Happy cooking!
Indeed, there is no perfect meal with rice that has gone bad. In other words, even if you have prepared a sumptuous dish, it will not go well if the rice is not cooked properly. When rice is undercooked or cooked unevenly, there can be some ways to remedy it. You can spray some hot water, cover the pot, and continue cooking over minimum heat for some time. By doing this, you can still come up with the right result.
But what about if you overcooked the rice that it has become mushy? When this happens, you have to cook a new set of rice and think about what to do with the overcooked rice. Never throw it away. You can still salvage it with these exciting options:
Chicken Rice Soup
You can find chicken rice soup very popular in Southeast Asian countries. This is their comfort food during cold days. With mushy rice, you only have to add 2 cups of chicken broth and simmer it for some time. Stir from time to time to prevent the rice from burning at the base of the pot and add salt and ground pepper to taste. Sauté minced onion, garlic, and ginger in one teaspoon of olive oil in a pan. Mix sautéed spices on rice soup and turn off the heat. Cover the pot to keep it from cooling down immediately.
Meanwhile, make strips out of pre-boiled chicken breasts. Serve rice soup in separate small bowls while hot, top with chicken strips, and add some chopped green onion leaves.
Rice Congee
This is similar to the chicken rice soup but the consistency of congee is thicker, which can be pudding-like. With congee, you have more options like choosing among chicken, pork, or beef, and you can add vegetables and herbs of your choice. Mushrooms, boiled eggs, and fried dumplings are the usual ingredients in this traditional Chinese dish.
But rice congee need not have all those ingredients. You can have only the rice, seasoned with pepper, soy sauce, black pepper, and salt with spices, such as garlic strips and sautéed onion and garlic.
Chocolate Rice Porridge
Unlike the other two recipes, there are no other ingredients of this dish except hot chocolate and milk. The consistency may be in between the rice soup and congee. This is just substituting oatmeal with the overcooked rice, which you can make softer by adding water and simmering it for quite some time.
Fried Rice Cakes
Another way to salvage overcooked rice is by making fried rice cakes. Shape the rice into ½ inch patties on parchment paper, season both sides with salt and black pepper to taste, and freeze. When frozen, remove parchment paper and fry in a skillet with olive oil covering the bottom. Fry each side of the rice patties until golden brown or for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the pan and let it rest on a paper towel to get rid of extra oil. You will surely enjoy the crispiness from the outside and the creaminess on the inside.
Rice Pudding
Rice for dessert? Yes. You can do just that with rice puddings.
To make rice puddings, simmer ½ cup of light brown sugar, 2 tbsp. of rum, and 2 tbsp. of orange juice in a splash of water while stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. You can add ½ cup of raisins and other dried fruits until the mixture is syrupy. This will make up for your toppings
In another saucepan, combine overcooked rice, 4 ½ cups of milk, 2 cinnamon sticks, sugar, vanilla bean, orange peel, ½ cup of heavy cream, and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low while frequently stirring. When the mixture has thickened, remove the pan from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
Remove vanilla bean, orange peel, and cinnamon stick. Stir and combine 1 large egg yolk until fully incorporated. Chill pudding in the fridge completely. Top with the fruit mixture before serving. This rice pudding is excellent to complete a light dinner.
Rice Frittata
With rice having no strong flavor, adding some of your overcooked rice will make no big difference. This can be perfect for breakfast for a person on the go because of the energy-boosting carb content of rice. All you have to do is whisk the overcooked rice with other ingredients and cook it in the oven or stovetop. You should broil it as this frittata may have chances of breaking when flipping it over the pan.
There’s a lot more than you can with your overcooked rice. Use your imagination and creativity and you can come up with a delectable dish out of it.
