Rice is prepared in many ways and with many
flavours in many countries. Some favorite rice dishes of the tropics are:
1. Rice and Beans
This
is a favorite dish in Nigeria and many other West African countries. Black-eye
peas (cowpeas) are boiled in salted water together with rice until soft. This
is eaten with a sauce which contains onions, tomatoes, curry or other
seasoning, meat or fish.
2. Rice Pilaf
Partially
cooked rice is fried in a small amount of fat until it is brown and then is
cooked in chicken or beef bouillon, tomato juice, or water until the liquid is
absorbed and the rice is soft.
3. Fermented Rice Products
Fermented
rice preparations such as dosais (rice cake) and idlis (rice pudding) are
prepared from a mixture of rice and a pulse and commonly found in India.
Fermented rice preparations of the type of sauces and beverages with specific
inoculants are quite popular in China, Japan and other far Eastern countries.
4. Jollof Rice
This
is prepared like rice pilaf except that the rice is not fried. Rice may be
ground in to flour and as such it is used in making thick dough, just like fufu
of gari and eaten with soup. Other processed foods made from rice flour are
rice vermicelli, papada or curls. These are usually made from rice flour
prepared from broken rice. The flour is made into a paste with water and
steamed to cook the paste partially, as well as to give it the properties of
dough. The gelatinization of the starch gives stickiness and extensibility to
the dough. The dough is seasoned and then extruded through a hard press to get
strands or curls or flakes, and these are dried in the sun and later consumed
after being fried in oil. Rice papadan or curls are common in many Indian
homes. Rice flour also finds applications as a thickening agent in canned
products.