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