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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2020)
B Tuesday, July 7, 2020 The Observer & Baker City Herald Tips For Getting The Most From A Basic Staple: Rice BOB’S THOUGHTS W ITH T HE G RAIN BOB BAUM Sports writer is better than any ‘real’ job By Arthi Subramaniam Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Don’t get me wrong, being a sports writer is a heck of a lot better than most any real job. It’s just not always exactly what you’d think. For example, someone will fi nd out what I did for a living and say, “Wow, you get to talk to the athletes?’’ “No,’’ I’d reply. “I HAVE to talk to the athletes.’’ It’s not always a pleasant experience. While there are any number of terrifi c people who also happen to be profes- sional athletes, there also are those who dread our very existence. I covered all four major pro leagues — MLB, NFL, NBA and (for a few dozen games) NHL. See Sports/Page 2B BETWEEN THE ROWS WENDY SCHMIDT Earwigs are interesting, harmless This time of year there are lot of ear- wigs around the garden and yard. They are fearsome looking creatures, insects with the usual six legs insects possess. Their pinchers (also called forceps) on their tail end are curved on males and straight on females. These are used as an aid for eating, and for defense if they feel threatened. They can sometimes pinch, which may sting a little, but they have no poison in their pinchers and they rarely even break your skin. Earwigs were once believed to crawl into people’s ears to seek the dark and moisture, but that is a myth. They spend their time in compost and rot- ting leaf and vegetable matter. They also prey on small insects (earwigs are omnivorous) and don’t care if their food is alive or dead. Earwigs can come into your house when you bring them on fl owers or vegetables, and they will head for your trash or damp places. When you step on them or they are defensive, they exude a smelly liquid. This causes no harm, but is unpleasant. If you have garden questions or com- ments, write to greengardencolumn@ yahoo.com. Thanks for reading! Cooking rice is not rocket science and requires little effort. But cooking it perfectly requires some basic rules and common sense. Rice is deeply ingrained in my psyche, and I cannot imagine a life without it. Maybe it is because I consider rice, especially with yogurt, the ultimate comfort food, and shamelessly have it any time of day every day. Or maybe it’s because making rice was one of my fi rst kitchen chores. My mom would give me a steel bowl with grains that I had to rinse repeatedly until the water fi nally changed from cloudy white to clear. Next I would stick the four fi ngers (not the thumb) of my right hand into the rice and fi ll the bowl with water until it reached the joint closest to the palm on my index fi nger. The bowl then was ready to be placed in the pressure cooker. It was always the same bowl with the same amount of rice. There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice today and the white, brown, red and black (which actually is deep purple) kernels can be classifi ed into three categories — long-grain, short-grain and medium-grain. It is not the actual length of the rice that determines its category, explains Chris- topher Kimball, founder and president of Milk Street. It is the ratio between its length and width. The length of long-grain rice is about fi ve times the width; when cooked the grains are distinctly loose, fl uffy and don’t stick together. The basmati, Texmati and jasmine grains remain fi rm and dry even after they are cooked, making them perfect for pre- paring biryani, pilaf, mujadarrah, tahdig, jambalaya and rice salads. Medium-grain rice is three times as long as it is wide. The grains are noticeably less fl uffy than the long-grain ones and less sticky than short-grain. This category in- cludes Valencia and bomba, which are typi- cally used to make paella; ponni, a full-boiled Indian rice; and carnaroli, which is favored for any type of risotto. The short-grain rice is twice as long as it is wide and gets sticky and clumpy when cooked. The aromatic seeraga samba and ambemohar, which cook quickly, belong in this category. Short grains also are commonly used for sushi, which holds up because of the stickiness. Being a rice afi cionado, I have several va- rieties in my pantry and four tried-and-true devices that I use interchangeably depending on the quantity needed, time restrictions and how lazy I feel. I pull out my sturdy, everyday steel pot when I want to make just a small amount of basic plain rice. I turn to my faithful 30-year-old Hitachi automatic cooker, which announces the rice is done with a delightful chime, when I am multitasking in the kitchen or don’t have the time to baby-sit it. I lean on my Instant Pot when I cook rice with meats or dried beans and want it to be done, well, instantly. I treasure my fourth device, an old-fash- ioned Indian pressure cooker that is a gift from my parents. It whistles loudly whenever Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS There’s a double dose of coconut in this rice. The rice is fi rst cooked in coconut milk, along with green peas, and then fl avored with grated coconut, mustard seeds, white lentils and fennel seeds. It is fi nished with a sprinkling of fried onions. it needs to let off steam and the weighted pres- sure regulator on the vent pipe would pop up and then sit back down. The proportion of water to rice has a big im- pact on whether the dish is a hit or miss. Typi- cally the ratio is one cup of rice to two cups of water but that changes according to the type of rice, the device it is cooked in and how much other liquid is required in the recipe. For those who cook rice once in a while, a good sturdy pot or saucepan will suffi ce. Start off by bringing the water to a boil, add the rice and return to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot, letting the rice cook for 15 to 18 minutes. Keep in mind that if it boils too hard, the rice will break up. If you are using an automatic rice cooker, fol- low the device’s directions using cup measure- ments and the lines along the side of the bowl. There is less involvement with the cooking process and no guesswork whatsoever, but the rice comes out perfectly time and time again. The Instant Pot also is a foolproof and a hands-off way of making rice. It is important to rinse rice well before it is cooked. Always. Rice is sometimes dried outdoors and rinsing gets rid of the dirt. Also, the grains tend to rub against one another in the sack during transport. This creates a powdery surface starch that will cause rice to stick when cooked if the grains are not rinsed in the beginning. 