN34c

I read where that is the world's oldest cooking technique!

Yeah I think sand is used to control the heat distribution, which is hard to do when you are cooking over fire from wood or something similar.

I am assuming, you are talking about something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kokO6XqJvAE. If so, it's not sand, it's salt.

I am pretty sure it used to be sand. Comments on same youtube video:

> Sand is also used in a similar process, but only for roasting groundnuts/peanuts, which can be cleaned easily afterward.

Interesting, TIL.

I think most Americans are familiar with Sugar / Honey Smacks. These are created by placing wheat in a high pressure vessel and cooking the grain under pressure before suddenly releasing the pressure. The result is that the grain becomes "puffed" by expanding in size.

In Asia, there are street merchants who will throw grains into an iron vessel which is then closed and heated to create a similar pressure situation. When they release the pressure, there is an audible boom and the results is puffed grains.

> In Asia, there are street merchants who will throw grains into an iron vessel which is then closed and heated to create a similar pressure situation. When they release the pressure, there is an audible boom and the results is puffed grains.

Video time-stamped before the boom:

https://youtu.be/ZyJoqS__7O0?t=158

I wonder if you could do the same in an Instant Pot... I just tried the stovetop technique with wheat berries (hard white), and they just expanded very slightly. But unlike a raw wheat berry, they tasted okay!

To do the same thing on an instant pot, you'd have to remove the entire lid all at once. It's the explosive decompression which fluffs up the grains. For this reason, the asian merchants usually open the devices into a bag made of sturdy material.

Gotcha—so probably not going to end up in the official Instant Pot cookbook. Ha

Instant pot plus C3. It's a winner! (Well, once...)

Instant Pot is 12 psi. The popcorn cannons are about 150 psi. It needs to be released at once and a blast of steam comes out with the grains.

Well i just tried this with all the grains in my cupboard and it now smells like burned ass in here and it all tasted horrible.

Thanks for taking it for the team. It sounds interesting but I'm skeptical if alternative grains will beat popcorn.

yeah lets not forget popcorn has been specifically bred to pop like that for thousands of years.

The best alt I've discovered by accident is sesame seeds. If you toast them (badly) they can pop and look exactly like tiny popcorn. I still believe sesame has potential to be bred to make better popcorn. Maybe a good task for the Experimental Farm Network

Thank you for your experiment! You can definitely do it with buckwheat* at least, but not with the method described in this submission. You first need to boil the buckwheat in water and then air dry it. Then when it it is fully dried you add it to boiling oil in small amounts.

* https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=976365162779630

Yeah I’ve ordered some with my shopping and will attempt this week :)

Puffed rice is almost a staple in many parts of India. Called murmure in Hindi. Poha is also a variant of puffed rice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poha_(rice)