Forbidden Black Rice

It’s been probably 5 or maybe more years since I’ve cooked black rice. We really like it but it wasn’t easy to find where we lived in Texas. I guess the last time I bought it was probably when we would go to Whole Foods in Kansas City to buy grains when we lived in MO the first time. Since we moved in 2011, that was probably the last time I bought it so I’d say it’s been way more than five years since I cooked it.

It’s expensive but it’s supposed to be much better for us than white rice. I could never afford to use black rice for all our rice but, for the most part, we’ve been using barley instead of white rice anyway.

But . . back on topic, Judy! Last month I noticed Forbidden Black Rice was on sale at Azure Standard. I had not even thought about Azure carrying the black rice so I was excited to see that it was on sale but, even on sale, that’s about twice what I paid for it when I last bought it years ago.

When I was looking online to see if I could find it for a better cost, I came across this website. They also talk about it being more healthy and yummy – interesting if you aren’t familiar with the black rice.

Azure’s regular price is about $4.74/pound if you buy the 11 pound bag, which is the largest bag they sell. That’s the price as of today. No guarantee about tomorrow! But, on sale, it was about $3.85/pound if you bought the 11 pound bag. I bought some last month and with Azure, you can put things in your cart for the next month and if you “check out” (which doesn’t mean you pay right then and you can still take it out of your cart), you will get the sale price the next month so I added more to my cart for this month.

I canned 15 pints of it so all I have to do is open the jar, dump it in a pot, add a bit of chicken broth or water and simmer it til it’s hot – maybe 5 minutes. Before anyone asks – this is NOT an approved canning recipe. I do mostly try to stick with approved recipes but this one is not and it’s so nice to have the rice cooked and ready to heat and eat and shelf stable and I’ve done it for years so . . I know . . because I’ve always done it doesn’t make it right. While I don’t recommend it, I’m going to continue doing it.

This is one of my favorite summer salad recipes. I will sometimes add grilled chicken or shredded rotisserie chicken, or even cold, boiled shrimp to it. The recipe calls for basmatti rice but Vince says he doesn’t like that but sometimes, when I cook it, he does like it. What’s up with that guy? The salad isn’t very pretty when made with all black rice but it’s good made with half basmatti and half black rice. I think I’ll add that to my menu for next week!

Today’s dinner is smothered pork chops over black rice, with Brussels sprouts and asparagus for the sides, both from the garden. We’re at that point where we eat asparagus every day! I do think I’m going to cut some asparagus into about 2″ pieces, spritz it with olive oil, toss with seasonings, air fry it and freeze dry it and see what it tastes like that way. Should be great for snacking or maybe even using to “dip” with hummus.