1 teaspoon chili powder 2 tablespoons store-bought biryani masala or garam masala 1½ teaspoons salt 1 (12-ounce) package of paneer, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 green pepper, diced in cubes 1 teaspoon canola oil For rice 3 cups basmati rice 1 teaspoon canola oil 1 tablespoon fennel seeds 3 cardamom pods 1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick 2 serrano green chilies, halved 1½ teaspoons salt 5¼ cups water For onion topping 2 tablespoons oil 1 large white onion, thinly sliced ½ teaspoon sugar ¼ cup mint, chopped 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped To marinate paneer: In a large bowl, combine yogurt, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili powder, biryani or garam masala and salt. Stir well. Add paneer cubes, green pepper and oil and combine gently. Taste and add more salt if needed. Cover bowl and let it marinate for at least 20 minutes at room temperature. Rinse basmati rice and set aside. To cook onions: In a Dutch oven over medium heat, add oil. After oil is heated, add onion Paneer is a fi rm Indian cheese and a team and reduce heat to medium-low. Don’t stir the player that fi ts in with anything from a wrap onions for the fi rst 7 to 8 minutes. Then stir and add sugar. Stir occasionally, until the onions to a vegetable side to a main course. The cheese can be found in the refrigerated section turn medium brown. Take them out of the pot and set aside on a plate. at Indian stores. I cooked this biryani in a To make rice: Add 1 teaspoon oil to the same Dutch oven for better control over the texture pot on medium-low heat. Add fennel seeds, of the rice, paneer and caramelized onions. cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and stir for 1 or 2 minutes. Add green chilies and stir again For paneer for 1 minute. Add salt, water and rice. Cover and 2 cups yogurt cook for 15 minutes. 3 cloves garlic, minced fi nely 1 tablespoon grated ginger See Rice/Page 2B ½ teaspoon ground turmeric PANEER BIRYANI West-Jacobson Building part of La Grande’s post-fire downtown By Ginny Mammen Two businessmen — N. K. West and C. S. Jacobson — in 1913 partnered in the construction of a two-story blond brick building at 1300 Adams Ave. It was built on a lot purchased from Turner Oliver that had stood vacant since the fi re of 1891, when two blocks of wooden buildings in the center of downtown La Grande burned. Prior to the fi re this corner had housed a general store from 1888 to 1889. The new structure provided commercial space on the fi rst fl oor with offi ces on the second fl oor. One of those offi ces housed the dental business of C. B. Cauthorn. A ghost sign on the upper east wall of this building shows an advertisement for that business. Carter Blake Cauthorn was born in Corvallis in 1871 and in 1895 began practicing dentistry at the age of 24. He moved to La Grande in the fall of 1904 and set up his practice Photo by Ashley O’Toole A ghost sign advertising C.B. Cauthorn’s dental practice remains on the east wall of the West-Jacobson Building at 1300 Adams Ave. on the second fl oor of the Gardner Building (National Register of Historic Places) at 1210 Adams over Hill drugstore. In November 1913 he moved his dental offi ce to the second fl oor of the newly built West-Jacob- son Building (National Register of Historic Places), just down the street, at the corner of Adams and Elm. Dr. Cauthorn and his wife, El- sie, whom he married in 1911, lived a very quiet life in La Grande. They had no children. He practiced full time in La Grande until 1926 when he sold his business. Dr. Cauthorn died in February 1958 and Elsie in August of the same year. The name N. K. West has been associated with a building in down- town La Grande since 1899. La Grande pioneer Nathanial Kend- rick West Jr. was born in Wisconsin in 1866. His family moved to Port- land where his father founded a clothing business. He worked in his father’s store and in 1885 married a young Portland woman named Martha. They left Portland in 1899 with their baby daughter, Ada, and came to La Grande. He purchased a clothing and dry goods company at 1208 Adams, where the N. K. West Apartments, built in 2005, now stand. The original building, built by Jay Brooks and sold to West, burned in 1994. Martha, called Mattie, and N. K. had only one child. Shortly after they arrived in La Grande sad times came to the family. Mattie became very ill around 1902 and in 1904 she died at the age of 36. N. K. threw himself into raising his teen- age daughter and his work. West was a man of many in- terests including his farm, dairy ranch and raising and racing horses. He was involved on the Union County Fair Board among many other local activities. In 1909 Ada married Herman Siegrist, a local merchant, and they set up housekeeping with her father. They had only one son named Kendrick. Tragedy hit the family again in 1922 when Ada died at age 34. N. K. married Mae Robinson in 1923 and they moved to his Summer- ville farm. Nathanial K. West Jr. died in 1939 and Mae in 1961. See Building/Page 2B
