Gluten Sensitivity
This recipe is safe for those who are sensitive to gluten.
"Rice is a beautiful food. It is beautiful when it grows, precision rows of sparkling green stalks shooting up to reach the hot summer sun. It is beautiful when harvested, autumn gold sheaves piled on diked, patchwork paddies. It is beautiful when, once threshed, it enters granary bins like a (flood) of tiny seed-pearls. It is beautiful when cooked by a practiced hand, pure white and sweetly fragrant." -Shizuo Tsuji, Japanese chef and cookbook author
The refrigerator light goes on...
Never stir rice. It doesn’t matter how you cook it, stirring it breaks down the starches on the outer layer and turns the rice to a gooey paste. Simply place the rice in the boiling liquid, stir once and cover. Leave it alone until the water is evaporated.
Coconut Milk
The canned coconut milk used in this recipe is a reduced-fat version. This will sometimes be labeled "light" or "lite" coconut milk. There is a big difference between regular coconut milk, at 45 grams of fat per cup, and the light version, at about 12 grams of fat per cup. In both regular and light coconut milk most of the fat is highly saturated, so I always try to use coconut milk sparingly.
I have used two coconut milk products and both are excellent. Thai companies produce both products. One is called Ka•Me and the other is A Taste of Thai. Both companies' products are widely available, but the light coconut milk is not found in every store. Ask the market manager to order some if you do not see it on the shelf.
1/3 cup A Taste of Thai Lite Coconut Milk = 50 calories, 4.5g fat, 4g sat fat, 0 mono fat, 1g protein, 2g carbohydrates, 15mg sodium, 0mg cholesterol
