Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I am allergic to raw mushrooms, can't eat anything that has been cross contaminated with it. I ate some fresh veggies that had a few flecks of mushroom in it that I didn’t see and within 5 minutes it had triggered my asthma, my mouth swelled up and the lips, tongue and all the rest of the symptoms that go with it. I can eat them when they are cooked though and I now love canned mushroom, since I can’t eat the raw thing anymore. I can’t even handle raw ones (my husband hates mushrooms) so I can’t eat them freshly cooked unless I go out.

I have found that since I have given birth to my twins 3 years ago that my allergies and asthma have gotten exponentially worse. I can’t even be in the same room with cats, dogs, any animal with hair. My allergies to the great outdoors have had the same consequence. I also have developed an allergy to Celery, I have the same reactions as I have to mushrooms but I stopped eating it, so I haven’t found out if it gets worse with every exposure.

My main concern right now is that I have a reaction when I eat in combination tomatoes and bread. I can eat bread alone and tomatoes but when they are eaten in the same meal I get an overwhelming reaction to throw up. It can be as mild as a slight queasiness or I can start to throw up. I have looked and looked but I can’t find anything anywhere that mentions allergies when foods are combined. Since the birth of my twins the tomato and bread reaction has gotten worse as well. I have never cared for pizza because it always left me feeling sick afterwards which I just thought that it was the grease in it.

I feel like an idiot when I say anything about the t&b thing....I know it is not in my head but nobody has heard of it and people just think I am being picky. Since I was about 13 apples have made me feel the same way. Sometimes the reaction is worse than other so I will every once and a while eat a bit of an apple but never a whole one. The T&B reaction is worse than the apple one though because my mildest reaction to T&B is the worst I have had to apples.

My favorite way to jazz up white rice is to fold in onion tarka and minced green onions at the end. For the liquid I use either stock or coconut milk...it is delicious!

Here is a recipe if you like - http://rouxbe.com/recipes/64-pilau-rice/text

I love the Lundberg dark rices, but I am in the minority in our house. So we usually eat their basmati white (the smell is inscrutable!). It is perfect as is (I only salt it at the end, not during the cooking). Occasionally I'll add a little toasted sesame oil at the end for a smoky nutty thing. I've also cooked it with a very small amount of dried herbes de provence to give it a delicate floral nose. I've found that with good basmati, less jazzy is more.

Lots of wonderful suggestions!

My brother in law lives with us, and he hates white rice, but I love it.

So, what I do is break an egg into a frying pan with some butter.
Stir it madly around.
Add some chopped onion.
Add some frozen peas.
Set them all aside in a bowl.
Fry the rice in a bit of oil and then add the egg, onion, and peas.

Voilà, and he eats it!

Cindy H
Pots Boiling Over?

Replace the water with apple juice (unsweetened is best), add a tart. firm apple chopped up, and cinnamon to taste.
Obvious choice is as a side for pork, but could be used as a dessert.

try adding 2 or 3 star anise to your boiling water and remove before serving. quite delicious!

I like my rice plain and unjazzy. Good rice is supposed to be an accompaniment to stronger flavored dishes and more assertive textures.

The idea of adulterating rice with things like salt and butter...makes my skin crawl. I don't want fatty, salty rice...the rest of my food is already salty, I need a palate cleanser and that's what the rice is there for.

A really easy one is salad dressings and serving the rice cold or hot depending
Olives and red pepper
And I have a spice mix that I use

I add curry powder and a bit of olive oil with some chopped carmelized onion.

I'm down with garlic cloves and bay leaf.

any aromatic ingredients that you can remove easily - gives the rice subtle flavor but it's still nice and fluffy and pure.

if I'm going asian style- lemongrass, thai chili, kaffir lime leaves, a slice of fresh ginger, maybe lime zest if you've got it...

problem with fresh herbs is they cook and disintegrate into the rice & mess with the color.

Try a little grated ginger, or substituting sherry for some of the water/stock. Gives it a little more oomph.

I'm egalitarian - I can do white and jazzed equally well. But since we're on topic of adding flavor, I adore just a clove of crushed garlic, a bit of seasoning salt or soy sauce and a ton of lemon juice on plain white rice. I add the crushed garlic as in the last few minutes of cooking so it steams and softens, and perfumes the whole pot, then sprinkle something salty and lemon juice. It's wildly addictive.

Oh, you can also let it burn a bit at the bottom. It gives crunch! There might be some interesting Korean recipes for that, as well as Middle Eastern.