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Raisin Rice Water
Wash four tablespoonfuls of rice and put with one tablespoonful of stoned raisins in one pint and a half of boiling water. Boil until the rice is soft. Strain and serve cold. Season with either salt or sugar.
A thin, strained rice decoction from the invalid-cookery tradition — closer to a barley water than to a congee. The whole point is the starchy liquid, so the technique is about extraction rather than about cooking rice well.
- Quantities in modern termsFour tablespoons of rice is about 50 g. A pint and a half is three cups (about 720 ml) if the pints are American; if imperial, nearer 850 ml. Expect roughly two cups of liquid back after boiling and straining.
- Stoned raisins"Stoned" means pitted. Raisins were commonly sold with seeds until seedless varieties took over; any ordinary supermarket raisin today is already seedless.
- Which riceUse a plain long- or medium-grain white rice. Parboiled and converted rices resist breaking down and give up much less starch, which defeats the purpose.
- TimingTwenty-five to thirty-five minutes at a bare simmer, covered loosely, until the grains have burst and gone shapeless. Rolling boil for that long will scorch the bottom, so keep it low and stir occasionally.
- Top up the waterOn a modern burner you may lose more liquid than intended; add boiling water as needed to keep the rice submerged, or you will end up straining porridge.
- StrainingA fine mesh sieve, pressing lightly on the solids, gives a cloudy drink with body. Pushing everything through gives a thick gruel — a different thing, and not what "strain and serve cold" intends.
- SeasoningSalt or sugar, not both, and add it while the liquid is still hot so it dissolves. For salt, start with a pinch (well under a quarter teaspoon for two cups); sweetened, start with two teaspoons of sugar and taste.
- Keeping itCooked starch left at room temperature is a known medium for Bacillus cereus. Chill it promptly, keep it covered in the refrigerator, and drink it within a day.
- YieldAbout two cups — two servings, or a day's sipping for one person.
Rice water belongs to the old category of "invalid drinks," the thin nourishing liquids a household kept going for anyone confined to bed: barley water, toast water, beef tea, whey. The logic was that a stomach that would reject food might still take a starchy, faintly sweet liquid, and rice water in particular was given during bowel complaints, resembling, in a rough way, the oral rehydration solutions of modern medicine. The dish sits in a much older family that includes Chinese congee and the Mexican horchata de arroz, both built on the same extraction of starch and mild flavour from boiled grain.