In my quest for chewy, I have found a couple of interesting textures. Pork belly, and calamari. We reckon they’re made from rice. So I bought some “rice cakes” and experimented. Here’s a quick writeup of the experiment, for the record.
We start with the raw ingredients: hard, waxy squares. Pretty unappetising.
We continue by cooking them in the three ways outlined on the back of the packet. First, just boil them. Second, stir fry them, then steam them in a little water in the wok. Third, boil them in a little water, let it boil away, then fry them. Here’s what all three look like in the end:
The ones at the back were boiled-then-fried. They were OK I suppose. Basically tasted like fat, which is all right in my book. More or less large, flat, crunchy croutons. They had a nice colour, though.
The ones in the middle were fried-then-steamed. They came out kind of grey. They were chewy in a cardboardy kind of way. No thanks.
The white ones were the ones that were simply boiled. They tasted of nothing much. A little like rice, not surprisingly. The texture, however, was kind of interesting, as it was pleasantly chewy.
To conclude the experiment: largely, a pointless ingredient. But I think I might try using the boiled version in a dish that calls for chewy seafood.
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