Rice is a cereal which forms the staple food for half the people in the world. It is grown in Thailand, Burma, India, China, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia and parts of America. Rice is sold in three forms, in white grains as polished rice, in reddish brown grain as unpolished rice and in partly cooked grains as parboiled rice.
Unpolished rice is cheaper and more nutritious than polished rice, but its tough bran makes it rather than unpleasant to eat. Parboiled rice is also more nutritious than polished rice, but is not popular with many people because of its strong flavor. Polished rice is the most popular rice as it not only tastes good but it also looks more appetizing than the other rice. In polishing rice, the outer skin or bran which contains vitamins and mineral salts is removed and is sold as animal food. This wastage of valuable nutrients is unavoidable due to the fact that unpolished rice does not keep as well as polished rice because the fat in the germ goes rancid very quickly.
Un-husked rice is called paddy. When paddy is ready for harvesting, its husk is golden in color. These golden heads of paddy are gathered and threshed to remove the paddy grains from the stalks. The paddy is dried in the sun, them milled to remove the husk and finally polished to remove the bran. After polishing, the rice is graded into whole grain or first quality rice and broken rice. Polished rice contains almost all starch which is in small, easily digestible granules and some protein. During cooking, the starch grains absorb water and burst, so that each grain becomes much bigger and fluffier.
Parboiled rice is prepared by soaking the whole paddy in cold water for about 24 hours. The soaked paddy is then steamed for about 10 minutes. The paddy is then dried and milled like the other rice. During the soaking of the paddy, most of the vitamins and mineral salts and some protein are carried by the water into the endosperm where they are absorbed by the starch. During the steaming, the starch grains on the outer part of the endosperm are gelatinized and will seal off the nutrients in the inner part of the endosperm. When parboiled rice is milled, most of the nutrients are retained.
Rice is ground into flour which is used for some cakes and biscuits. Rice flour cannot be used for bread as it does not contain gluten. Dry rice flour used with wheat flour for biscuits improves the texture of the biscuits making them short and crisp. Plain rice flour batters are crisp and remain crisp for quite a long time. Fresh rice flour is used for many local cakes. Rice flour is also used to make noodles which are made in small factories for sale in the local markets.
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