Quinoa catastrophe!
This morning I made my first attempt at cooking quinoa. I followed a standard recipe, first soaking a cup of quinoa for about half an hour, then rinsing and draining a couple of times through a sieve. I returned the quinoa to my trusty old Revereware saucepan, added a cup and a half of cold water and a dash of salt, brought it to a boil, then lowered the heat and covered the pan. It simmered for 20 minutes, then, as the recipe dictated, I removed it from the heat and let it sit for five minutes with the lid on.
To my astonishment, the lid would not budge from the pan. It had come off easily when I checked it before the five-minute resting period, but now, no amount of tugging, banging, running water, or even attempts to pry the lid off with a screwdriver would move the thing.
I'm not an inexperienced cook (except, obviously, when it comes to quinoa), but I've never in my life seen anything like this. Can anyone explain why this happened, and advise me how to safely remove the &^*#!#@* lid from my pot?
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17 Comments:
first, let me say, that you've made made me laugh super hard, which is a real relief from an otherwise crappy morning.
secondly, be very careful since the contents are very hot. my suggestions would be to try to use a fork to carefully pry the lid from the pan while holding the pot lid with a potholder or you could also try reheating the pot so everything expands and it oughta come off then.
if you ever get it off-let us know how the quinoa tastes-i've never had it.
gastronomeg at 11:04AM on 06/27/09
Just heat the pot, the lid should come off.
misterhee at 11:09AM on 06/27/09
What probably happened was that you had a good seal on your lid, so as the air inside the pot cooled it contracted and created a vacuum inside the pot. Heating the pot will cause the air to expand again and should release the lid. Unless by some freak occurrence something melted between your lid and pot to glue it on?
misterhee at 11:12AM on 06/27/09
Glad to be of service, gastronomeg! The pot is no longer hot, but I already tried prying the lid off with a fork, several different knives, and a screwdriver. Really. It's as if the thing were superglued.
baboo at 11:12AM on 06/27/09
Thanks, misterhee, I'll try heating the pot. I'll report back!
baboo at 11:19AM on 06/27/09
Misterhee, you saved the day. Grazie mille. I often forget that cooking and baking require science as well as art.
Gastronomeg, the quinoa has a lovely nutty taste with a very pleasant little crunch. I was going to prepare it for breakfast, with chopped dates, raisins, and almonds, but I got too hungry and grabbed some oatmeal. I will probably have it tonight, topped with some stir-fried broccoli, mushrooms, and onions.
baboo at 11:43AM on 06/27/09
No prob! Glad you go the lid off =)
misterhee at 12:26PM on 06/27/09
nice, that sounds good! where did you purcahse the quinoa?
(btw, i did recommend the reheating thing too-it's okay, i tend to ramble)
gastronomeg at 2:28PM on 06/27/09
Sorry, gastronomeg, I didn't notice you made that recommendation until now. Kudos to you as well.
I purchased the quinoa at my local organic food store, where they sell it in bulk http://hawthornevalleyfarm.org/store/store.htm. But it's not at all difficult to find.
baboo at 6:29PM on 06/27/09
Wow. You really don't need to go through the whole soaking, rinsing process. Most of the time I don't even rinse and I make quinoa often.
CanadianFoodieGirl at 6:45PM on 06/27/09
It depends on how the quinoa has been processed as it naturally has a coating of saponins that need to be rinsed off.
misterhee at 6:49PM on 06/27/09
I've never done the rinsing thing either. I get quinoa from the local natural market. Just bring 2X water to a boil, add 1X quinoa, stir, put the lid on and drop the heat to low. Eighteen minutes later you have delicious fluffy nutty quinoa!
ride&cook at 10:29PM on 06/27/09
Put me down in the not-rinsing school. I toast the quinoa in a dry pan till it starts popping and the white ring starts to become visible, remove from heat, and put in the prescribed amount of water. (Adding other seasonings, diced veg, etc.) Glad your lid was liberated!
therealchiffonade at 9:49AM on 06/28/09
From what I understand, most of the quinoa you buy now is pre-rinsed. Before it became popular and more widely available, it wasn't rinsed, because the only people who were buying it were the ones who were already very familiar with it.
But now that it's gaining ground, it makes sense for them to prerinse, because if you bought the unrinsed stuff and cooked it without rinsing, you'd probably decide you didn't like it because it's too nasty and you'd never buy it again. So they hake a litte extra time and they don't frighten away the people who wouldn't read the instructions and it doesn't affect the people who are used to rinsing.
I'd bet that it would be pretty hard to find the unrinsed stuff any more.
dbcurrie at 12:31PM on 06/28/09
I made my first batch a couple of weeks ago. I rinsed well as per advice I received here and even then, I could not eat the stuff - it had a horrible bitter aftertaste. I bought it at the health food store, but no one could eat it and I will not bother with quinoa again.
bareneed at 1:57PM on 06/28/09
Good to know that I may not need to bother with rinsing. Next time I buy quinoa from my local store, I will ask them if the stuff they sell in bulk is pre-rinsed.
@bareneed: something was wrong with the quinoa you prepared. There is absolutely no aftertaste with rinsed quinoa, I promise you.
baboo at 10:37PM on 06/28/09
as dbcurrie said, most of the quinoa you buy these days is pre-washed.
it could benefit from a bit of dry toasting in a skillet, however. I just made a red quinoa/white rice mix myself last night. =)
anysuchname at 11:43AM on 06/29/09