With the weekly cleaning to do, my fathers words of wisdom floated through my brain, "if you don't do it now, don't worry. It will still be there to do later". I sat down and thought (always dangerous for me) about portion sizes. Rice is a problem for me. Is it a fist full? Is it a palm full? Do I use my hand or my wife's, or can you buy plastic or latex hands somewhere? It's all too vague for me.
I measured out 75g of rice, it didn't look a lot to me, so I made it up to 100g. I found a spoon which measures 50g of heaped rice. This is the spoon I shall now always use. I poured the rice into a measuring jug and it came to just just shy of 4 fl oz.
So now I have my dry measurement sorted
Since I can cook for a number of people, I need to get the cooked measurements right. I cooked the 100g of rice, let it cool before packing it back into the measuring jug and packed it down. It measured 1/2 pint.
Sad person aren't I?
I looked in the cupboard for bowls and cups which held exactly 1/2 pint (measured by pouring water into it). I found a few, cups, bowls and ramekins. These are the containers I shall use for making rice moulds in future.
So, cooking for six would be 600g of rice, which will be packed and moulded, using the ramekins and each serving will be 357 Kcal.
Of course I shall do plenty extra, for those who want it. This will save me time weighing the cooked ingredients, make the presentation more pleasing and give me peace of mind that my portion sizes aren't creeping up.
That's the plan. Now to get off my bum, and burn a few calories doing the cleaning, washing and shopping.
In that case, we're also guilty of being "sad". I usually just weigh out 75g dry weight, but my partner and I have now just spent ten minutes discussing how rice v fluid ounces works exactly, and then surveying our own selection of ramekins to visualise a dainty rice mound on a plate.......😁You will not be surprised to hear that its raining here, so our gardening day has gone on hold!
Thanks for the reply Concerned, that's useful info and I was not aware of the GF-1 levels. I cook rice many ways and most of the time the rice is fried during the cooking process such as pilau rice, risotto, paella and jambalaya dishes. I do have plain boiled rice with chili con carne though and the information is useful.
Loved your post. May you have lots of peace of mind - I have a feeling you are a cracking cook and have a large collection of beautiful spoons and scoops.
I grew up on huge quantities of rice and I have since grown and processed my own rice. Friends still send me sacks of rice from time to time. I can still tell with my eyes shut where a particular rice probably comes from and approximately how long since it was harvested. So one of the hardest things I have had to learn to do was switch from eating polished white rice to organic wholegrain rice - but it was worth the effort because whole grain rice is much much more filling - 50 grams feels like a feast, I normally take 40g these days. . White rice these days often makes me feel sleepy.
To celebrate my 24th week of weight loss I bought myself some digital scales ....
How strange to hear that you also are fond of rice in it's many forms, when I have some close friends who are connoisseurs of rice and are forever telling me how rice is so much nicer when it's had a lengthy time to mature
I too like wholegrain rice and the health benefits it brings, unfortunately I'm the only one in our family that thinks this way. I've tried but can't persuade them otherwise
Cooking and eating are indeed both delights for me (which of course is part of my problem), so it's important for me to get the portion sizes sorted once and for all. I wish like you I was able to identify the origins of rice simply by using my nose. That is terrific and I know the pleasure it brings, because I do similar with wine
Rice often accompanies spicy dishes, which can be an issue with some peoples digestive systems. So if I'm serving a fierce dish, I will often serve it with chilled rice water a slice of lime/lemon and a cinnamon, which I learned in Mexico, can settle the stomach.
I celebrate food, celebrate eating, I celebrate too much LOL
Thank you for your post and have a good day my now Digital Gonti
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